万众期待的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜（The James Webb Space Telescope ，JWST）将在12月22日发射升空，科学界对它可能发现的宇宙奥秘兴奋不已。这台望远镜的发射，已经推迟了十年之久，造价也大幅超出预算约90亿美元。几个小问题来简单了解一下这台备受期待的望远镜吧。
What is the James Webb Space Telescope and when will it launch?
Nasa is preparing to launch a space telescope that will see further into the Universe than anything else ever built.
美国国家航空航天局（NASA）正准备发射一个太空望远镜，它将比以往建造的任何望远镜都看得更远。
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken 30 years and $10bn (£7.5bn) to develop, and is being described as one of the grand scientific endeavours of the 21st Century.
詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜(JWST) 的开发耗时 30 年，耗资 100 亿美元（75 亿英镑），被认为是 21世纪最宏大的科学探索之一。
What is the goal of this telescope?
詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的任务是什么？
The telescope will be able to see just about anything in the sky. However, it has one overriding objective - to see the light coming from the very first stars to shine in the Universe.
詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜将能够看到天空中的任何东西。然而，它有一个首要任务——探索宇宙最早形成时第一批星系发出的光。
These pioneer stars are thought to have switched on about 100-200 million years after the Big Bang, or a little over 13.5 billion years ago.
这些最早星系被认为是在大爆炸后大约1亿到2亿年，也就是大约 135 亿年前开启的。
Why would we want to see the first stars?
为什么我们要看到第一批星系？
这个由近万个星系构成的图像被称为哈勃超深空（the Hubble Ultra Deep Field），由哈勃太空望远镜在环绕地球400圈后积累影像数据而成。When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
当宇宙在大爆炸中形成时，它只包含三种化学元素——氢、氦和少量的锂。
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of stars.
所有其他化学元素——包括那些对生命至关重要的元素，如碳和氧——都必须通过恒星中心的核反应锻造或“制造”。
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how we came to be.
韦伯将帮助我们了解我们周围所见的一切事物的起源，以及我们是如何形成的。
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
韦伯与现有的太空望远镜有何不同？
美国国家航空航天局的哈勃太空望远镜显示出创世之柱在可见光和近红外光中显得多么不同。It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since 1990.
它比自 1990 年以来一直围绕地球运行的哈勃望远镜大得多。
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
哈勃使用直径为 2.4米（7.8 英尺）的主镜收集光线，而韦伯则使用直径为 6.5米的主镜。
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court. It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
加上所有其他相关设备，韦伯大约有一个网球场那么大。事实上，它太大了，必须折叠起来才能放入发射火箭。
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
但韦伯的关键优势是它经过调整，可以收集到哈勃无法收集到的光——红外光。这种光是人眼看不见的，但它是宇宙中最遥远物体会发出的光的类型。
When will it launch?
何时发射升空？
At the moment, Webb - named after James E Webb, the Nasa boss who oversaw the Apollo Moon-landing project - is scheduled to go into orbit on Wednesday 22 December.
目前，这台以负责阿波罗登月项目的美国宇航局局长詹姆斯·韦伯的名字命名的太空望远镜计划于 12 月 22 日星期三进入轨道。
It will be launched on a European Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana. The European Space Agency is a partner on the project, and has agreed to take on the responsibility of getting Webb into space.
它将由欧洲亚利安5号火箭从法属圭亚那发射进入太空。欧洲航天局是该项目的合作伙伴，并同意承担将韦伯送入太空的责任。
How much has Webb cost and why?
韦伯的耗资多少，为何耗费如此巨大？
Nasa spent $8.8bn on Webb's design and build, and it will put in a further $860m to support five years of mission operations.
美国宇航局在韦伯的设计和建造上花费了 88 亿美元，并将再投入 8.6 亿美元来支持五年的任务运行。
The European Space Agency has invested about €700m (£590m) in the project, contributing to two of Webb's four instruments and providing the Ariane launch rocket. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) also put in about CA$200m (£120m).
欧洲航天局已在该项目中投资了约 7 亿欧元（5.9 亿英镑），为韦伯的四台仪器中的两台做出了支持，并提供了阿丽亚娜运载火箭。加拿大航天局 (CSA) 也投入了约 2 亿加元（1.2 亿英镑）。
It all adds up to a figure in excess of $10bn (£7.5bn; €9bn; CA$12.7bn).
这一切耗资加起来超过 100 亿美元（75 亿英镑；90 亿欧元；127 亿加元）。
It's true Webb is years behind schedule, and it's suffered on occasions from poor project management. But some of the money has been spent on technology developments that have had wider application elsewhere - for instance, a measurement tool created for Webb is now used in precision eye surgery.
确实，韦伯比计划晚了好几年，而且它有时会受到项目管理不善的影响。但部分资金已用于在其他方面更广泛的应用——例如，为韦伯创建的测量工具现在用于精密眼科手术。
For context, Hubble has so far cost close to $15bn in today's prices. Few would doubt its worth after all its discoveries over the past 30 years, and the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to be no less revolutionary.
到目前为止，哈勃以今天的价格计算的成本已接近 150 亿美元。很少有人会怀疑它在过去 30 年里的价值，而且詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜预计也同样具有革命性。