Do you remember what you did in 1996? Some NASA scientists remember this painfully accurately. Original plans to the telescope, which would replace the Hubble one in orbit, come from the 90s. At that time, it was assumed that the telescope should start as early as 2007.
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But that did not happen. The Hubble Telescope had to last astronomers much longer than expected. The new telescope – later named James Webb Telescope by NASA chief from 1961 to 1968 – was constantly more expensive and postponed. Several times, development had to be stopped, key parts re-examined or even redesigned completely.
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The price also rose. While in 1997 there was talk of a price of half a billion dollars, the price gradually climbed to twenty times. Most of this price is paid by NASA or the US government. The European Space Agency involved less than ten percent of the resulting ten billion dollars.
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It doesn’t end there
The whole of 2021 has been speculated as to whether the Webb’s telescope will finally be able to be transported into space at least this year. In the end, it will probably be less than a week before the end of the year. The launch, in which, in addition to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involves the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian CSA, took place on December 25 at 13:20 CET. Ariane 5 rockets launched from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
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The whole start was a quick matter. Two minutes after the start, the auxiliary engines separated and 9 minutes after the start, the module carrying the probe with the telescope continued in flight. This platform then separated according to plan about 27 minutes after the start.
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Less than half an hour after the launch, the telescope is on its way to its orbit around the Earth or the Sun. Specifically, it is a place 1,500,000 km from Earth, the so-called L2 liberation center, in which the telescope is always in eclipse.
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But after the start, the drama itself is just beginning. Gradual unpacking of complicated devices and shielding will take 13 days. At each stage, a failure could occur that would either disrupt or jeopardize the operation of the ten billion telescope.
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Gradual unpacking and preparation for the activity will take two weeks
What the James Webb Telescope will do
Webb’s telescope will be the most powerful space telescope yet. It should oversee the beginnings of the existence of our universe, when the first stars and galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago. According to NASA, it will directly observe a hitherto unseen part of space and time. The device is designed to “see” the infrared light that is now coming to us in this form from the most distant objects.
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JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) will also be used by scientists to study the planets and other bodies of our solar system, to study their origin and evolution, and to compare them with exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars. At the same time, the telescope will monitor exoplanets, which are located in the so-called habitable zones, and there could be liquid water on their surface. In connection with this, it is also planned to look for possible signs indicating the possible habitability of such bodies.
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To fulfill these tasks, the observatory has a giant mirror with a diameter of 6.5 meters, four scientific instruments and a shield 21 by 14 meters, which will protect the apparatus from the heat of sunlight and keep them in the necessary deep cold. The devices in the equipment are the NIRCam infrared camera, the NIRSpec infrared spectrograph, the MIRI infrared device and the infrared display with the NIRISS spectrograph.
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Scientists are checking the precise adjustment of the telescope’s sensitive sensors.
The large primary mirror consists of 18 smaller hexagonal mirrors, each with a diameter of 1.3 meters and a weight of 20 kilograms. Each is made of beryllium and coated with a gold layer. Beryllium scientists chose this metal because of its lightness and strength. In addition, it maintains its shape even in the low-temperature conditions that the telescope instruments need for proper operation. Gold was chosen for the top layer due to its extremely high light reflectance, over a wide range of wavelengths.
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Update: We have added current information to the article.
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