Tomorrow: NASA launches the largest and most advanced telescope in human history
After more than 25 years of development: James Webb, the US space agency's most expensive engineering marvel, will be launched out of Earth.
The telescope will be located about a million and a half km from here - and will look at the past of the universe. In addition, it will try to detect signs of life in other galaxies
Yinon Ben Shoshan
24/12/2021
Friday, 24 December 2021, 08:33 Updated: 09:39
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James Webb Telescope (Photo: Reuters)
After an investment of about $ 10 billion and more than 25 years of planning and development, James Webb - the largest and most advanced telescope ever built by mankind - will be launched into space tomorrow (Saturday).
The launch will take place aboard the European Space Agency's Arian 5 rocket.
The capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the old "mourning", will enrich our youngsters with observations of some of the most distant bodies in the universe, which cannot be observed with the existing means in space available to mankind.
Also, Webb will look further and further back in time to the formation of the universe and will also try to answer the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life.
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The launch of the most expensive scientific device built in the current generation has been postponed 13 times - and took four times as long as the original design.
However, the investment is noticeable: the James Webb mirror consists of 18 honeycomb-shaped mirrors with a diameter of more than 6 meters, each of the smaller mirrors being made of pure gold-plated beryllium.
James Webb, named after the other director of the US Space Agency and who oversaw the Apollo project, will be located after about a month and a half about a million and a half kilometers from Earth - at the Lange Grange L2. This point is convenient for placing the telescope, as our planet partially obscures the sun And facilitates the cooling of the means of observation necessary for this observation, and no force is required to remain stable between the earth and the sun.
Space Telescope at Launch Station (Photo: Reuters)
As the Hubble Space Telescope approaches the end of its life and has become our primary evidence for the expansion of the universe, James Webb has been designed and opened specifically for infrared photography - so you can penetrate deeper through gas clouds and nebulae and reach the most distant stars in the universe.
However, the engineering marvel is also a huge risk: the location far from Earth does not allow the telescope to be repaired in the event of a malfunction - which could result in the complete loss of the project.
technology
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telescope
space