The next most exciting endeavor for humanity after Hubble & Gaia Telescopes... is the James Webb Space Telescope!

in space •  7 years ago 

The next most exciting endeavor for humanity after Hubble & Gaia Telescopes... is the:

James Webb Space Telescope!

On the left is the hubble mirror, on the right is the new configuration for JWST
e7a227f6-9c17-4341-aae1-9715df096fa5.jpg

18 Hexagonal Mirrors

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is planned to be the Hubble Space Telescope successor. The JWST's primary mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal mirror segments for a combined mirror size of 6.5-meter-diameter (21 ft 4 in).

0e2d8e49-bd2b-453b-af70-cef5820eefd4.jpg

A large sunshield will keep JWST's mirror and four science instruments below 50 Kelvin (−220 °C; −370 °F). You can see the sunshield in gray at the bottom of this to-scale model.

6e7bfeea-0fc8-4735-bffc-f9894ad16456.jpg

Scheduled to launch in 2019 it will circle near the Earth–Sun L2 lagrangian point offering unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. A Lagrange point is a unique location in space where gravitational forces of two bodies equal that of a smaller third body. This allows for a unique point of equilibrium to "park" crafts to make better observations.

16d809db-e390-47b2-b8d0-4248c6e3f08f.jpg

Meanwhile, we can check "Gaia" Telescope Data being visualized in 3D with this amazing open-source software.
https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/gaia/outreach/gaiasky/
"Gaia Sky is a real-time, 3D, astronomy visualisation software that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. It is developed in the framework of ESA's Gaia mission to chart about 1 billion stars of our Galaxy in the Gaia group of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ZAH, Universität Heidelberg)."

...Now, more about JWST mirrors

Mirrors

"[Ball Aerospace] designed and built the advanced optical technology and lightweight mirror system that will enable Webb to look 13.5 billion years back in time." - http://www.ball.com/aerospace/programs/jwst

These mirrors are incredible stuff: They're coated in a layer of ultra-thin (100 nanometers) gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. (flight spare) Photo by Drew Noel.

1cffc0e0-e427-4dc6-90c3-010386adcc39.jpg

Before gold is applied the Beryllium mirrors are polished & undergo Cryogenic Testing ensuring they're smooth & reflective as possible.

48105fcb-6db0-4c94-bd56-8f1e38046869.jpg

Scheduled to launch in 2019

JWST will be launched on the reliable Ariane 5 rocket, it has a record of 80 successful consecutive launches as of as of June 28, 2017.

b03b62cf-bc76-4a3e-9f6b-42d4dd74d2df.jpg

You can read more about JWST over here: https://www.space.com/21925-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst.html - See you next time! —Mark

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:

AcronymExplanation
ESAEuropean Space Agency
JWSTJames Webb infra-red Space Telescope
L2Paywalled section of the NasaSpaceFlight forum,Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 2 of a two-body system, beyond the smaller body ([Sixty Symbols

That's neat!