The James Webb telescope

James Webb as the Premier Observatory

The James Webb telescope is soon to be the worthy successor to the Hubble space telescope.

The James Webb telescope will be the world's largest and most complex space telescope. As of now, it is scheduled to launch on 31st October this year.

The Webb will be an infrared telescope with a mirror of 6.5m primary mirror. The telescope will be launched from French Guiana with the Ariane 5 rocketship. The Webb will the primary space observatory for the next decade. It will study the history of the universe from the Big Bang to earth-like planets.

International Collaboration

The James Webb telescope is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space flight centre is managing the development and the Space Telescope Science Institute will operate it after its launch.

Innovative technologies

Several new technologies have been developed for Webb. These include a primary mirror of 18 different segments which unfold in space after launch. The mirrors are made of Ultra-lightweight Beryllium. However, the most innovative feature in Webb is a tennis court size, a five-layer sun shield to reduce the Sun's harsh heat by a million times. The telescope 4 instruments can even detect the faintest signals. One instrument, the NIRSpec has programable micro-shutters enabling it to observe 100 objects simultaneously.

Key Facts

1. Webb will be the largest telescope ever placed in space; 100 times more powerful than Hubble. So big it has to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket and will unfold like a "Transformer" in space.

2. It will peer back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first galaxies born after the Big Bang with unprecedented infrared sensitivity.

3. Webb will help astronomers compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today's grand spirals and ellipticals, helping us understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.

4. Webb will be able to see right through and into massive clouds of dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble, where stars and planetary systems are being born.

5. Webb will tell us more about the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, and perhaps even find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe. In addition to other planetary systems, Webb will also study objects within our own Solar System.

6. Webb will orbit the sun, a million miles away from Earth at the second Lagrange point. (L2 is four times further away than the moon!)

7. Webb has over 1200 skilled scientists, engineers and technicians from 14 countries and more than 29 US states as well as the District of Columbia building it.

8. Webb’s 18-segment primary mirror is over 6 times bigger in area than Hubble's and will be ~100x more powerful. (How big is it? approx 6.5 m in diameter) It has a secondary mirror nearly as big as Spitzer's primary... (The secondary mirror is 0.74 m in diameter. Spitzer's primary is 0.85 m in diameter.)

- Source

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

-Photo Credit

esa. int