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Ten Interesting Things about JWST

On 7th Nov 2022, I had the opportunity to attend a Dean's Lecture on James Webb Telescope at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA.

This was a lecture presented by a scientist who worked on the James Webb Space Telescope. He explained the different parts of the telescope, the launching and readying procedures. In this blog, I would like to highlight the 10 interesting things about the James Webb Telescope I learnt from this lecture.

10 Interesting Things

  1. JWST looks in the infrared spectrum, while Hubble looks at things in the visible spectrum.

  2. JWST looks in the infrared spectrum because, unlike visible light, infrared light is much harder to block, meaning there is more to see.

  3. JWST sits in a lagrange point (points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies.) Unlike JWST, most space telescopes are in an orbit around Earth.

  4. JWST has about 10 years worth of fuel for course corrections. This was originally expected to be about 5 years, but the launch went so well that the operation time doubled.

  5. The rocket that would take JWST to space, the Ariane 5 (Built by the ESA) did not have enough space in its fairing to fit the whole telescope inside. Thus, the telescope was built in such a way that it could be folded and put inside the rocket.

  6. JWST will be able to look back in time up to 13.6 billion years ago. This is around the time when the Universe started to look the way it looks today. Before then, it was all simply just plasma, with no empty spaces in between.

  7. JWST has 18 Beryllium mirrors with gold-plating on top. Beryllium was used as it is both strong and light, and gold is extremely reflective of both visible light and other forms of radiation, particularly in the infrared range.

  8. Each mirror will align itself with the other mirrors to get a perfect image.

  9. The gold itself is not directly exposed to space. It's coated in a thin layer of amorphous silicon dioxide glass. This is because gold is soft and malleable. This makes it highly susceptible to damage from even a mild or tiny impact.

  10. To operate successfully, JWST has to cool down to 7 degrees Kevin. That’s - 447.07 degrees Farenheit!

Summary

Click here if you are interested in learning more about JWST.