That James Webb Space Telescope, which was presented as the older brother of Hubble, not the successor, it seems that Ariane 5 will still launch later in the year. The observatory will demonstrate its full potential by observing the first objects to form just a hundred million years after the creation of the universe, which is currently Hubble’s limit. JWST should make as big progress as possible.
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Incredible mission. Web James (JWST, for James Webb Space Telescope) is the largest astronomical telescope ever launched into space. This tool, the result of a collaboration between the space agency – NASA, THAT and ASC – must observe a very wide range of targets, including the farthest visible object ever recorded. Very boring and almost invisible to Hubble Telescope, this is James-Webb’s raison d’être which is as close as possible to the end of the so-called period dark Ages, the inflationary phase that produced the great structure and first object of the universe. If James Webb could only see this first object a hundred million years after its formation, the holy grail astronomer, however, he would not be able to see them “light up”, at the end of the dark ages.
Journey Back to the Past to the Astronomer’s Cup
As Pierre Ferruit, co-scientific chief of mission James Webb at ESA, explained JWST’s greatest discovery was “ which we obviously can’t expect or think about “. What needs to be understood is that this observatory is”. leap forward for astronomy “, That there will definitely be a discovery” in all fields of astronomy “. In addition, if the telescope Hubble reached its limit when it came to observing objects formed only a few hundred million years after years Big bang, « this is where JWST will fully demonstrate its capabilities and bring immense knowledge to this important period in the history of the universe, only a few hundred million years after the big bang. ».
Simply put, “Webb” will be the largest astronomical telescope ever launched into space.
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The James-Webb dimension is elusive. Be aware, with a height of more than 20 meters, a mirror ‘Webb’ is a 6.5 meter primer and heat shield (sunshade) the size of a tennis court. With such dimensions, the launch can only be folded to fit inside the hood of the container Ariane Launcher 5. If, of course, surpasses all previously launched into space, it is equal to some guardian of the earth and transcends all earthly instruments found ininfrared, with a profit of 10 to 100!
Iconic image to be reviewed
If Hubble images, some of which have become iconic like the Eagle Nebula or Deep Fields, have greatly helped the general public to gain popularityastronomy, no doubt James-Webb will emphasize this trend. We already know that Webb will be visiting these iconic images, with new information as a result.
By flight back fromAriane 5 scheduled for July, James Webb will launch at the end of the year, no later than late November, early December.
The first drawing is scheduled for June 2022
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If a month is needed to return to his position in de Lagrange point L2, located 1.5 million kilometers from our planet, or about four times beyond the moon, will require six months for missionary management. The first image is scheduled for June 2022. The mirror will be used during the journey that will take him to L2.
An extraordinary spearhead for the observation of the universe
This Lagrange 2 point is clearly not chosen at random. It was a remarkable breakthrough for observing outer space, far from the sun and earth, that allowed James-Webb to achieve very ambitious scientific goals. At this distance, the telescope and its four instruments (two of which are supplied by Europe), under the cover of a heat shield, will operate continuously at -253 ° C, temperatures close to absolute zero, set at -273.15 °C.
You will understand, the most important importance of L2 is that the sun, earth and moon will be constantly “behind” the sunshade, so the telescope and its instruments will be constantly in the cold and dark. Since JWST will be traveling the earth around the sun, all places in the sky will be observable for at least 50 days. Therefore, the entire air will be accessible to astronomer all year round, except Solar system internal, i.e. the sun, Mercury, Venus and Earth.
This space observatory must be at least five years old. It has enough “fuel” to work for ten years.
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