James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is the next-generation space observatory succeeding the Hubble Space Telescope. It is designed to unlock the answer to unsettled questions about our Universe. It will dive deeper into our origins and possible future. A concise and consistent picture will be derived about the creation of planets and stars and the birth of the primordial galaxies in the early stages of the Universe. Webb will churn out incredible discoveries in every field of astronomy and astrophysics.

What is the James Webb Space Telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope is a spacecraft telescope designed to detect the most distant and coldest objects in the Universe. It will also analyse far away potentially habitable planets and other cosmic events. The main goal of JWST is to surpass the range of the Hubble Telescope.

It is named after a NASA administrator (James E. Webb) who headed the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury missions (1961-1968).

NASA coordinated the development of JWST in association with the Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency. The telescope was launched on December 25, 2021. Ariane 5 rocket carried the telescope to orbit from Kourou, French Guiana.

It will provide better infrared sensitivity and image resolution over the Hubble Telescope. Viewing power is almost 100 times greater than all other major telescopes on and off the planet.

Important Elements of James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest space telescope ever constructed. It is nearly double the size of the Hubble Telescope (13m long), which is roughly half the Hubble’s weight (6,500kg). It’s humongous sun shield stand measures 22m by 12m, almost the same dimension as a tennis court.

James Telescope’s gold-coated mirrors have a cumulative diameter of 605cm, more than twice the diameter of Hubble (240cm). In short, JWST will roughly have a fifteen times broader view than the Hubble Space Telescope.

The optical telescope components of the primary mirror have eighteen six-sided mirror segments, which are made of gold-coated beryllium. This grants the JWST a light-gathering area about 5.5 times as big as Hubble’s area.

Hubble captures images from the range of visible, ultraviolet and near-infrared spectra. On the other hand, the James Webb Space Telescope will detect objects in the range of long-wavelength normal red light and mid-infrared spectrum. This will allow the detection of high-redshift celestial bodies that are too faint, distant, and old.

The ideal working temperature of the Webb telescope is below -223 °C. By maintaining such a low temperature, it will be able to detect faint signals in the infrared spectrum without the intrusion of warmer signals of objects.

It is orbiting near the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange area, around 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth. A five-layered windshield guards it against the Sun’s direct heat waves.

Uses of James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is fundamentally designed for wider infrared astronomy. It can observe objects which are 100 times fainter than the threshold of the Hubble telescope.

Apart from the above spectrum, it can also detect red-orange visible light and mid-infrared range. Another exciting prospect is it will allow astronomers to observe objects that existed earlier in the timeline of the Universe, much closer to the Big Bang.

• This unique infrared detector is designed to detect objects hidden in the mid-nearer infrared spectrum.
• Redshift objects only emit infrared rays, which can only be analysed through infrared telescopes. Colder and darker objects also emit infrared light. The Hubble telescope is not designed for such an infrared spectrum. James Webb Space Telescope is arguably the best infrared observatory ever built.
• Terrestrial telescopes on Earth also have some severe drawbacks as our atmosphere creates another layer of light dilution. When far away light penetrates the atmosphere, weaker infrared rays will drastically lose their intensity which practically becomes undetectable. Therefore, the JWST telescope has the best place to observe the vast Universe (Earth’s orbit). It will be able to avoid unwanted complications caused by water, methane and other compounds in the atmosphere.

The James Webb Space Telescope could automate itself to analyse unplanned targets within the set time. It can also examine most of the objects in the Solar System, including all the satellites, planets, asteroids and comets.

A video about the measurement of distances in space

Goals of James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope will surely pave the way for many great discoveries in cosmology, astrophysics and astronomy.

Here are some of the exciting long-term missions of JWST.

Detecting Light from the First Galaxies and Planets Formed After the Big Bang

After the Big Bang, the whole Universe is in a state of expansion. So the first galaxies and stars are undoubtedly the farthest objects in the known Universe. Hubble’s Law states that the more distant the objects, the faster they move away from us. Therefore, the light from the oldest celestial bodies is always redshifted. Ordinary telescopes can’t efficiently detect such faint objects. In order to detect such objects, we should look into the infrared band.

The James Webb Space Telescope is purposefully designed to observe objects hidden in the infrared spectrum.

Observing the Formation of Galaxies

One of the main aims of JWST is to study and observe the formation of galaxies. As per current data, we cannot detect any region where baby galaxies are forming. In other words, such areas might be far away from the reaches of the current most sensitive observatories. Through the Webb telescope, astronomers hope to analyse the factors that influence galaxies’ shape and size. It will shed light on the secrets behind the structure of barred, irregular, elliptical, and spiral galaxies.

Star Formation in Nebulae

Stars are usually created from a nebula, a region with high-density dust and gas particles. Huge streams of dust particles surround the baby stars, which blocks most of the normal visible light emitted. Fortunately, infrared from baby stars penetrate through the dust barrier. Therefore, powerful infrared observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope should be able to observe them.

Observing Exo-planets

Two of the central ambitions of JWST is to find the origin of Earth and how life evolved. Both are directly connected to the evolution of planets. One of the fundamental goals is to find the composition of particles around stars where planets are created. Hypersensitive observatories like the JWST will be able to capture infrared images of planets systems.

Search for alien life forms is one of its hidden missions. A thorough exploration of exo-planets will help understand how life could have evolved. JWST is powerful enough to examine comets and other cold bodies, which might hold clues to the origin of life.