What Are the Capabilities of the Most Powerful Telescope Ever? JWST

in 2021 humanity will see 13 billion years into the past in a time machine has nothing to do with it what are the most expensive projects in the history of space exploration the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST or just Webb will help us see the universe as it was shortly after the Big Bang compared to its predecessor old man Hubble the Hubble Space Telescope it is what a digital microscope is - a magnifying glass so what amazing secrets will we discover with it and how might our ideas about the world radically change this project is by no means a brainchild of just the past few years for the past quarter century it's been nursed to life by experts from NASA Canada and Europe it was named after the second head of NASA James Webb James Webb headed the office of space Affairs from 1961 to 1968 and supervised the United States first manned launches into space the new telescope was first planned for launch into orbit in 2007 but has since been delayed more than once now it's been scheduled for late March 2021 on that date James Webb will join the Hubble to perform tasks including the creation of a 3d model of our universe after 2030 the Hubble will go on a well-deserved rest since its launch in 1990 it's provided more than a million images of thousands of stars nebulae planets and galaxies of these is the picture of the UDF J - three nine five four six two eight four galaxies located thirteen point four billion light-years from Earth that is the Hubble captured images of stars that's shown about 380 million years after the Big Bang which supposedly happened 13.7 billion years ago well these objects may no longer exist we still see their light some of the Hubble's images include stars up to ten light years away from us which we observe in their exact form from ten years ago now we expect James Webb to show us the universe as it was only 100 to 250 million years after its birth this will not only help scientists understand the processes that took place at that time but perhaps also transform our current understanding of the structure of the universe additionally the James Webb will be able to observe planets and their satellites found outside of our solar system and learn a lot about earth-like exoplanets for example we'll be able to determine their density and analyze the composition of their atmospheres in order to understand what type of object the planet is and whether there's life on it the Spitzer Space Telescope or SST and Hubble telescopes have collected data on the gas shells of about a hundred planets according to experts the James Webb is capable of exploring the atmospheres of more than 300 different exoplanets so how does it work the James Webb is an orbiting infrared Observatory that will investigate the thermal radiation of space objects remember all solids and liquids when heated to a certain temperature emit energy in the infrared spectrum here there's a relationship between wavelength and temperature the higher the temperature the shorter the wavelength and the higher the radiation intensity webs sensitive equipment will be able to study cold exoplanets with surface temperatures of up to 27 degrees Celsius or 80 point 6 Fahrenheit a drastic difference compared to the average surface temperature of our planet 15 degrees Celsius or 59 degrees Fahrenheit an important quality of this new telescope is that it will revolve around the Sun and not the earth unlike the Hubble which is located at an altitude of about five hundred and seventy kilometers or 354 miles in low-earth orbit with the James Webb orbiting the Sun it will be impossible for the earth to interfere with it however the James Webb will move in sync with the earth to maintain strong communication yet the distance from the James Webb to the earth will be between about three hundred and seventy four thousand to 1.5 million kilometers or between two hundred and thirty two thousand four hundred and nine hundred and thirty two thousand miles in the direction opposite of the Sun so the potential for breakdowns needed to be eliminated in other words the distance from the earth to the telescope will be almost four times the distance of the earth to the moon and as such its design must be extremely reliable however in this case reliable does not mean heavy the new telescope weighs 6.2 tons compared to the Hubble's 11 tonnes nonetheless the James Webb exceeds its predecessor in size it's link is that of a tennis court with a height of a three-story house while the Hubble is no larger than a bus the first piece worth noting is the main mirror of the telescope with a diameter of six and a half meters or 21.3 feet and a collecting area of 25 square meters that's 269 square feet it resembles a giant honeycomb consisting of 18 sections on the Hubble the Dyan the main ear is 2.4 meters or 7.87 feet almost three times smaller in size with an approximately seven times smaller surface area due to its impressive size the main mirror has to be folded for start-up this giant size will capture light from the most distant galaxies the mirror can create a clear picture and eliminate Distortion the first segment of the mirror was installed on the telescope only at the end of 2015 and wasn't completely assembled until February of 2016 a special type of beryllium was used which retains its shape at low cryogenic temperatures the front of the mirror is covered with a layer of 48.2 5 grams or 1.7 ounces of gold 100 nanometers thick such a coating best reflects infrared radiation a small secondary mirror called the secondary opposite the main mirror receives light from the main mirror and directs it to instruments at the rear of the telescope to improve quality to more curved mirrors collect the image from the surface of the main mirror yet the biggest element of the telescope is not the mirror but the sunshield resembling an enormous pie with a length of 20 meters or 65 point 6 feet and a width of 7 meters or 23 feet it's composed of five very thin layers of Kapton polyamide film this protects the mirror and tools from sunlight and cools the telescope's ultra sensitive matrices to minus 220 Celsius or minus 364 Fahrenheit otherwise the infrared glow of the telescope parts would interfere with the clarity of observation the shield should quickly within two weeks and smoothly expand and collapse thanks to its amazing thermal insulation you could fry pancake on one side while water instantly freezes on the other the third main part of the tow scope is the central computer which controls the operations of the Observatory vial in orbit still more scientific instruments will be helping the tow scope in its operations firstly the Newark am near-infrared camera is actually the main set of eyes of the telescope with the nur cam we expect to be able to view the oldest stars in the universe and the planets around them as well as create a map of dark matter secondly the nurse back near infrared spectrograph will collect information on both the physical and chemical properties of an object next the Miri mid infrared instrument will allow you to see stars being born many unknown objects of the Kuiper belt and as astronomers hope will help in the search for the mysterious ninth planet of the solar system fourth the near infrared imager and sleepless spectrograph or NIR ISS camera is aimed at finding exoplanets and the first light of distant objects finally the FG s or fine guidance sensor precision pointing sensor helps accurately point the telescope for higher quality images updates its position in space 16 times per second and controls the operation of the steering and main mirrors they're planning to launch the James Webb with the help of the European launch vehicle ariana 5 from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana epic Guiana Space Center if everything goes well ten billion dollars worth of construction and a half year of preparation will have finally started in orbit the device is designed for between five to ten years of operation may serve longer one may ask why not keep the James Webb on earth why do we need it in space the fact is that water vapor and other elements in the Earth's atmosphere absorb most of the cosmic radiation which interferes with ground-based telescopes this situation is further complicated by clouds in the Earth's atmosphere and noise and vibration on the Earth's surface none of these issues affect a telescope in space as such it can achieve a resolution many times higher than that of a telescope on earth so with the help of the James Webb what secrets of the universe would you like to explore if you like the video thumbs up subscribe to the channel click on the Bell to be notified of new videos and don't forget to recommend us to your friends

Channel: Ridddle

Views: 1,937,434

Keywords: Ridddle, riddle, what if, what, if, what would happened, What Happens If, sci, science, smart, experiment, Most Powerful Telescope, Telescope, James Webb

Id: 9dltpwxFKaA

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020