The wait is coming to an end. Six months after launch, the James Webb Space Telescope is already sending its first scientific observations to Earth, which NASA hopes to present with all pomp and circumstance on the 12th.
Three of the four instruments on the satellite, which has the largest primary mirror ever launched into space, with a diameter of 6.5 meters, are now fully operational. The last of them should come into full operation, with all its modes of use tested, in the next few days. They operate under a tennis court-sized awning that blocks sunlight and maintains the proper operating temperature. One of them, Miri, even has an active cooling system that will leave you just 7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero.
It was not easy to design and launch a telescope of this size. To fit into the Ariane 5 rocket that propelled it into space, it had to be folded all over, like a huge space origami, then put back into its final form in a series of automated procedures. Any failure in one of the more than 300 necessary actions could put the 20-year, $10 billion project at risk. But everything went well, the cooling took place as expected and even the adverse events – there are already records of five meteoroid impacts against the primary mirror – are on schedule, with no negative impact on operations.
Which brings us back to the historical moment when we will see the first images of Webb. Harvested in infrared light (which our eyes can’t see) and then “translated” into forms we can see, they represent a new window into the Universe. NASA warned that among the first images we will have the deepest view of the cosmos ever obtained. One of Webb’s essential missions, after all, is to see how the first stars and galaxies formed, some 13.5 billion years ago (the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, according to the most modern estimates). For this, seeing further is essential – the further away an object, the longer its light travels before arriving here, bringing information about what the cosmos was like in its beginnings.
NASA also promises the first spectrum of an exoplanet’s atmosphere taken with Webb, revealing details of its composition. It is hoped that in the future, when we point the telescope at worlds similar to Earth in terms of mass and volume, we may find one that is confirmed to be habitable, perhaps inhabited.
For now, this preliminary data has only been seen in the corridors of the agency. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s scientific director, said he almost cried when he saw the first images. “It’s really hard to look at the Universe in a new light and not have a deeply personal moment,” he said. “It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly revealing some of its secrets, and I’d like you to imagine and look forward to it.” We are all. What about the 12th that doesn’t arrive?
This column is published on Mondays, in Folha Corrida.
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