The telescope has endured years of delays, including a combination of factors caused by the pandemic and technical challenges. But the world’s most powerful complex space observatory will answer questions about our solar system, study alien planets in new ways, and peer deeper into the universe we once knew. can do it.
Webb will observe the very atmospheres of alien planets, some of which are potentially habitable, and could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life beyond Earth.
The telescope is equipped with a mirror that can span 21 feet and 4 inches (6.5 meters) – a huge length that allows the mirror to collect more light from the objects it observes when the telescope text in space. The more light the mirror can collect, the more detail the telescope can see.
The mirror consists of 18 hexagonal gilded segments, each 4.3 feet (1.32 meters) in diameter.
The agency said it was the largest mirror NASA had ever built, but its size created a unique problem. The mirror was so big that it couldn’t fit the rocket. So they designed the telescope as a series of origami-style folding moving parts that fit in a 16-foot (5-meter) space to launch.
According to NASA.
The concept of the telescope was first envisioned as a successor to Hubble at a conference in 1989, and construction on Webb first began in 2004. Since then, thousands of scientists , technicians and engineers from 14 countries spent 40 million hours building the telescope.
Now, Webb is ready to help us understand the origin of the universe and begin to answer important questions about our existence, such as where we came from and whether we are alone in our existence. universe or not.
What will Webb see?
The Webb telescope will look at every stage of the universe’s history, including the first glows after the big bang that created our universe and the formation of galaxies, stars and planets. Crystal fills it today. Its capabilities will allow the observatory to answer questions about our own solar system and investigate faint signals from the first galaxies that formed 13.5 billion years ago.
Webb’s science goals are ambitious, and scientists around the world will use the time they spend with their telescopes to observe and analyze a broad spectrum of planets, black holes, and astronomical objects. galaxies, the stars, and the structure of the universe itself.
The main focus is on planetary formation and evolution, both within our own solar system as well as the large number of planets beyond it. Of particular concern are planets in the stellar habitable zone, an orbital region where a planet has the right temperature to support liquid water on its surface – which suggests it could be. life support as we know it.
Webb is also well equipped to unravel the mysteries of planet formation. Building on Spitzer’s work on brown dwarfs – objects too large to be planets but too small to be stars – Webb was able to take a closer look at their cloud properties.
The telescope will take a closer look at a range of alien planets to see inside their atmospheres, if they have them, and help answer questions about how planets form and evolve. Its spectral data can tell scientists whether methane, carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide is present in the atmosphere. The gases in this alien’s atmosphere could reveal the very building blocks of life.
Other objects of interest in the introspective science campaign include observations of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, actively forming planetary systems, bright quasars at the centers of galaxies, and leftovers from the formation of our solar system known as the Kuiper Belt Objects that include Pluto and its moon Charon.
What it can do
For all its superlatives, the Webb technique is an extraordinary challenge.
The observatory consists of three main elements.
One is the Integrated Science Instrument Module, which contains Webb’s set of four tools. These devices will mainly be used for imaging or spectroscopy – breaking down light into different wavelengths to determine its physical and chemical components.
The Optical Telescope component, the main eye of the observatory, consists of the mirrors, and the posterior plane, or spine, supports the mirrors. And then there’s the Spaceship Element, which consists of the spacecraft’s bus and sun visor.
The bus consists of six major subsystems required to operate the spacecraft, including propulsion, electrical power, communication, data, and thermal control.
The five-layer sunshade unfolds to be the size of a tennis court and it will protect Webb’s giant mirror and instruments from the heat of the sun because they need to be kept at minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 188). degrees Celsius) to operate.
The advances used to design and build telescopes even benefit those of us on Earth. A technique developed to quickly and accurately measure mirrors so that they can be polished has been suitable for surgeons performing LASIK eye surgery because it produces a high-definition map of the patient’s eye. .
When to expect the first images
After launching from French Guiana, the observatory will travel for about a month until it reaches an orbit about 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth. During those 29 days, Webb will open its mirrors and open the sun visor. This process involves thousands of parts that must work perfectly in the right order.
Fortunately, each step can be controlled from the ground in the event of a problem.
And then it will undergo a six-month space trial run, which includes cooling down the instruments, alignment and calibration. All tools will go through testing to see how they work.
It will then begin collecting data and the first images by the end of 2022. Thousands of scientists have been waiting for years to see what Webb can show us.
“The first year of Webb’s observations will provide the first opportunity for many scientists around the world to observe the items,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. specifically with NASA’s next big space observatory. . “The amazing science that will be shared with the global community will be bold and insightful.”
