The James Webb Space Telescope – Hubble's successor successfully launched – Live

Prof. Omri Wendel of the Rakach Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University writes ahead of the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope about the discoveries that the new telescope will allow

14:23 The launch took place as planned – and so far NASA reports that everything is going smoothly.

14:39 The Aryan 5 Launcher with the James Webb Space Telescope orbiting the atmosphere.

Original information

Today, Saturday, 25.12.21 at 14: 20 (Israel time), the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched, the successor of the Hubble Telescope and a new generation of space telescopes, designed to provide answers to the most intriguing questions in astronomy and astrophysics – the formation of the first galaxies, the birth of stars, the study of the properties of planets in distant solar systems and whether there is life in them.

More and more we hear about the race to land a man on Mars, and in the near future NASA is planning The return of astronauts to the moon (Artemis program). In a few days, however, an unmanned launch is planned that will cause great excitement among astronomers. , Made by satellite telescopes like Space Telescope Hubble Observing the universe for thirty years in visible light, Spitzer In an infrared light, Chandra in Karni X, Planck In micro-radiation, Kepler To discover alien planets and many more, each of which has revolutionized our understanding of the universe.

on December 25th 2021 James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be launched. . Unlike its predecessor, which orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 600 km, James Webb will be placed at a distance of 1.5 million km, four times the distance to the moon, in a place called “Lange Grunge Point”. Its mirror diameter is 6.5 meters, almost 3 times that of Hubble, and its light-collecting capacity will be 7 times greater. Furthermore, its instrumentation is much more advanced than that of Hubble . These features will allow unprecedented observations beyond the reach of humanity , such as the first stars and earliest galaxies formed in a relatively short time (about half a billion years) after the Big Bang and a careful examination of the atmospheres. Of extraterrestrial planets, to try and detect gases in them that may indicate the evolution of life, such as water vapor, oxygen and methane. James Webb’s remote location isolates it from the radiation that the Earth distributes and improves its sensitivity, but on the other hand makes it inaccessible to manned missions of repair and maintenance, as it was mourning , to which five such missions were sent. Hence the systems of James Webb, which are much more complex than those of Hubble

The reason space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency invest huge capital to send telescopes into orbit around the Earth is that telescopes built on Earth are limited by the atmosphere Although the atmosphere is seemingly transparent in visible light, the light rays are affected and shifted during transit, and the air currents cause the starlight to flicker. There are fewer layers of air above them. The images of the Space Telescope From images of much larger telescopes placed on Earth, in addition, visible light is just one of the types of radiation emitted by stars and galaxies – other types of radiation, such as ultraviolet (UV). , X-rays and gamma rays are absorbed (fortunately) in the atmosphere, so to view them we must send the intended telescopes to receive them beyond the atmosphere.

The Space Telescope Hubble , which was launched in 1990, is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who discovered (before About ninety years) because the universe is expanding, a discovery that caused Einstein to change the equations of relativity. , On Earth or in space. It has a 2.4 m diameter mirror, and is visible and infrared (IR. Its most notable achievements were the discovery of the acceleration of the universe and the dark energy, for which it was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2011, the age of the universe, galaxy evolution, planetary detection in other solar systems). The composition of their atmospheres, massive black holes in the centers of galaxies, collisions of galaxies, the formation and death of stars, a comet collision with the planet Jupiter and more.

Telescope Hubble brought us some of the most beautiful and special images of the universe in visible light, however as mentioned there are types of radiation Others, very different, which we are not able to see at all from the Earth, because the atmosphere swallows them at high altitudes. To get a complete picture of the universe, it is important to study it using these types of radiation. Around the globe, like Hubble, or even to much more distant orbits. Gamma-ray monkeys, such as Compton, INTEGRAL, and Fermi. The cosmic background radiation discovered in 1965 and winning its discoverers the Nobel Prize is in fact the most convincing proof of the Big Bang theory, which says that the universe was created about 14 billion years ago in a huge explosion and has continued to spread ever since. However, most of this radiation is concentrated in microwaves, which do not penetrate through the atmosphere and should therefore be studied with satellite telescopes. Three such telescopes were launched in 1990-2010, COBE, WMax and Plank, and revolutionized our understanding of the universe and its properties.

The other family is telescopes Satellites designed for its age are extraterrestrial planets orbiting other suns. In these worlds there may be life and even cultures. The most famous of which are the Kepler Telescope, which was launched in 2009 and within five years discovered over 4000 extraterrestrial planets, 10 times what was known before it, and its successor TESS, which was launched in 2018 and continues the mission.

Today man has come to a deep understanding of the universe, thanks to telescopes sent into space following that Sputnik, and is on the verge of an equally fascinating period, in which perhaps the most sophisticated satellite telescope of all His predecessors, for further discoveries and above all the answer to the question of whether there is life outside the Earth.

The author is Prof. Omri Wendel From the Spice Institute of Physics at the University.

More on the subject on the Scientist website:

NASA’s James Webb Telescope will study the beginnings of our solar system The Next Thing in Astronomy – Part 1: James Webb Telescope Six silk A space death worth waiting for in 2021
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