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Fascinating Facts About the James Webb Space Telescope
Launched in October 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope took over Hubble as mankind’s next-generation eyes into the universe.
Using state-of-the-art instruments and doubling Hubble’s size, James Webb will unlock some of our universe’s biggest secrets.
Without further ado, here are the top 5 amazing James Webb Space Telescope facts:
#1 The Biggest Space Telescope in History
Launching in 1990, Hubble Space Telescope was the largest space telescope in history.
However, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took over this record in 2018. At the size of a typical school bus, Hubble will be dwarfed by JWST’s tennis court size.
Not to mention, JWST’s 21.3-foot-wide primary mirror will collect tremendously higher amounts of light than Hubble’s 7.9-foot primary mirror.
#2 A Golf-Ball-Sized Amount of Gold Coats Jwst’s Mirrors
JWST will observe some of the universe’s most distant objects.
As a result, in its more than 13-billion-mile journey, object’s light becomes heavily shifted toward the red side of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Therefore, JWST’s primary mirrors are plated in 24-karat gold.
Simply put, gold reflects red light better than nearly any other metal.
Ultimately, this allows JWST’s mirrors to be 98% reflective, compared to the typical 85% reflectiveness of standard mirrors.
Fun fact: Gold layers plating the scope’s mirrors are only 1,000 atoms thick. Indeed, only a golf-ball-sized amount of gold was used to coat the entire 21-foot-wide mirror.
#3 Unlike Hubble, JWST Will Not Be Serviceable During Its Mission
In order to either upgrade or repair Hubble throughout its nearly 20-year stint, several manned missions visited the telescope in space to carry out operations.
However, Hubble orbits Earth at a measly 340 miles away. In comparison, JWST will orbit at just under 1 million miles out (940,000).
As a result, no missions are currently planned to perform any service or repair operations on the telescope.
Fun fact: JWST will be four times farther from Earth than our Moon!
#4 JWST Can Clearly See a Single Penny 24 Miles Away
Sharpness of vision, or angular resolution, is everything for space telescopes. And, JWST is no slouch in that department.
In fact, the telescope could clearly see a US penny from around 24 miles away.
Put another way, JWST could clearly resolve a football from around 340 miles away.
#5 JWST Will Be Able To Detect Water on Exoplanets
Today, we discover planets orbiting other stars by monitoring slight dips in the star’s light as the planets pass in front of them.
Furthermore, we can read unique signatures in the light, telling us a planet’s chemical composition.
Finally, the strongest and most readable signatures occur within the infrared spectrum.
And as always have a chilled day from the Viking
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