SCIENCE Webb will be a hundred times more powerful than its famous predecessor …
The space telescope James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be 100 times more powerful than Hubble, it must be replaced in 2018, and will go back in time to the birth of the first galaxies.
“The Webb …. may be up to at least 300 million years after the Big Bang (which gave birth to our universe there is 13.8 billion years ie) when the first stars and galaxies arose, “said Mark Clampin, a team member astronomer Scientific telescope.
It will bring us more of the birth of the Universe Hubble, launched 25 years ago, April 24, 1990.
It may also see through clouds of gas and cosmic dust to penetrate the most distant and hidden places of the universe.
In search of extraterrestrial life
” The JWST – to be launched in 2018 – is a very big step forward compared to Hubble including a main mirror three times larger (6.5 meter diameter) and the ability to observe in the infrared ” to discern the most distant objects invisible today, he explains in an interview with AFP at the NASA Goddard Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington.
The Webb will see 70% more light than Hubble. According to the astronomer, “Webb could help make significant progress in the search for life in the universe because the telescope is powerful enough to detect bio-signatures in the atmosphere of these planets.” These are water and oxygen molecules and perhaps even pollution of extraterrestrial civilizations
To work perfectly in the infrared. – Invisible radiation whose color is below the red in the spectrum – the telescope must be maintained at very low temperature to less 223 degrees Celsius. So it is not blinded by its own infrared emissions.
required calm environment
“We concluded that we could not create such an environment in Earth orbit, the radiation of our planet is too strong, which led to the decision to place the Webb 1.5 million km from Earth on the Lagrange Point 2, a stable place in the opposite direction to the sun, “says the astronomer Matt Greenhouse.
The fact of being in this stable point away from Earth will make the Webb will run continuously which is essential for very long observations of distant objects also emit low radiation.
Weighing 6.4 tons and a cost of $ 8.8 billion, the Webb will be launched by an Ariane V rocket from the European Space Agency (ESA) from the center of Kourou in French Guiana French. ESA contributes to its development as the Canadian Space Agency.
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