Given the vastness of space, how do they actually know the exact place to put the telescope between the earth and the sun?
James Webb space telescope set to launch on Christmas Eve.
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
- Start date
It's at one of the lagrange points. L2 is one of those, and that's specifically where JWST is going to be orbiting. It's not a place so much as an orbit, but for all practical purposes, it is a place. As it is an orbit, it has to be understood though that there can a huge amount of objects in that lagrange point, and JWST is not the first nor the last object that will be in an L2 orbit. At the same time, it's not a more congested orbital path like Low Earth Orbit.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/754/what-is-a-lagrange-point/
You're thinking of L1. This is L2 on the other side of the earth from the sun. Its position is calculated from the known masses of the earth and sun and the distance between their centres of mass.
Lagrange Point
Been a while since this story has been updated.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...ignment-milestone-optics-working-successfully
And before images get released I want to leave a prediction here for how the scope may image the universe.
Big Bang is spot in the center, Expansion zone reaching out to the Universe edge.
I am only half joking. We'll see how this goes...
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...ignment-milestone-optics-working-successfully
And before images get released I want to leave a prediction here for how the scope may image the universe.
Big Bang is spot in the center, Expansion zone reaching out to the Universe edge.
I am only half joking. We'll see how this goes...
Yeah, there was no centre to the Big Bang and we're inside the remnants as evinced by the CMBR. It'll be interesting though to see how our perception of the universe changes with really good IR images. Just as illuminating should be the SKA upgrades in RSA and Australia to the MeerKAT radio telescope array.
SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT inaugurated in South Africa - Public Website (skatelescope.org)
SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT inaugurated in South Africa - Public Website (skatelescope.org)
Another POV
NASA has announced that they'll be releasing JWST's first full-color images and spectrographic readings on July 12th.
They've put up a countdown page (41 days, if you don't want to consult your calendar) with links, and an application page for social media influencers to attend a two-day in-person reveal event including a Q&A and tours of NASA's Goddard facility and the telescope's operations center. Better start working on those TikTok dances and lipsync challenges to goose your follower count!
They've put up a countdown page (41 days, if you don't want to consult your calendar) with links, and an application page for social media influencers to attend a two-day in-person reveal event including a Q&A and tours of NASA's Goddard facility and the telescope's operations center. Better start working on those TikTok dances and lipsync challenges to goose your follower count!
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-suffers-micrometeoroid-impacts
Tiny meteoroid bops $10 billion Webb space telescope
https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...s-10-billion-webb-space-telescope-2022-06-08/
A tiny rock fragment has hit the new James Webb Space Telescope's main mirror. The damage inflicted by the dust-sized micrometeoroid is producing a noticeable effect in the observatory's data but is not expected to limit the mission's overall performance.=4 days ago
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...-about-the-toughness-of-nasa-s-webb-telescope ---
first images going to be july 12th 2022
Tiny meteoroid bops $10 billion Webb space telescope
https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...s-10-billion-webb-space-telescope-2022-06-08/
A tiny rock fragment has hit the new James Webb Space Telescope's main mirror. The damage inflicted by the dust-sized micrometeoroid is producing a noticeable effect in the observatory's data but is not expected to limit the mission's overall performance.=4 days ago
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...-about-the-toughness-of-nasa-s-webb-telescope ---
first images going to be july 12th 2022
Why can't they collapse it in when not in use?
The alignment of all the mirrors needs to be just so. Opening and closing would be challenging in that it needs to be fully realigned when opened. Even if closed, there is still the potential for meteoroid damage. They planned on a certain amount of it. Just one of the risks being in space.
Fair enough
It's in constant use just like the HST is. The mission planners knew the probability of such a large instrument being impacted by micrometeoroids over time and factored this hazard into the Webb's design.
NASA's web page with the preview image is currently slammed with traffic, but here's a copy of the photo and the description from the Webb's Facebook page:
Sneak a peek at the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken — all in a day’s work for the Webb telescope. (Literally! Webb was able to capture this image in less than one day, while similar deep field images from Hubble can take multiple weeks.)
This is Webb’s first image released as we begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/
If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us! Why do some of the galaxies in this image appear bent? The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a “gravitational lens,” bending light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, magnifying them.
This image isn’t the farthest back we’ve ever observed. Non-infrared missions like COBE and WMAP saw the universe much closer to the Big Bang (about 380,000 years after), when there was only microwave background radiation, but no stars or galaxies yet. Webb sees a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration between NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the ESA - European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science and mission operations center for Webb.
Tune in tomorrow at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) for the reveal of the rest of Webb’s First Images!
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
This is Webb’s first image released as we begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/
If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us! Why do some of the galaxies in this image appear bent? The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a “gravitational lens,” bending light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, magnifying them.
This image isn’t the farthest back we’ve ever observed. Non-infrared missions like COBE and WMAP saw the universe much closer to the Big Bang (about 380,000 years after), when there was only microwave background radiation, but no stars or galaxies yet. Webb sees a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration between NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the ESA - European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science and mission operations center for Webb.
Tune in tomorrow at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) for the reveal of the rest of Webb’s First Images!
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
That image is great in fact, that we can see other galaxies beyond our own, and by the look of it lots of them.
As the caption notes, this is less than a day of exposure time (twelve and a half hours, according to the more detailed description). The original Hubble Deep Field took ten days, with later observations taking weeks of data-gathering. So, more, better data, faster, all seems like a trade up for me.
From the observation list, it looks like tomorrow's release will include some objects which we nonspecialists can do direct comparisons with the quality of other telescopes. Nebulas and the like.
I can't wait until humanity develops Navigational Deflector Dishes or just regular shields to protect against these Micro Meteriods.https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-suffers-micrometeoroid-impacts
Tiny meteoroid bops $10 billion Webb space telescope
https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...s-10-billion-webb-space-telescope-2022-06-08/
A tiny rock fragment has hit the new James Webb Space Telescope's main mirror. The damage inflicted by the dust-sized micrometeoroid is producing a noticeable effect in the observatory's data but is not expected to limit the mission's overall performance.=4 days ago
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...-about-the-toughness-of-nasa-s-webb-telescope ---
first images going to be july 12th 2022
To realise the importance of such observations, you need to be educated to PhD level in Astrophysics, particularly in the field of Cosmology. The mission of the JWST is not to produce pretty images to use as desktop backgrounds.
The new images released today are mind-blowing!!
