All About The JWST

Space telescopes are one of the greatest achievements in the field of cosmology. Space telescopes don't have to deal with the lensing effect that Earth-based telescopes have to deal with. The farthest space telescope in orbit currently is the Hubble Space Telescope. Although it is a great achievement for mankind and has led to many new discoveries about the universe, it has its limits. The biggest limiter that the Hubble Telescope has is its location, which is in low-earth orbit. Although atmospheric lensing is reduced, it still affects what the Hubble telescope can find. To get more information NASA has launched the James Webb Telescope, which is meant to go farther into space.

The James Webb telescope is half the size of the Hubble telescope and will be 1.5 million km away from Earth. Which is much farther than the Hubble telescope. It has 18 primary mirror segments and can operate at temperatures of down to -233 °C.

Additionally, the James Webb telescope is an infrared telescope similar to the Hubble telescope. But unlike the Hubble telescope, it will be equipped with modern technology that can pick up on longer wavelengths and create more detailed images of celestial bodies. The wavelength coverage will be 0.6 - 28.5 microns.

To complete its task the James Webb telescope has a specific design. The telescope is made out of Beryllium and coated with an extremely thin layer of gold. In fact, the thickness of this coating is 1,000 angstroms.

The goal of the James Webb telescope is to detect electromagnetic radiation from galaxies that were formed shortly after the big bang. Learning about these galaxies will confirm some of our theories about the evolution of the universe while creating new theories. Considering the Hubble Telescope has tens of thousands of peer-reviewed articles based on the data it collected. It should be expected that the James Webb telescope has a similar- if not a greater impact on science as a whole.

It truly is a remarkable feat of science!