(Newser)
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NASA has uncovered a prototype for a new telescope that will outmagnify the dominant Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope will cost $4.5 billion and float nearly a million miles from Earth when it launches in six years; its supercharged hexagonal mirror will transmit images of the farthest and oldest corners of the universe.
And punctually, at that: Engineers are optimistic that the telescope, which will employ a lens three times the size of the greying Hubble's, will in fact shoot into space by its target of 2013. "There's engineering to do," a contractor says, "but invention is done, more than six years ahead of launch."
