A new era is beginning in the history of space exploration. The most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, was launched on December 25, 2021. This telescope will try to see what is farthest from the universe and what is happening there. After 30 years of effort, it has cost a billion dollars to build this telescope. Using this device, it will be possible to take pictures of 1.35 billion years ago. That is why this space telescope is called time machine. Today we will talk about the James Webb Space Telescope.
The scientist Galileo was the first to change the way people think about the universe by observing the sky with a telescope. Since then, for more than 400 years, scientists and astronomers have sought to gain a clearer understanding of the entire universe. But due to the limitations of the telescopes installed on the earth, they could not provide enough information. So scientists felt the need to place a telescope in outer space. The first space telescope was sent out of Earth on April 24, 1990, called the Hubble Space Telescope. The study and history of astronomy has changed completely since the telescope began working in space. Hubble's successor is the current James Webb Space Telescope. It is a hundred times more powerful than Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope has been named after NASA's second director, James E. Webb. He led the Apollo expedition that allowed people to set foot on the moon. This highly sensitive device has been built with the joint efforts of the European, Canadian and American Space Research Organization. In addition, more than 300 universities, organizations and companies from 14 countries have directly participated in the implementation of this project.
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| james webb space telescope |
The James Webb Telescope has been launched into space from the French Guiana space station via the Aryan Five rocket. The telescope will be placed in orbit 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth. The temperature in space so far from Earth is minus 233 degrees Celsius. This extremely cool temperature will provide a suitable environment for taking pictures of James Webb. The purpose of sending it so far from Earth is to keep the telescope equipment cool. When the telescope travels around the earth, its equipment may overheat due to the heat reflected from the earth, which will cause problems in accurate measurement of the instrument. These telescopes will be used to observe distant objects in the universe. The James Webb Telescope will collect the light scattered during the creation of the universe through the Big Bang and take pictures. This space telescope will not only look for the past, it will bring the past before our eyes. That is why it is called time machine. James Webb's two main scientific goals are to observe the birth and evolution of galaxies and the mysteries of the creation of planets. If this information can be collected, it will open the door for numerous studies in astronomy and cosmology. This telescope will try to see what is farthest from the universe and what is happening there. Another goal of James Webb is to observe the environment of distant planets, by which it will be possible to guess whether they have an animal-like environment. In addition, more perfect and close-up images of other planets in our solar system will be taken through the James Telescope, which will allow us to know more about other planets in the solar system.
The main feature of the James Webb Space Telescope is its huge reflecting mirror which is about twenty one and a half feet wide. This huge mirror is a combination of 16 hexagonal mirrors. These mirrors are made of gold coated beryllium metal. The telescope is so large that people have not yet discovered how to send this huge object directly into space, so the telescope has been specially designed. The twenty-one-and-a-half-foot-wide telescope was built to fit inside a seventeen-and-a-half-foot rocket, making it suitable for folding. Even then, the world's largest rocket has been used to send it into space. The European Space Agency's Aryan Five is one of the most powerful rockets in the world today. The biggest challenge of this mission is to go into space to fold it and send it back to form. It will take about two weeks to unfold the telescope. Fifty mechanisms must be fully expanded through 18 release mechanisms. If any one thing does not work in this step, the whole device becomes meaningless. This telescope has more than 300 destroyers and all of them have to work properly. During the launch of the spacecraft, a lot of it could be lost due to the strong shaking of the rocket. The telescope could not be sent into space several times in the past, even though its launch date had been fixed because some things inside the instrument broke after folding. It took four years to fix each issue. Thus the launch of the device is almost twelve years behind schedule. The James Webb Telescope is the most complex and sensitive of all the spacecraft ever built. After going into space, it will take a few months for the device to become fully operational. The idea is to wait about six months to get the first picture from this device.
Although the James Webb Space Telescope is said to be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the two telescopes are completely different. Many scientists consider the discovery of the Hubble Space Telescope to be more important and groundbreaking than the landing of man on the moon. On May 20, 1990, the Hubble Telescope sent its first image to Earth. This image from the Hubble Telescope captures 5,000 galaxies about 13.2 billion light-years from Earth. Scientists want to see the end of the universe with the James Webb Telescope. The most important difference between the Hubble Space Telescope is that the mirrors of the Hubble Space Telescope were about seven and a half feet long and the mirrors of the James Webb Telescope were about twenty one and a half feet long. Hubble requires a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius to operate and James will operate at temperatures below minus 230 degrees Celsius. The Hubble Telescope weighed 7200 kg and the James Telescope weighed 12200 kg. After the launch of the Hubble Telescope into space, the device was expected to be operational for fifteen years. But with the instrument being repaired and updated five times, the telescope is still working, almost 32 years after the possible expiration date. The James Webb Telescope is expected to be used in space exploration for the next five to ten years. However, after the telescope is sent into space, there is no chance to change or repair it. Because it is not possible for anyone to fix these instruments so far from the earth.