The James Webb Space Telescope is working wonders thus far. With regard to the electromagnetic spectrum there is a strong emphasis on gathering information in the infrared part of the spectrum, which we perceive as heat. This is why the telescope has a solar shield, to protect it from the heat of the sun, and had to undergo a cooling period after being positioned in one of the Lagrangian Points of the earth's orbit around the sun.
The reason for this is that the useful information in the infrared radiation from distant objects is drowned out by the heat all around us. To effectively gather information from the universe in infrared the space telescope had to be cooled to near Absolute Zero as well as being shielded from the sun's radiation. The earlier Hubble Space Telescope, although it has been a fantastic success that far exceeded all expectations, could not accomplish this.
Remember that we once saw on this blog how beneficial it would be if we could extract the information in heat. The great difficulty is that the information is drowned out by the heat all around. Here is a link to "Information From Heat":
www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/information-from-heat.html?m=0
Other nations have explored space, but only the inner Solar System. The universe beyond the orbit of Mars has thus far mostly belonged to America. The reason is not technical capability but culture. Space is a frontier and America is all about frontiers. Here is a link to "The Land Of The Frontier":
www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-land-of-frontier.html?m=0
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