James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion |
James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion |
Aug 23 2005, 02:01 PM
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#201
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Member Group: Members Posts: 134 Joined: 13-March 05 Member No.: 191 |
The manufacture of the JWST mirror blanks has now been completed.
Despite this milestone, the fate of JWST is still somewhat precarious, because although the scientific bang from the telescope is expected to be huge, the bucks required have increased to a staggering $4.5 billion. A Space.com article on the squeeze in NASA's space-based astronomy plans gives some background. The JWST home page can be found here. The Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs Hubble, also has a site here. As does ESA. |
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Jun 10 2022, 12:56 AM
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#202
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Member Group: Members Posts: 241 Joined: 13-October 09 From: Olympus Mons Member No.: 4972 |
JWST got hit by micrometeroite a couple weeks back but luckily able to shake it off. https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-tele...teoroid-impacts
-------------------- "Thats no moon... IT'S A TRAP!"
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Jul 5 2022, 07:22 PM
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#203
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Member Group: Members Posts: 251 Joined: 14-January 22 Member No.: 9140 |
In one week, NASA will be releasing the first JWST science operation images, and it seems that we can expect impressive results, with pre-release commentary including phrases like "emotional," "deeply personal," and "moved me… as a human being."
At least two specific results will include a deep field image, which is a bit surprising given that the deepest HST image was the result of 23 days of observations collected over a span of ten years. Certainly JWST cannot have devoted that much time yet, but this speaks to the advantage of the IR bands to collect red-shifted visible light. JWST, it seems, will image most distant galaxies in its very first release than Hubble was able to in decades of operation. The second specific release that has been promised is the spectrum of an exoplanet atmosphere. There are lots of those to choose from, and many more will be observed over the next months and years. If I were to hazard a guess, that first planet might be LHS 1140 b, which is a very large terrestrial-density planet midway in mass between Earth and Uranus with a high escape velocity, orbiting a small, inactive red dwarf. HST observations produced some uncertain evidence that LHS 1140 b has H2O in its atmosphere. All of those factors boost the prospects that the planet will have an atmosphere, that the signal will be favorably strong, and that it will be impactful in the search for earthlike conditions elsewhere. However, there are many other targets they could choose, so it's hard to be sure what will be in the first release. Larger planets would more likely return a strong signal but would also be a bit less interesting, as those types of planets have been the subject of successful atmospheric composition observations before. Some memorable landmark results are a week away. |
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