The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which astronomers around the world have been waiting for thirty years to study the Universe with unparalleled means, has taken off from the French Guiana space center, carried by an Ariane 5 rocket, and is already heading for its intended destination. its location, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
The James Webb will become the most sophisticated observer in the universe ever sent into space. But it will take another month to reach its final position.
It was epic.
Go @NASAWebb ! https://t.co/cEOFeomDN8– Anacolia (with damage) (@ nikolaos128) December 25, 2021
His ambition is to answer two questions that plague humanity: “where do we come from?” and “are we alone in the Universe?”
And also to see the glow of the “dawn of the Universe”, when the first galaxies began to illuminate the Universe after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.
It will allow for a better understanding of the formation of stars and galaxies and the observation of exoplanets, samples of which are being discovered by astronomers, to perhaps one day locate other Earths.
James Webb will follow in the footsteps of the Hubble Telescope, which revolutionized the observation of the Universe: thanks to this, scientists have discovered the existence of a galactic black hole at the center of all galaxies or water vapor around the exoplanets.
The first galaxies, the young stars, the exoplanets …
Conception of Nasa after the launch of the Hubble mission in 1990, its construction began in 2004 in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
James Webb Space Telescope was just spotted by a NASA satellite on its way to orbit ???? pic.twitter.com/XROuufqoPM
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) December 25, 2021
The size of its mirror, 6.5 meters in diameter, provides it with a large enough surface and sensitivity, enough to detect the thermal footprint of a butterfly on the Moon.
Another difference: the way of observation. Where Hubble observes the Universe in the realm of visible light, James Webb wanders in a wavelength that escapes the eye: the near and middle infrared. A radiation that every body, star, human or flower, emits in a natural way.
This light will be studied with the help of four instruments, which are equipped with imaging devices and spectrographs. Their development mobilized a variety of engineers and scientists, under the auspices of American and European laboratories and industries.
Thanks to this, “looking at the same objects as with Hubble, we will see new things,” explained astronomer Pierre Ferruit, co-director of the telescope for ESA. For example, the first galaxies, objects that, due to their great distance, the light that reaches us is shifted to red. Ή young star formations that grow in the dust clouds of their nurseries. Or even the atmosphere of exoplanets.
The critical condition for the proper operation of the James Webb is an ambient temperature so low that it does not interfere with light examination.
Hubble is in orbit at 600 kilometers above the Earth. At this distance, JWST could not operate due to the heat of the Sun and its reflection on the Earth and the Moon.
It will be put into orbit after a month-long journey 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. And it will be protected from sunlight by a thermal shield that will lower its temperature to -233 degrees. But before we get there, the development of the space telescope will be a real feat. Complex and sensitive procedures will precede its commissioning, which is scheduled for June.
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