The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of the United States Space Agency (NASA) was seen cruising through space into the depths of the Universe to observe distant stars and galaxies. Italian astrophysicist Gianluca Masi managed to capture images of the observatory through the robotic telescope “Elena”, from the Virtual Telescope Project.
Launched into space a few days ago, in a large maneuver that it even involved Brazil, the JWST is ready to begin the next phases of its mission. After activating your broadband, the telescope capable of capturing infrared light will unfold like an origami to correctly position your mirrors.
The GIF below shows a single, unfiltered, 120-second exposure of the JWST flying through space at an altitude of 550,000 kilometers — nearly 1.5 times the average distance from the Moon. The observatory is marked by an arrow.
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James Webb Space Telescope moved through space last Wednesday (29). Image: Virtual Telescope Project
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The recording made by the PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SEBIG STL-6303E robotic telescope combined several images to create the animation above. “Elena” followed James Webb’s movement, so the observatory appears as a fixed white dot in the center of the image, while the stars appear to move.
The JWST target is a stable orbit around Lagrange Point L2. This is one of five points of gravitational equilibrium between the Earth and the Sun, located about 1.5 million kilometers from us. Such a distance makes it impossible to carry out repairs to the telescope. So if any fundamental mistakes happen, it’s goodbye to this $9.7 billion NASA mission.
NASA announced this week that Webb has more fuel than expected, a result of the precision with which it was placed into orbit by the Ariane 5 rocket. much more” than the 10 years originally estimated.
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