After a month of travel, the James Webb telescope finally arrived at its destination. THE telescope is now orbiting our planet more than 1.5 million kilometers away. From its final point, it will capture images that will help us understand more about the universe.
James Webb and his Transformer Ability
THE telescope performed the last correction maneuvers this Monday, the 24th, reaching the orbital point of Lagrange 2 (or L2 for intimates). At that point the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) will be less affected by the heat of the sun and the orbital system between Earth and Moon. As it captures images in infrared, which reach us as heat, the James Webb needs to operate in colder temperatures, in addition to not suffering from overheating in the equipment – which would be a loss for a telescope that cost 10 billion dollars.
Due to its gigantic size (equivalent to a tennis court or a three-story building) the James Webb was sent “encapsulated” inside the rocket ariane 5. just like a transformer or an insect doing metamorphosis, The telescope it acquired its final form during the voyage, carrying out operations to open the set of candles, mirrors and other instruments.
James Webb: Years from Production to Release
the project of James Webb telescope was developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in conjunction with the European and Canadian space agencies and was expected to have been launched initially in 2007. But some problems delayed the launch of the model, one of them was the high cost of production of the James Webb telescope, which was increasing more and more and , still in 2005, made the engineers rethink the original project.
In 2016 the telescope was declared ready, but again its project was put on hold due to construction complications and stayed that way until 2019, when it was finally assembled. However, due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, more delays happened until the NASA finally set December 18th for release.
Through it, researchers will be able to observe even more things from space, being able to see some of the oldest galaxies in the universe and other celestial bodies, such as black holes.
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Source: The Verge