James Webb Space Telescope, information, updates and discussion Options

[Redstone]

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.

[ljk4-1]

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0606175

From: Jonathan Gardner [view email]

Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 21:05:29 GMT (12223kb)

The James Webb Space Telescope

Authors: Jonathan P. Gardner, John C. Mather, Mark Clampin, Rene Doyon, Matthew A. Greenhouse, Heidi B. Hammel, John B. Hutchings, Peter Jakobsen, Simon J. Lilly, Knox S. Long, Jonathan I. Lunine, Mark J. McCaughrean, Matt Mountain, John Nella, George H. Rieke, Marcia J. Rieke, Hans-Walter Rix, Eric P. Smith, George Sonneborn, Massimo Stiavelli, H. S. Stockman, Rogier A. Windhorst, Gillian S. Wright

Comments: 96 pages, including 48 figures and 15 tables, accepted by Space Science Reviews

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large (6.6m), cold (50K), infrared-optimized space observatory that will be launched early in the next decade. The observatory will have four instruments: a near-infrared camera, a near-infrared multi-object spectrograph, and a tunable filter imager will cover the wavelength range, 0.6 to 5.0 microns, while the mid-infrared instrument will do both imaging and spectroscopy from 5.0 to 29 microns.

The JWST science goals are divided into four themes. The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization theme seeks to identify the first luminous sources to form and to determine the ionization history of the early universe.

The Assembly of Galaxies theme seeks to determine how galaxies and the dark matter, gas, stars, metals, morphological structures, and active nuclei within them evolved from the epoch of reionization to the present day.

The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems theme seeks to unravel the birth and early evolution of stars, from infall on to dust-enshrouded protostars to the genesis of planetary systems.

The Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life theme seeks to determine the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems including our own, and investigate the potential for the origins of life in those systems.

To enable these observations, JWST consists of a telescope, an instrument package, a spacecraft and a sunshield. The telescope consists of 18 beryllium segments, some of which are deployed. The segments will be brought into optical alignment on-orbit through a process of periodic wavefront sensing and control.

The JWST operations plan is based on that used for previous space observatories, and the majority of JWST observing time will be allocated to the international astronomical community through annual peer-reviewed proposal opportunities.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606175