Irish astronomers will play a key role in developing the replacement for the Hubble space telescope under a new international agreement.
The European Space Agency and NASA signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' in Paris today outlining the global collaboration to build, launch and operate the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is a member of the ten-nation European consortium that is building critical parts of the Webb Telescope's Mid Infra-red Instrument (MIRI).
Researchers say that MIRI has huge potential for making new discoveries because it will be 100 times more sensitive than previous instruments of the same type.
It will be used to look out to the edges of the Universe - and therefore far back in time - to see the first episode of star formation, in essence the 'first light' in the Universe.
MIRI will also watch galaxies collide and merge, forming supermassive black holes in the process, and be able to determine which planets are homes for life.
A full-scale model of JWST is currently on display in Dublin at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham (left).
Also in Paris today, scientists agreed to test Albert Einstein's famous theories of relativity in space.
The LISA Pathfinder mission will begin the search for ripples in space-time known as gravity waves.
Einstein predicted the waves must be criss-crossing the Universe, but they have yet to be detected directly.
John Lighton Synge, a senior professor at the Dublin Institute's School of Theoretical Physics, was a leading authority on space-time.
His 1956 book on the subject has been described as 'a royal road to relativity'.
