So if you want an infrared telescope to be exquisitely sensitive, first you put in space (and) besides putting in space, you need it to be super cold so that it's not blinded by its own thermal emissions." And if you want to see objects from that epoch, the ultraviolet and the visible light they emitted so long ago has been red shifted all the way into the infrared spectrum. "The main reason it was conceived in the first place was to see the end of the cosmic dark ages. "It's an infrared telescope," said Paul Geithner, JWST's technical project manager. Well beyond the reach of any spacewalking repairmen, L2 offers an ideal place for Webb to chill out for its epic quest to peer back in time to the end of the so-called dark ages, when the the blazing light of the first stars burned off the hydrogen fog of creation to travel freely through space. Unlike Hubble, which was placed in low-Earth orbit where space shuttle astronauts could make service calls, JWST is headed for a location called Lagrange Point 2, or L2, on the other side of the moon, where the gravity of sun, Earth and moon are in balance, allowing the telescope to remain in place with a minimum of propellant. And now we just need to go do it." Looking for the oldest light there is "We've done everything we can think of to make Webb successful. "This is a high-risk and a very high-payoff program," said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, a former space shuttle commander. The Webb telescope and its Ariane 5 rocket were hauled to the launch pad near Kourou, French Guiana, Thursday, setting the stage for blastoff Christmas Day.Īnother two months beyond that will be needed to carefully align the optics while the telescope continues a slow cool-down to near absolute zero and then another three months or so to check out and calibrate Webb's instruments.Īnd then, more than 20 years after it was first proposed, years behind schedule and billions over budget, JWST will finally be ready to take center stage on the high frontier, carrying the hopes and dreams of thousands of engineers and astronomers around the world. Once on its way, it will take a full month for the telescope to unfold like a high-tech origami, deploying its solar array, antennas, radiators, its segmented primary mirror, its secondary mirror and the complex, fragile sunshade that is so essential to success. Light waves are always moving at extremely fast rates, about 186,000 miles per second, but that the light seen by the Webb may have left its source thousands of years ago.The spacecraft, encapsulated inside a protective nose cone atop a European Space Agency-provided Ariane 5 rocket, was rolled to the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, Thursday. By looking out into space, you are essentially looking back in time because light needs time to travel across the vast distances of space to reach Earth. SEE: NASA's Webb telescope takes dazzling images of the Pillars of Creation Can the Webb Telescope actually look back in time?Įven though this sounds entirely too much like science fiction, it is true. Most recently, the Webb telescope shared breathtaking images of the iconic Pillars of Creation. Building the telescope was an ambitious endeavor but now that it has proven successful, its technology will be implemented in telescopes in the future. The Webb telescope has provided the deepest and sharpest images of the universe so far. Here’s your guided tour ⬇️ /jFiDDrMUPl- NASA Hallo-Webb Telescope □□□ OctoWhat has the Webb telescope accomplished? Journey with us through Webb’s breathtaking view of the Pillars of Creation, where scores of newly formed stars glisten like dewdrops among floating, translucent columns of gas and dust:
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