After many delays, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally been launched into space! Now working its way to its final destination, deploying mirrors and essential components on the way, the James Webb Space Telescope begins its long and lonely journey into space.
The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s new and much improved space observatory has several goals in mind for its trip into space. Not only will it be used to deepen our understanding of the Milky Way but also far-away exoplanets, celestial objects and locate evidence of dark matter.
But what is the timeline of the JWST, how does it differ from the Hubble and who is James Webb, the man the telescope is named after? We’ve answered these questions and more below.
When will the James Webb Space Telescope launch?
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The telescope was launched into space on the 24th December 2021 – a nice Christmas Eve surprise for any fans of space! If you were too busy opening presents and enjoying a Christmas dinner to watch, you can view the launch on the JWST YouTube channel.
While the telescope has now officially launched, it saw a huge number of delays to get to this point. The observatory was originally expected to launch back in 2007. Since then, it has experienced over 16 launch delays with the pandemic extending the date way past the last expected date of March 2021.
The telescope was launched on the Ariane 5 rocket. This is a specialised rocket which is designed to take satellites and other payloads into transfer or low-Earth orbit.
Who is James Webb?
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You might be thinking, who gets the honour of having such a historic telescope named after them? Well, that title goes to James Edwin Webb, the second administrator of NASA, best known for heading up Apollo – the first space programme to send humans to the Moon.
He was also instrumental in the two crewed space programmes that followed on from Apollo: Mercury and Gemini. While Webb did eventually die in 1992, aged 85, he left a massive legacy behind, deserving of a telescope named after him.
“It is fitting that Hubble’s successor be named in honour of James Webb. Thanks to his efforts, we got our first glimpses at the dramatic landscape of outer space,” said former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe about the observatory’s name. “He took our nation on its first voyages of exploration, turning our imagination into reality.”
The telescope hasn’t always been named after Webb. It started its life being known as the Next Generation Space Telescope which, realistically, isn’t the most imaginative name we’ve ever heard!
What will the telescope do after its launch?
For a long time, all of the attention was on the launch of the telescope but now that is out of the way, we can look at what its timeline will look like. Luckily, NASA has given a full break-down of the telescope’s official timeline.
In the first month, the satellite will start to deploy its many components. In this stage, the telescope and instruments will rapidly cool thanks to the sunshield but it takes weeks for them to cool to stable temperatures. At this stage, mirrors will be deployed and tests will be made to be sure they move.
For the next couple of months after this, the satellite will begin its tests. Using the Fine Guidance Sensor, the JWST will be pointed at a bright star to demonstrate it can acquire and lock onto targets. Then, the long process of aligning the telescope optics begins.
After this, calibrations will be made on all of the scientific instrument’s different modes of operation. In this stage, observations will commence, tracking moving targets like asteroids, comets, moons and planets in our own solar system. From this point onwards, Webb will begin its science mission, conducting routine science missions and reporting back information.
Where is the James Webb telescope now?
While the easy answer would be to say simply moving through space, NASA is allowing everyone to keep up with the telescope’s exact movements. On the JWST section of the NASA website, you can see the exact distance from earth, how much distance has been completed, what stage they are on and more.
How big is the James Webb Space Telescope?
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Billed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST is the largest space observatory ever built. Its gigantic sunshield base measures a massive 22m by 12m, roughly the same size as a tennis court.
Although nearly twice as big as Hubble (which is only 13m long), the JWST is almost half the weight at 6,500kg.
The JWST’s gold-plated mirrors have a total diameter of 6.5m, much larger than Hubble’s 2.4m diameter plate. Overall, the JWST will have approximately a 15 times wider view than Hubble.
How far can the James Webb Space Telescope see?
Using its infra-red telescope, the JWST observatory will examine objects over 13.6 billion light-years away.
Because of the time it takes light to travel across the Universe, this means that the JWST will effectively be looking at objects 13.6 billion years ago, an estimated 100 to 250 million years after the Big Bang. This is the furthest back in time ever observed by humanity.
Where will the James Webb Space Telescope orbit?
After launching into space, the JWST will orbit the Sun, flying up to 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in temperatures reaching -223°C.
For comparison, the Moon is 384,400km away, while the Hubble Space Telescope flies only 570km above our planet. As the JWST will operate so far away from Earth, it will not be able to be serviced by astronauts if any faults arise.
What is the James Webb Space Telescope’s mission?
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As the JWST is a product of an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), it has many mission goals.
These include:
- Examine the first light in the Universe and the celestial objects which formed shortly after the Big Bang.
- Investigate how galaxies form and evolve.
- Study the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
- Capture images of planets in our own solar system.
- Locate evidence of dark matter.
The JWST is expected to operate for five years after its launch. However, NASA hopes the observatory will last longer than 10 years.
Unfortunately, the observatory won’t be able to operate forever: although mostly solar-powered, the JWST needs a small amount of finite fuel to maintain its orbit and instruments.
How is the James Webb Space Telescope different to Hubble?
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The James Webb is seen in many ways as an improved successor to the Hubble telescope which was launched way back in 1990. But are they similar or are these two telescopes drastically different?
Firstly, both telescopes see light in different ways. The Hubble’s main focus is on both visible and ultraviolet light. While it can observe a very tiny portion of the infrared spectrum, it is nowhere near the extent to which the JWST can.
The JWST is specifically designed to focus on the infrared spectrum. It can’t see in ultraviolet light like the Hubble but it will be able to focus on bright objects like very distant galaxies.
The James Webb Telescope is also much larger than the Hubble, mostly due to its large sunshield. This is used on all space telescopes but is especially important with the James Webb due to its infrared cameras. If it isn’t kept cool, it could risk blinding itself to the lights of objects it is trying to observe.
One other key difference between the two satellites is the distance that they will be kept. The Hubble telescope orbited above Earth’s atmosphere but was near enough to be approached if repairs needed to be done.
The JWST on the other hand will be far away, around 1.5 million kilometres away! That’s both further than any human has ever travelled and too far for anyone to ever go repair the satellite if something goes wrong.
It will be this far out for a few reasons. It will be in a place where the gravity of the Sun and Earth work together to help keep the satellite in place, plus it will be far away from the reflected radiation of the Earth, helping keep it cool.