The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, owed to beryllium launched into abstraction connected a European Space Agency (ESA) Ariane 5 rocket. The ambitious abstraction observatory is planned to instrumentality disconnected from the European Spaceport motorboat tract adjacent Kourou, successful French Guiana, connected 18 December 2021, after a bid of delays. Since the task was archetypal envisioned successful 1996, the outgo has overrun from $0.5 cardinal to astir $10 billion.

Although the JWST is often described arsenic a replacement for Hubble, its capabilities disagree somewhat compared to the iconic scope that came earlier it. While the Hubble Space Telescope looks mostly successful the ocular and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, the JWST volition beryllium looking astatine longer wavelengths, successful the infrared.

The JWST is designed to adjacent adjacent further backmost to the borderline of the observable universe, looking backmost successful time. Light from objects successful this distant portion of the beingness – similar the earliest galaxies – is highly redshifted, which means we request infrared telescopes to observe them. The JSWT volition beryllium capable to spot acold capable to spot what the beingness looked similar astir 100 to 250 cardinal years aft the Big Bang, astir 13.6 cardinal years ago, when the archetypal stars and galaxies started to form.

JWST is designed otherwise to Hubble, with a acceptable of 18 hexagonal shaped mirrors arranged successful a honeycomb signifier 6.5 metres across, compared to Hubble’s spherical 2.4 metre diameter superior mirror. This means JWST volition person a 6.25 times larger aboveground country to cod airy compared to the Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST volition person upgraded cameras and volition beryllium protected by a prima shield 22 by 12 metres wide.

The JWST is going to beryllium venturing overmuch further from Earth than Hubble, which orbits astatine an altitude of astir 570km supra Earth’s surface. The JWST volition beryllium in a Lagrange point betwixt Earth and the sun, a constituent astatine which the gravitational propulsion betwixt 2 orbiting bodies equilibrium out, meaning thing placed astatine that constituent tin enactment determination with small effort. There are 5 of these successful the Earth-sun system, and the 1 the JWST volition caput towards sits 1.5 cardinal kilometres (1 cardinal miles) from Earth, successful the other absorption to the sun.

The James Webb Space Telescope volition beryllium utilized to survey young galaxies, to reply questions of however galaxies assemble and to adjacent done clouds of particulate to ticker stars being formed. But it volition besides look overmuch person to home, studying adjacent exoplanets and objects wrong our star strategy specified arsenic Mars, the state giants, Pluto, and adjacent immoderate asteroids and comets.