THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL SPACE TELESCOPE

“Don’t think about JWST as a space telescope—it is a space-time telescope,”

Mark Mccaughrean

NASA launched the world’s most powerful space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) on 25th December, 2021 with the help of Ariane 5 rocket. Webb is currently at its observing spot, Lagrange point 2 (L2), nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km). It is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. The Telescope has been named after James Webb, NASA administrator during most of the 1960s. JWST has begun to open its science instruments on 28th January, 2022.

At six tons, JWST is half the mass of the Hubble Space Telescope despite having a primary mirror that’s more than twice as large. Engineers built that mirror out of beryllium, a relatively rare metal that’s lighter than aluminium but stronger than steel. They sculpted, smoothed, and pressed the metal into 18 hexagonal segments, and then dusted the honeycomb mirror with gold to help it reflect as much infrared light as possible.

JWST is a telescope that studies the cosmos by gathering light and splitting it into colours, a technique known as transmission spectroscope. The spectra of light tell us about the composition of various molecules like hydrogen, nitrogen, water vapour, ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide. This would also enable scientist to understand and conclude which galaxies came first.

JWST revolutionary technology will study every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.

By Gajera International School, Utran

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