The American Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the James Webb space telescope, which it has been working on for many years with many countries for the discovery of the universe, with the Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25, 2021. had thrown. On January 24, it reached the Langrange-2 (L2) point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, where it would work for 10 years.
All mirrors out of focus and half way past
NASA released a text today about the James Webb Space telescope. According to the published text, the James Webb Space Telescope has passed a critical stage. The telescope’s primary mirror, which consists of 18 separate sections, has now started to align so that a star appears as a single object.
Although it’s still quite a long time before it’s fully in working position, an important threshold has already been crossed in the important auto-setup. The scientists responsible for the project say that this stage is very important for the next function of the telescope. However, we have quite a long time ahead of us for millimetric adjustments.
Structure of the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope was produced in the form of a giant eye 6.5 meters in diameter with 18 hexagonal mirrors. These mirrors allow the telescope to capture light, namely infrared. At the bottom, there are 5 large layers, the size of a basketball court, for protection from the sun. These shields are very thin and will provide an environment close to absolute zero (-273.15 degrees), which allows the telescope to work. To elaborate, the temperature to which the outermost exposure will be exposed will be 110 degrees Celsius, while the temperature in the layer where the telescope is located will reach minus 267 degrees.
Comparison with James Webb’s Hubble Telescope
Hubble, the architect of all the information Earth knows about the universe, is only 500 kilometers from Earth. Webb, on the other hand, was located at the second Lagrange point, one and a half million kilometers from Earth. James Webb is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Telescope. In addition, in another sense, it will be able to see 13.5 billion light years ago by traveling in time.
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