The one launched on December 25th James Webb Space Telescope has finally reached its goal. About four times as far away as our moon, the telescope should provide us with new insights into the formation of our universe.
James Webb Space Telescope should finally provide answers
And that doesn’t mean the general questions about the cosmos, not the billions of galaxies and star clusters light years away. While the James Webb Space Telescope will also provide answers, the most important question of all concerns our origins themselves.
With the telescope at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, it will look deep into the past of our universe. Out here, at a so-called Lagrange point, the conditions are optimal for observing the universe.
The telescope isn’t exposed to secondary light sources out there, like reflected light from the Earth and Moon. The sail of the James Webb Space Telescope is as big as a tennis court and also protects the devices and the fine sensors from the sun and sunlight.
First results expected in summer
The final phase of the journey involved aligning the James Webb Space Telescope. A five-minute course correction with the engines ended the long trepidation of those involved. Even before the start, scientists were tense. After thirty years of planning and development, they would be launching an instrument that would be crucial to astronomy – and which cannot be serviced.
Unlike Hubble, the latest telescope is so far away that it cannot be repaired. So the team only had one chance. Even the journey to the selected destination turned out to be difficult. Now that they have arrived at their destination, astronomers hope to get new, breathtaking insights into our universe as early as summer. NASA’s project manager Bill Ochs is confident:
“In the past month, the James Webb Space Telescope has achieved amazing success, commemorating all those people who have spent many years and even decades making this mission possible. We are now on the verge of aligning the mirrors, activating and commissioning the instruments, and making wondrous discoveries.”
Bill Ochs via NASA.gov
James Webb Space Telescope to make great discoveries
Operating in the invisible infrared spectrum, the telescope’s camera can detect objects 100 times fainter than the areas observed by Hubble. With these instruments on board, the James Webb Space Telescope is to explore new celestial bodies such as exoplanets and, at best, look deep into the past of our universe.
Because the sensors are so finely tuned, astronomers all over the world are hoping for more insights into the formation of our universe. At best, the telescope should capture the light of stars and galaxies that formed 100 to 250 million years after the Big Bang.
Sources: NASA.gov, t3n