Today I'm talking about a subject that I really like. We're going to talk about two Hubble space telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
history
Humans have always sought to understand and analyze the stars. Research and technological advances have led to the creation of numerous instruments that over time have made it possible to discern the most distant and imperceptible stars.
There appeared a physical constraint to the observation of stellar objects, our planet has an atmosphere, a thick layer of gauze and various disturbances that reduce the quality of reception.
So the human had a bright idea, send a telescope out of the atmosphere, Hubble was born! (and he deserves an article alone).
Hubble
In April 2009, after 20 years of study and development, NASA put the Hubble telescope into orbit at 600 km above sea level. Many missions of the American Space Shuttle have been carried out to repair and improve the telescope's tools.
Without going too far into technology, a few characteristics are important :
- Its primary mirror, an element that captures starlight and reflects it to a recorder, measures 2.4 m in diameter.
- Its focal length (we will say it is its ability to zoom on a stellar object) is 57.6 meters.
- Its various sensors allow it to record wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared frequencies.
The Hubble telescope has led to numerous discoveries such as the extension and homogeneity of the universe, black holes, etc....
And in particular the deep field of Hubble.
NASA engineers made four photographs (with an exposure time of about 30 hours each) of a completely empty area of our sky, after superimposition and processing, the result allowed an extraordinary advance in space research.
The retirement of the Hubble Telescope is scheduled for the end of our decade. Engineers from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have developed its successor.
The James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018 with the Ariane 5 launcher, has impressive features :
- Its primary mirror is 6.5 m in diameter, almost 3 times larger than Hubble.
- Its focal length is 131.4 m (57.6 m for Hubble).
- Its sensors will be able to pick up the real wavelengths of the infrared.
- He is able to shoot 9 times faster than his predecessor.
This new telescope will make it possible to collect new data on subjects essential for understanding our origins (The big bang, the exoplanets, the formation of life, ...).
James-Webb promises incredible photos of our galaxy thanks to the details and infrared waves that we will be able to discover.
I try to approach this type of subject in the most understandable way possible, which is why I don't explain the Lagrange L2 positioning or the 0.1 arc-second resolution. But I'm sure if you ask @lemouth nicely he'll be happy to explain all this to you :)
I close with a few supports, which I hope will highlight the discoveries that await us.
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