During Christmas Day, it is the departure of James Webb, the most expensive telescope ever built. Here you can follow the launch.
The James Webb Telescope was built to see the birth of the first stars and galaxies 13.5 billion years ago.
The telescope is launched from the Center Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. After several advances during the past month, the launch is planned for 13.20, Swedish time, Christmas Day 25 December 2021. An Ariane 5 rocket provided by the European Space Agency ESA will be used to launch Webb into space.
Here you can follow the entire launch:
What awaits after the launch, and in what way should Webb be able to look back in time?
Take a look at previous articles from Ny Teknik about James Webb.
Photo: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
29 days and 300 things that must not go wrong
The launch of Webb is only the first of a series of critical steps for the telescope to work. Webb will travel a full 1.5 million kilometers to a place called the second Lagrange point (L2).
The journey to L2 will take approximately 29 days during which there are over 300 things that can go wrong.
About 28 minutes after launch, the telescope is released from the rocket and sails into space alone. After about 31 minutes, the solar panels should fold out. After another hour and a half, the communication antenna folds out and after half a day the engine switches on and Webb starts moving towards L2.
Read Ny Teknik’s article here about the critical steps during the 29 days.
The James Webb Telescope will see the beginning of time
With its large gold-plated mirror and its infrared capacity, the telescope will examine the formation of the first galaxies.
To look back in time, Webb will measure light from celestial bodies far away in the universe. Light travels at about 300,000 km per second, but the light to be examined comes from celestial bodies so far away that it was still sent out several billion years ago.
What technology is Webb equipped with, and how does it work? How will Webb’s observations complement the Hubble Telescope?
Read more about it in Ny Teknik’s article here.
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