James Webb space telescope

James Webb space telescope

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Concept :

• NASA released an image obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth, as the U.S. space agency marked one year since it unveiled the telescope’s first scientific results.
• The Webb telescope, which was launched in 2021 and began collecting data last year, has reshaped the understanding of the early universe while taking stunning pictures of the cosmos.
• The Rho Ophiuchi image was an example of that, showing a nebula – a humongous cloud of interstellar gas and dust that serves as a nursery for new stars – located in our Milky Way galaxy roughly 390 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
• Rho Ophiuchi is only about a million years old, a blink of the eye in cosmic time.

James Webb space telescope

• JWST will study various phases in the history of the universe, from the formation of solar systems to the evolution of our own Solar System.
• The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity.
• Webb will be the premier space observatory for astronomers worldwide, extending the.tantalizing discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.
• The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or “Webb”) is a joint NASA–ESA–CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission
• The JWST will provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies.
• Unlike the Hubble telescope, which observes in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared (0.1 to 1 μm) spectra, the JWST will observe in a lower frequency range, from long-wavelength visible light through mid-infrared (0.6 to 28.3 μm), which will allow it to observe high redshift objects that are too old and too distant for Hubble to observe
• The telescope must be kept very cold in order to observe in the infrared without interference, so it will be deployed in space near the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point,
• The JWST is being developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the development effort, and the Space Telescope Science Institute will operate Webb after launch
• It is named for James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and played an integral role in the Apollo program.