9.8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.0: Webb Space Telescope in space

I was in front of the screen while the countdown was on. Today is the morning the American Space Agency [National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)] I started with the live broadcast of your television. The publication was presented by a young female scientist who was herself an astronomer. At least half of the speaking scientists were women. Another very important step in the history of humanity was taking place with the joint efforts of male and female scientists.

According to the scientists on the subject, we are living in a historic day for our species. Even if we don’t reach the first pulsating light when our universe is about 100 million years old, we still have a chance to catch traces of its successors for the first time. Think about it once. We will try to learn how we got here from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, and the development after the first moments of the cosmic evolutionary chain. What a daring job, right? “Get ready to see the universe from a different perspective,” said NASA in the promotional film. Not quite wrong. Because the mission of the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, is to keep a big eye on all of us. It is named after James Webb, the legendary administrator of the NASA Apollo years. This telescope will also be legendary.

Almost everything we know about space and galaxies today has been obtained from the images sent by the Hubble Telescope, which was launched in 1990. Hubble’s mirror was only 2.4 meters in diameter. Whereas the Webb Space Telescope is 6.5 meters in diameter. Its official mission is to explore a cosmic field beyond the reach of Hubble and all telescopes before it. Hubble primarily observes the universe at shorter ultraviolet and visible light wavelengths. But when it comes to studying planets, the information we can get at these wavelengths is usually limited to the influence of the clouds that surround them. Whereas, the Webb Space Telescope is an infrared telescope developed to see the universe in infrared wavelengths and can look into hidden parts of the universe. Maybe we can have a time machine.

The telescope will attempt to identify regions of distant stars where liquid water may exist on the surface, the building blocks of life as we know it on planets described as “Earth-like”.

It will perform these functions with 18 giant mirrors with hexagonal gold plates. The area of ​​these mirrors and sunscreens is so large that even the largest rocket in our possession would not be able to carry it into space in this state. Therefore, it had to be transported by folding. That’s how it was done. It was folded and, in a sense, packaged. It was then placed inside the carrier.

Its carrier is the Ariane 5 rocket. Ariane comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. Ariadne is the clever hero who thought of giving her lover Theseus a thread so he could find his way through the labyrinth. Today, at 15.20 Turkish time, the launch took place at a spaceport in French Guiana, and the rocket broke apart piecemeal in the first half hour. Again, Ariadne successfully fulfilled her mission. Now the telescope is safely in space and has begun its journey. It will continue on its way in the next 29 days, and each hexagonal mirror will open in space. This job requires an origami mastery. It will transform into a telescope in 344 inaccurate spots, as NASA said, and with a series of moves more complex than anything tried in space. Then calibration needs to be done to combine the image captured by each of these mirrors. Meanwhile, the telescope will have reached its destination at a point called L2, 1.5 million kilometers away. After this phase, which will take six months, we will start to receive the photos.

The Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. You can see this collaboration on live broadcast. Dozens of scientists from all over the world are working like bees. You can easily distinguish different races and colors. Different languages ​​too. ultimately gThe counting takes place in French at 15.20.

The hexagonal structure of the Webb Space Telescope’s mirrors resembles honeycombs. The cost of these honeycombs is like our Anzer honey. The cost of this telescope is 10 billion dollars.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon. His famous words, “A small step for a person is a big step for humanity” stuck in our minds. The cost of this step was enormous. Just like the Webb Space Telescope cost. Is it worth it is asked a lot. With so many vital problems on our planet, should such large sums of money be spent on space exploration rather than helping millions of people in need or tackling global problems? On the other hand, it is known that many discoveries have been made thanks to space exploration. Many technologies necessary for our daily life have been found thanks to these researches. Beyond these, it is said that they are long-term investments for humanity.

It is our job, our choices, to find a way to achieve both.

We have ordinary lives.

But we are also extraordinary.

We are human. We are not satisfied with the moment we live in. We wonder about yesterday and tomorrow.

We have always wondered who we are, why and how we exist, and we continue to do so.

We all know the Lion King cartoon. In one of my most influential moments in the movie, King Mufasa’s conversation with his son Simba takes place under a starry sky. Mufasa tells his son, his young heir, that kings who have passed through this life go up and become stars. He himself will take his place there when the time comes.

Throughout the history of humanity, many tribes believed that they originated from the powers that came from the heavens. All eyes were turned upwards to the sky.

As stated in today’s live broadcast, the Webb Space Telescope, which is coy like a baby in its cradle, will grow during its journey. From there he will tell us about our origins.

I think it’s worth it.

The day will come, maybe Mufasa will call out to his son.

Simba…

resources

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

https://borgenproject.org/the-us-space-force-budget/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/20/science/webb-telescope-astronomy.html

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