James Webb Space telescope -“The $10 billion Gamble”

James Webb Space Telescope

Guys do you know that after the Hubble telescope NASA launched another telescope which is bigger than the Hubble telescope but also lighter than the Hubble telescope. It is equipped with the latest technology so that it can easily help astronomers unveil the secrets of the universe. This telescope is known as the James Webb Space Telescope and we are gonna read about  its specifications..

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. It is the largest optical telescope in space and its high infrared resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects which are too early, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. It will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology.

It will observe the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

It is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and led the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo program. 

James Webb Space telescope picture sent

It is made with the collaboration of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. 

Its primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium which create a 6.5 meter diameter mirror and it gives a light-collecting area of about 25 square meters

It requires an extremely cold temperature, below 50 K (−223 °C), such that the infrared light emitted by it, itself does not interfere with the collected light. 

JSWT is deployed in a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth; its five-layer sunshield protects it from heat of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

Dimensions of James Webb Space telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope has a mass of 6,161.4 kg. The JWST has a 6.5-meter-diameter gold-coated beryllium primary mirror made up of 18 separate hexagonal mirrors. Each of them has a polished area of 26.3 m2, of which 0.9 m2 is obscured by the secondary support struts. It gives it a total collecting area of 25.4 m2 (273 sq ft).

This is over six times larger than the collecting area of Hubble’s 2.4-meter diameter mirror, which has a collecting area of 4.0 m2.The mirror has a gold coating to provide infrared reflectivity and this is covered by a thin layer of glass for durability.

JWST is designed primarily for near-infrared astronomy, but can also see orange and red visible light. It can detect objects up to 100 times fainter than Hubble can, and objects much earlier in the history of the universe. 

JWST first super nova
JWST witnesses its first supernova

The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope — NASA’s largest and most powerful space science telescope — will probe the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Big Bang to alien planet formation and beyond. It is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, huge space instruments that include the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the cosmos.

Reference from :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope