The James Webb Telescope will be one of the hardest technical mission NASA will ever
attempt. Despite the numerous delays, technical challenges, funding crisis and uncertainties
the Mighty James Webb Telescope is almost ready to launch. THe James Webb telescope is the most
powerful telescope ever built by humanity. It is all set to make a big splash in our observations
of the universe. After involving complex engineering processes and being delayed for almost
a decade now, James Webb is scheduled to launch this December. The Telescope’s cost has risen
over 9 billion dollars over budget. Scientists and lawmakers are already concerned about the
over-expenditure of funds which might affect other areas of research. But many other astronomers
and scientists think that Webb is worth the money and wait. But why is this telescope so important?
And what revolutions will it bring in our understanding of our universe? In this video Let's
take a look at 5 major revolutions that the James Webb Telescope will bring. So Make sure to watch
till the end and take the help of the timestamps to steer through different portions of the video.
Every decision, in astronomy and in life, has its own mix of advantages and disadvantages.
Setting up an observatory in orbit is costly, risky, and depends on a successful launch and
deployment: there are several single points of failure, and if anything terrible goes wrong,
the entire operation is a waste of time. However, if you are successful, you will be able to observe
in ways that no ground-based observatory can: without interference from the atmosphere, without
regard for day or night, without being affected by terrestrial light pollution, and over a range
of wavelengths that are severely limited on Earth. James Webb’s predecessor Hubble telescope
has been humanity’s best optical observatory but was limited in its infrared observations.
In terms of temperature, resolution, light-gathering power, and wavelength range,
it will be vastly outperformed by the future James Webb Space Telescope,
which will greatly advance the frontiers of knowledge.
The conception of James Webb is inspired by the Hubble Space telescope,
an observatory that has captured stunning images of the universe for 31 years now.
But Webb picks up where Hubble falls short, says Eric Smith,
Chief scientist of NASA's Astrophysics Division. So far, he claims, there is no telescope Webb.
The new observatory, which is set to launch from northern French Guiana near the equator,
is a collaborative project of the United States, Europe, and Canada. "When you see Webb fly into
space, it's the entire force of human invention and all kinds of disciplines pushing it there."
Whenever Astronomers get a new telescope it's like a kid in a candy store situation.
Let's take a look at 5 major cosmic records that James Webb will shatter!!
5-) Understanding the formation of galaxies in the early universe-
One of the big purposes of a telescope is to act as a time machine. Telescopes are the nearest time
machines that humanity can access. If an object is 10,000 light-years away, it takes 10,000
years for light to reach Earth. As a result, the further out in space astronomers gaze, the further
back in time we look. Engineers calibrated James Webb to detect the dim infrared light emitted
by the first stars or galaxies. When compared to the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb
Space Telescope's camera has a 15 times larger field of view, captures six times more light,
and its sensors are designed to be most sensitive to infrared radiation. This is a major achievement
as it will enable us to understand the dark ages of the universe and how early galaxies formed.
When we observe a faraway galaxy light years away, we are not viewing it in its most recent state.
Its distance in light years corresponds to the amount of time it takes for its light
to reach Earth. The closest galaxy to ours, for example, is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy,
which is 25,000 light-years away, implying that its light takes 25,000 years to reach Earth.
That implies we're seeing Canis Major Dwarf as it was 25,000 years ago when we gaze at it.
The deeper scientists can peer into space, the further back in time they can observe a galaxy.
Webb, being the farthest-seeing telescope yet,
can locate the youngest-looking galaxies that humanity has discovered.
To comprehend the formation of galaxies, scientists such as Eisenstein will examine
multiple galaxies at various phases of growth and piece together their evolutionary timeline.
The infrared capabilities of Webb are also critical for studying these galaxies.
The expanding cosmos will spread out light from distant galaxies. The light's original wavelength
will have altered from visible or ultraviolet to infrared by the time it reaches our telescopes.
Picking up infrared signals, fortunately, is exactly up Webb's alley. "This is the first
time we've had a huge, cold telescope in space capable of observing these infrared wavelengths,"
says Daniel Eisenstein, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The
Hubble Space Telescope captured the shortest wavelength infrared rays stretching from the
bluest brightness of distant galaxies. Spitzer, the retired infrared telescope, was significantly
smaller and couldn't see as far into space as Webb. Webb will hit it out of the park in terms
of how far into space—and how far back in time—it can observe faraway galaxies as they grow up.
4-) Detect possible chemical signatures of life on other planets
A second very important role James Webb will play is studying atmospheres of exoplanets.
With adequate light, powerful telescopes may use transit spectroscopy to measure the atmospheres
of exoplanets. Hubble can detect Saturn-like worlds orbiting Sun-like stars, but Webb will
detect mini-Neptunes orbiting Sun-like stars, as well as Earth-sized worlds orbiting red dwarfs.
If life exists beyond Earth, it will leave distinct chemical traces,
such as breathing carbon dioxide and photosynthesizing oxygen,
that can reshape a planet. Analyzing the molecules in a planet's atmosphere
will allow scientists to not only search for life, but also to assess a planet's habitability.
Webb can detect infrared wavelengths to fingerprint molecules like water and methane in
the atmospheres of exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. Webb is equipped with
two instruments that will allow scientists to decipher the wavelengths of infrared transmissions
from solar systems other than our own—to untangle the colours of the infrared rainbow, as it were.
When an exoplanet photobombs a star that our telescopes are looking at, the starlight
experiences a drop in energy that matches the molecules in the exoplanet's atmosphere.
By studying the blip in the starlight, Webb can chemically examine the atmosphere of the
star's planet if it happens to be staring at the right star at the right time.
However, humanity's comprehension of these exoplanets is limited to the fact that they
exist. Current technology, such as Hubble or on-Earth infrared telescopes, makes it difficult
to conduct infrared spectroscopy on new exoplanets of interest. Hubble, as comparison to Webb,
works with a significantly narrower band of infrared energy. Ground observatories are
covered in the Earth's atmosphere, which absorbs and scatters infrared radiation. The Earth also
generates infrared radiation that would drown out the feeble signals from the deep universe.
The Earth's atmosphere and heated radiating surface are out of the way in space,
where Webb will be, allowing for an uninterrupted view of the night sky.
3-) Watch the birth of the first stars
The initial stars should be made up entirely of hydrogen and helium,
as they have been since the Big Bang. Webb should be able to find absolutely pure stars thanks to
his ability to identify dim, distant objects at infrared wavelengths. The birthplaces of
stars are dusty. While they make for stunning photographs, the dust prevents scientists from
seeing deep into the heart of these clouds when viewed with visible light. Fortunately,
infrared light from stars may penetrate the dust and provide scientists with a completely
fresh perspective on an old problem. Red light can pass through the dust in earth’s atmosphere
much better than the Blue light. It is for the same reason that infrared light can penetrate
even further through dusty galaxies and provide a much comprehensive understanding about them.
Hubble's restricted infrared capabilities just scraped the surface of star formation research;
Webb's wider infrared range will allow scientists to peek deeper into the dust.
Young stars arise from the dustiest crevices where it's most difficult to look through. Scientists
may be able to sift through the dust and make out these baby stars with unparalleled detail
thanks to Webb's great infrared sensitivity and remarkable resolution. Webb might also
help scientists understand how dust cooks up a star, why stars develop in clusters,
and how planets form around a star. 2-) How Black holes were formed
Nothing can escape a black hole, not even light, hence black holes are technically invisible.
Fortunately, there is plenty of visible matter moving around black holes, including stars,
dust, and entire galaxies. Scientists investigate this stellar menagerie to learn about its
shadow-casting object, same to how a shadow is studied to learn about its shadow-casting object.
In the past, scientists employed X-ray telescopes to explore specific aspects of black hole physics.
These telescopes study processes that are millions of degrees hot and create X-rays,
such as the violent shredding of stars that travel too close to a black hole.
Webb's infrared instruments will help scientists to view what's going on in the shadow of a black
hole, notably the colder gases and stars that dance around their invisible buddy.
It's a dusty location where stars congregate;
happily, Webb's infrared vision will allow scientists to see past the dusty veil
and see through it all. Webb will offer crucial information about the temperatures, speeds,
and chemical compositions of black hole stellar cloaks. Scientists may use this information to
understand more about the black hole's mass and size, as well as how it feeds on stars.
1-) Understanding The ‘Dark Ages’ of the universe An important key to understanding the early
events in the universe are the relics they left behind. One of them is the sea of electromagnetic
radiation coming from every direction in the sky. This radiation was released around
400,00 years after the Big bang when the first atoms formed and the universe was much hotter,
this radiation cooled over time to microwave wavelength and is known as the cosmic microwave
background radiation. When the universe cooled about 400,000 years after the Big Bang,
the first atoms, neutral hydrogen, released their photons in a burst of electromagnetic radiation
that scientists can still see today. This cosmic microwave background, or CMB, was first detected
in 1964. Today we use complex tools like the European space agency’s Planck probe in order to
detect minute fluctuations which create a snapshot view of the distribution of matter and energy in
the young universe. Astronomers can fast forward about a hundred million years to study much of
the roughly 13 Billion years since the formation of the first stars, also known as “cosmic Dawn”,
thanks to Hubble and soon the upgraded James Webb. The data gleaned from starlight by telescopes
like Hubble allow us to see so far that we are literally looking into the relics of the past.
Before the stars started burning and after the Big bang faded into the CMB,
there was a period when almost no light was being emitted in the entire universe.
Scientists call this period without infrared or visible light as the ‘Cosmic Dark Ages’.
Webb's infrared instruments will help scientists to view what's going on in the shadow of a black
hole, notably the colder gases and stars that dance around their invisible buddy.
It's a dusty location where stars congregate; happily, Webb's infrared vision will allow
scientists to see past the dusty veil and see through it all. Webb will offer crucial
information about the temperatures, speeds, and chemical compositions of black hole stellar
cloaks. Scientists may use this information to understand more about the black hole's mass and
size, as well as how it feeds on stars. Because the soup of the Dark Ages was not totally uniform,
little regions of gas began to clump together and become more dense due to gravity.
The smooth universe became lumpy, and these little clumps of denser gas
became the seeds that eventually formed stars, galaxies, and everything else in the universe.
Because the soup of the Dark Ages was not totally uniform, little regions of gas began
to clump together and become more dense due to gravity. The smooth universe became lumpy,
and these little clumps of denser gas became the seeds that eventually formed stars, galaxies,
and everything else in the universe. A lot of enthusiasts and scientists have their fingers
crossed for the James Webb launch. A lot is at stake here!! So what do you think the Revolutions
James Webb telescope will bring? How significant will those be? Let us know what you think in the
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