The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space shuttle developed by NASA through the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The telescope was named after James E. Webb, who was director of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and played a key role in the Apollo program. Aimed at the success of the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's leading mission in astrophysics. JWST was launched on December 25, 2021 on the Ariane VA256 aircraft. It is designed to provide improved infrared and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable extensive research across all fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observations of some of the fossil and space objects such as the formation of the original. galaxies, which also allow for the precise atmospheric precision of resilient exoplanets.
JWST's main mirror, the Optical Telescope Element, consists of 18 hexagonal mirror parts made of gold-plated beryllium, which combine to form a 6.5 m (21 ft) -diameter mirror - much larger than Hubble's 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) mirror. Unlike the Hubble telescope, which detects near ultraviolet, visible, and near the infrared (0.1–1.0 μm) spectra, the JWST will do so with a low frequency range, from light wavelength (red) to infrared (red). 0.6) -28.3 μm). This will allow them to see the red objects that are the oldest and farthest from Hubble. The telescope must be kept very cold to be seen in infrared without interruption, so it will be distributed in space near the point of Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange, approximately 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth (0.01 au - 3.9 times the average distance to the Moon) . A large cap made of silicon- and aluminum coated with Kapton will keep its mirror and metal at less than 50 K (−223 ° C; −370 ° F). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland has managed the development and the Space Telescope Science Institute using Webb.
The main contractor was Northrop Grumman. The development began in 1996 with a launch planned for 2007 with a budget of US $ 500 million. There have been many delays and cost overruns, including major redesigns in 2005, torn solar panels during custom shipping, recommendations from the independent review board, COVID-19 epidemic, and 20 issues with the Ariane 5 rocket and telescope itself, as well as problems. communication between telescope and car launch. Concerns between scientists and engineers involved regarding the launch and distribution of telescopes have been well documented.
Construction was completed in late 2016, when a comprehensive testing phase began. JWST was launched at 12:20 UTC on December 25, 2021 in a Ariane 5 launch car from Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America, and was launched. released in the upper stage after 27 minutes. The telescope proved to be invigorating, and from December 2021 we are on our way to our destination.