The most powerful space telescope has a date to go to space 0:55
(CNN) -
This moment has been in the making for decades.
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's main observatory for the next decade, is scheduled for December 18 from French Guiana.
The telescope overcame years of delays, which included a combination of factors brought on by the pandemic and technical challenges.
Now the world's most powerful complex space observatory will answer questions about our solar system, study exoplanets in new ways, and allow for a more in-depth observation of the universe than we've been capable of so far.
Webb will observe the atmospheres of exoplanets, some of which are potentially habitable, and could uncover clues in the current search for life outside of Earth.
How is the Webb telescope equipped?
The telescope is equipped with a mirror that can extend 6.5 meters.
This enormous length will allow the mirror to collect more light from the objects it observes once the telescope is in space.
And the more light the mirror can pick up, the more detail the telescope can see.
The mirror includes 18 gold-plated hexagonal segments, each 1.32 meters in diameter.
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Webb Telescope shows its gold mirror for the last time 0:51
It's the largest mirror NASA ever built, the agency said, but its size created a unique problem.
The mirror was so big that it couldn't fit inside a rocket.
So they designed the telescope as a series of moving parts that can be folded in the style of an origami.
They fit within a 5 meter space for launch.
Each space telescope is built based on the knowledge acquired with the previous one.
In Webb's case, its mirror is almost 60 times larger than those of previous space telescopes, such as Spitzer.
The observatory also has an improvement in sensitivity and resolution compared to the Hubble space telescope.
Webb will act as an infrared detective, detecting invisible light and revealing regions of space that would otherwise be hidden, according to NASA.
The telescope was first imagined as a successor to Hubble.
His concept emerged in a workshop in 1989 and construction began in 2004. Since then, thousands of scientists, technicians and engineers from 14 countries have spent 40 million hours building the telescope.
Now the Webb is ready to help us understand the origins of the universe and begin to answer key questions about our existence, such as where we came from and if we are alone in the cosmos.
What the Webb Telescope Will See
The Webb Telescope will observe every phase of cosmic history, including the first flashes after the big bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars, and planets that occupy it today.
Its capabilities will allow the observatory to answer questions about our own solar system and investigate the faint signals from the first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago.
This space telescope will explore the secrets of the Universe 0:47
Webb's science goals are ambitious, and scientists around the world will use the time allotted with the telescope to observe and analyze a wide spectrum of planets, black holes, galaxies, stars, and the structure of the universe itself.
A key focus is the formation and evolution of the planets, both in our solar system and the large population of planets that inhabit it.
Of particular interest are the planets located within the habitable zone of stars, an orbital region where a planet has the right temperature to support the presence of liquid water on its surface, suggesting that it could host life as we know it.
Spitzer, as well as NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission underway, have helped scientists set targets for tracking Webb, including some of the "great successes" of Spitzer. The Webb will be able to characterize exoplanets, going beyond Spitzer's capabilities to measure how big a planet is and observe the intricate details of what they look like.
In February 2017, for example, a group of astronomers announced that they had discovered seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star 40 light-years from Earth.
With the help of the Splitzer, the seven exoplanets were found in closed formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1.
All the planets are named after TRAPPIST, which the researchers borrowed from their favorite beer.
One of the planned targets for Webb is TRAPPIST-1e, which could support liquid water on its surface.
Finding water could also suggest the potential for life.
Another early mission target is WASP-18b, a "hot Jupiter" with an atmosphere, according to NASA.
The Webb telescope is also well equipped to shed light on the mysteries of planet formation.
Building on Spitzer's work studying brown dwarfs - objects too big to be planets but too small to be stars - Webb can take a closer look at the properties of their clouds.
The telescope will take a closer look at a selection of exoplanets to look inside their atmospheres, if any, and help answer questions about how planets formed and evolved.
Its spectroscopic data can tell scientists if there is methane, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.
The gases from these alien atmospheres could reveal the building blocks of life.
Other objects of interest for the initial scientific campaign are the observation of the supermassive black hole located in the center of the Milky Way, the planetary systems in formation, the bright quasars located in the center of the galaxies and the remains of the formation of our system. solar known as Kuiper belt objects, such as Pluto and its moon Charon.
This illustration shows the planets of the Trappist-1 system.
What the telescope can do
For all its superlatives, designing the Webb was an extraordinary challenge.
The observatory is made up of three main elements.
One is the Integrated Science Instruments Module, which contains Webb's set of four instruments.
These instruments will be used primarily to capture images or spectroscopy, dividing the light into different wavelengths to determine the physical and chemical components.
The element of the optical telescope, the main eye of the observatory, includes the mirrors and the back plate, or column, that supports the mirrors.
And then there is the spacecraft element, which includes the satellite bus and the parasol.
The bus includes the six major subsystems required to operate the spacecraft, including propulsion, electrical power, communications, data, and thermal controls.
This is what the sun visor looks like when unfolded.
The five-layer sunshade folds out to the size of a tennis court and will protect the Webb's gigantic mirror and instruments from the sun's heat, as they must be kept at a very cold -188 degrees Celsius to operate.
Advances used in the design and construction of the telescope have benefits even for those of us on Earth.
A technique developed to quickly and accurately measure mirrors for polishing has been adapted for surgeons performing LASIK eye surgery by creating high-definition maps of patients' eyes.
When to expect the first images from the Webb telescope
If you've heard of the "seven minutes of terror" when the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, the Webb team has a much longer and exhausting waiting period.
The agency has referred to him as "29 days to the limit."
After launching from French Guiana, the observatory will travel for about a month until reaching an orbit 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.
During those 29 days, Webb will deploy his mirrors and sun visor.
Thousands of parts are involved in this process that must work perfectly in the correct sequence.
Fortunately, each step can be controlled from the ground in case of problems.
And then it will go through a commissioning period in space lasting six months, which involves instrument cooling, alignment and calibration.
All instruments will go through a testing process to see how they are performing.
It will then begin collecting data and its first images, into 2022. Thousands of scientists have been waiting for years to see what the Webb can show us.
This image shows a full-scale model of the James Webb telescope at the South by Southwest event in Austin.
"The initial year of Webb observations will provide the first opportunity for a diverse range of scientists around the world to observe particular targets with NASA's next major space observatory," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. from NASA, in a statement.
"The amazing science that will be shared with the global community will be bold and profound."
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