National Geographic
By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE Executive Editor
Impatient people should probably avoid careers in space exploration. I was in middle school when astronomers started talking about building a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. And I was a high school senior when the mission concept for the Next Generation Space Telescope—later renamed the James Webb Space Telescope—was first proposed. It’s been such a long and bumpy road for this mission that some people joke JWST really stands for the Just Wait Space Telescope.
Folded up to go in the rocket
But now, after 32 years, Hubble’s successor (pictured above) is at last poised to launch on its epic journey.
The telescope is currently slated to lift off from a spaceport in French Guiana no sooner than Saturday. From there it must journey roughly a million miles away, to a special region in space known as a Lagrange point. Here JWST can keep Earth and the sun constantly aligned from its perspective so that its giant sunshield can protect the telescope from their light and heat. JWST’s giant golden mirror can then collect faint whispers of infrared light from the depths of the universe, hopefully gathering clues to how the first stars and galaxies came to be.
Amazingly, there is a big benefit to the long wait. As our Nadia Drake reports, planets orbiting other stars were still entirely theoretical when JWST was designed. But in the years since, astronomers have found thousands of alien worlds orbiting other stars (an artist’s rendering, below)—including some that seem to be well suited for life as we know it.
As it turns out, this telescope’s infrared eye will be ideal for gathering information about exoplanet compositions and atmospheric contents, vital clues to their potential for hosting life. “How did these planets get to where they are today? How did they evolve? And what scenario could potentially lead to biosignatures—to life?” asks NASA’s Knicole Colón.
Even if the launch and deployment go smoothly, eager space fans will have a few months more to wait until astronomers can start trying to answer these questions. NASA and its partner space agencies will have to put the telescope through its paces, checking up on every instrument, before the real science can begin. Hopefully, everyone’s patience will be rewarded, though, and 2022 will be the start of a new golden age for cosmic discovery.
A full size model as it will be in space, the multi layer shields to shelter it from sun and earth's radiations.
By Victoria Jaggard, SCIENCE Executive Editor
Impatient people should probably avoid careers in space exploration. I was in middle school when astronomers started talking about building a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. And I was a high school senior when the mission concept for the Next Generation Space Telescope—later renamed the James Webb Space Telescope—was first proposed. It’s been such a long and bumpy road for this mission that some people joke JWST really stands for the Just Wait Space Telescope.
Folded up to go in the rocket
But now, after 32 years, Hubble’s successor (pictured above) is at last poised to launch on its epic journey.
The telescope is currently slated to lift off from a spaceport in French Guiana no sooner than Saturday. From there it must journey roughly a million miles away, to a special region in space known as a Lagrange point. Here JWST can keep Earth and the sun constantly aligned from its perspective so that its giant sunshield can protect the telescope from their light and heat. JWST’s giant golden mirror can then collect faint whispers of infrared light from the depths of the universe, hopefully gathering clues to how the first stars and galaxies came to be.
Amazingly, there is a big benefit to the long wait. As our Nadia Drake reports, planets orbiting other stars were still entirely theoretical when JWST was designed. But in the years since, astronomers have found thousands of alien worlds orbiting other stars (an artist’s rendering, below)—including some that seem to be well suited for life as we know it.
As it turns out, this telescope’s infrared eye will be ideal for gathering information about exoplanet compositions and atmospheric contents, vital clues to their potential for hosting life. “How did these planets get to where they are today? How did they evolve? And what scenario could potentially lead to biosignatures—to life?” asks NASA’s Knicole Colón.
Even if the launch and deployment go smoothly, eager space fans will have a few months more to wait until astronomers can start trying to answer these questions. NASA and its partner space agencies will have to put the telescope through its paces, checking up on every instrument, before the real science can begin. Hopefully, everyone’s patience will be rewarded, though, and 2022 will be the start of a new golden age for cosmic discovery.
A full size model as it will be in space, the multi layer shields to shelter it from sun and earth's radiations.
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