If all goes well, there are probably exciting discoveries ahead. – James Webb is almost like a time machine to count, says Pål Brekke at the Norwegian Space Center.
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The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is approaching.
The telescope is the largest and most powerful ever launched into space, according to ESA.
It is many years late. The development began in 1996 and the telescope was actually to be taken off in 2007.
There have also been small delays recently. A few days ago, NASA confirmed that the telescope would be launched on Christmas Eve. Due to unfavorable weather forecast, the date has now been moved to the first day of Christmas.
The time is set for 13:20 (7:20 am EST) Saturday, according to NASA.
It remains to be seen whether this date will stand.
Becomes ribs instead of rocket
The launch was previously planned for 22 December. Pål Brekke, head of space research at the Norwegian Space Center, was invited to see the rocket take off with his own eyes in French Guinea, wrote NRK.
– I was actually supposed to sit on the plane down to French Guiana and experience this historic launch together with other representatives from ESA, Brekke wrote in an e-mail to forskning.no on Monday.
Unfortunately, the trip was canceled when the date was set for Christmas Eve. The management of ESA thought it was better for people to be at home with their families on Christmas Eve.
– So then it will be ribs on me, even though I probably would have traveled if it was my turn. There will be a new Christmas Eve next year.
The launch can be seen live on NASA TV. And Brekke will of course follow it.
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Exciting month follows
The telescope has now been folded and put in place in an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency (ESA).
James Webb will be sent to a point far behind the moon’s orbit, much further out than the Hubble Telescope.
– The launch is what I am least worried about, since the rocket has been in operation since the 1990s with few incidents, said astronomer Håkon Dahle at the University of Oslo to forskning.no in November.
– But I am worried about what will happen afterwards when the telescope is to be unfolded.
On its approximately one-month-long journey towards the destination, the telescope will be unfolded step by step. It will be 20 meters long and 14 meters wide with the sun shield unfolded completely.
If all goes well, astronomers can start using the telescope 180 days after launch.
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Looks in infrared
While the Hubble Space Telescope mainly looks at wavelengths of visible light, James Webb is optimized for the infrared spectrum. Infrared light is also called heat radiation.
The telescope is extremely sensitive. To give a picture of it, it is said that the telescope should be able to observe the heat radiation from a bee at the distance of the moon or detect a candle on one of Jupiter’s moons – about 800 million kilometers away. That’s what Pål Brekke says.
Back in time
The features make James Webb want and be able to look even further back in time.
– The light from the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang no longer exists as visible light. Since the universe expands, this light has been stretched and is now only visible as infrared radiation, says Brekke.
This means that James Webb will be able to give us more knowledge about what happened early in the history of the universe.
The deeper into the universe we see, the further back in time we see. This is because light has taken billions of years to reach us. Therefore, we see the galaxies as they looked when the light was first emitted.
– James Webb is thus almost like a time machine to count and will give scientists access to the entire history of the universe.
Cosmic maternity wards and signs of life
James Webb will look into areas of galaxies hidden by dust at wavelengths of visible light. Infrared light is less hindered by the small dust particles, according to an earlier one case on forskning.no.
– The advantage of observing infrared light is that the light can penetrate interstellar nebulae and dust clouds where new stars with associated planets are born, Brekke writes in an e-mail.
James Webb will thus be able to look into such nebulae and study cosmic maternity wards, he explains.
The space telescope will also study exoplanets, planets outside our solar system.
– James Webb will be able to give us better answers as to whether any of the exoplanets we have discovered can be home to living organisms, says Brekke.
– Using spectroscopy – analyzes of light from the star that has passed through the plants’ atmosphere – one will be able to say something about what the atmosphere consists of.
In this way, scientists can find traces of possible biological activity or living beings that may be living on a distant planet.
– In other words – we can get one step closer to the question of whether we are alone in the universe, Pål Brekke concludes.
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