EFE. – A time machine, a brilliant engineering feat or a decade launch are some of the comments I’ve heard about James Webb, the biggest telescope not sent to Void. Everything is ready in Kourou, French Guiana, to take off in the wee hours of Christmas Day.
After several delays, you have release in a Ariane 5 . missile The time is 12:20 GMT (6:20 hours CMT), with a window of 32 minutes to implement. the James Webb, cooperation between US space agencies (NASA), From Europe (who – which) and based on Canada (CSA), you will travel until you are 1.5 million km away the earth, about four times further than Luna.
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the telescope He will give an unprecedented show to being In the near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths, which will allow scientists to study a variety of celestial bodies, the ability to look, so to speak, “in the past” of more than 13.5 billion years to see the first galaxies who were born after him the great explosion.
But for this, in addition to detaching from the rocket at 27 minutes and 11 seconds, the James Webb He will have to go on a long journey and overcome a series of critical stages in the next month. the telescope It is so large that it is folded in origami style to fit Rocket From Arianespace And once in Void It will unfold like a transformer game.
Among the other steps, you will need to open your canopy (the size of a tennis court), then the primary mirror, which is 6.5 meters long, through which you can detect the dim light stars s galaxies away with a sensitivity that is a hundred times greater than that of Hubble telescope, informs NASA.
All this in the first 29 days, but engineers will spend at least six months to calibrate the devices so that telescope Get ready to take amazing photos of Science.
the James Webb, which will face extremely low temperatures (about -230 degrees Celsius), will operate for at least five years, although it is planned to last a decade.
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It is designed to extend the scientific successes of Hubble. between the two telescopes It’s been over 30 years and it’s technologically very diverse: the size of the primary mirror (6.5 meters compared to Hubble’s 2.4 meters) and its ability to see infrared light (invisible to the human eye) are the main differences.
Thanks to this, the James Webb You will be able to “look back in time” and observe the first stars which was present in being How early and first galaxies behind the the great explosion and its development in addition to planets of our solar system and those orbiting other stars.
For this purpose, four modern scientific instruments have been included that will provide the data needed to analyze the materials that make up stars, nebulae, galaxies, and the atmospheres of planets, he explains. who – which.
The telescope will be ready Astronomy scientists s astrophysicists From around the world, in hitherto impossible ways, from the capabilities needed to expand the frontiers of knowledge around us Solar System and galaxies. You never looked at being With those eyes, this look can be both a milestone and a surprise.
As Stefan Israel, CEO of Arianespace, the rocket operator, said, “This is the launch of the contract.”
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