Astronomers eye the launch of most complex telescope ever

There is a great gift for astronomers that you won't find under any Christmas tree.

What you need to know

• The James Webb Space Telescope will launch on December 22nd


• It is the most complex telescope ever built, with the largest mirror that has ever flown into space


• After launch, it will take Webb 29 days to reach a 1 million miles orbit around the earth


• Astronomers hope to answer questions about the origin of the universe and the birth of galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most complex telescope ever built, is scheduled to launch on December 22nd.

Webb is the scientific successor to the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, each of which is essentially a giant time machine that looks into the past by collecting light from millions of years ago as it travels to Earth from around the universe.

"We can look very far back into the universe, but not quite back to the time when we believe that the first galaxies originally formed," says Dr. Steven Finkelstein, Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin.

This is where astronomers expect Webb to shine.

Its mirror, over 21 feet in diameter, will be the largest to have ever flown into space. It will be able to see galaxies much fainter than ever before.

(NASA / Desiree Stover)

Finkelstein heads one of two teams at UT Austin who have more access to the Webb telescope than any other astronomer in their first year of operation. He plans to spend 100 hours of scope time on a project called WDEEP, the Webb Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Survey.

"This will answer a variety of longstanding questions we have about galaxies in our universe, the origin of the universe itself, planets and stars in our galaxy, and possibly clues about the atmospheres of planets around other stars."

Unlike Hubble, which sees in the visible part of the light spectrum, sensors on board the Webb telescope see infrared light, which astronomers say is key to uncovering distant parts of the universe.

“All the galaxies in the universe are moving away from us as the universe expands. The further away a galaxy is, the faster it moves away from us and the more redshifted its light becomes, ”says Finkelstein. "Infrared light also lets you see into dusty, dense gas clouds in our galaxy, in which new stars and planets are forming."

Starting the telescope is just one of many steps to achieve this goal.

NASA says it will take 29 days for Webb to reach its final destination nearly 1 million miles from Earth. That is about four times the distance of the moon.

Because the telescope is so big, about the size of a tennis court, Webb had to be folded into its launcher like a piece of techno-origami and therefore has to unfold and unfold carefully for two weeks. NASA calls it the most difficult and complex deployment sequence ever attempted in space.

And unlike Hubble, Webb will be too far away for astronauts to help if something goes wrong. Hence, executing this sequence must be perfect the first time.

“It's very tense for me, almost surreal. We have waited so long for this. Since so many things can go wrong, a lot of time has been put into testing. Whenever there were concerns, they stopped the project to fix the problem, ”says Finkelstein.

Webb is long overdue and well over budget. For nearly two decades, Webb has been in development at a cost of nearly $ 10 billion. Science doesn't come cheap.

The telescope's 18 gold-plated hexagonal mirrors are stronger than steel but lighter than aluminum, and extend and align to create a very large mirror.

In order to protect the space telescope from light pollution from the earth, moon and sun, a large, diamond-shaped, five-layer shield must also extend.

(NASA)

"It's a bit scary, but above all exciting," says Finkelstein. “Every time you look at the sky from a new perspective, as we are about to do with this telescope, you discover new things to question that you didn't even know how to ask before. The most exciting are the questions that we don't even have. "

If everything goes according to plan, Webb will make its first observations about six months after launch, according to NASA.

Fingers crossed.

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