12/6/2023 0 Comments James a webbKnowing that Webb will open a new window to the Universe and change what we know today about our origins is a huge source of inspiration. There’s no margin for error, and intensive on-the-ground testing remains our best way to be prepared. The telescope will operate at 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, and is not repairable. During the development phase, I worked for several years in the United States of America where I accompanied the NIRSpec spectrograph, one of ESA’s contributions to the mission, in the telescope test campaigns that took place in some of the iconic places in space history, such as the test chamber used for the Apollo program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston (Texas), 50 years later adapted to test the Webb. The scientists’ ambitious requirements make us work relentlessly to ensure that the telescope will measure up to their needs. īeing part of a mission as challenging as Webb is a humbling experience. I have been working as a scientist at the European Space Agency since 2011, where I am responsible for calibrating one of Webb’s instruments, the spectrograph NIRSpec, the most requested instrument by the scientific community for the first year of observations. Euclid’s main goal, or mission, is to collect data on two of the universe's greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.īryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.The largest and most complex space telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope, is ready to be launched into space. This international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, has led hundreds of scientists, engineers and technicians to devote much of their careers to completing this engineering masterpiece. Myself, 10 years. It will soon be joined in orbit by Europe's Euclid space telescope, which launched on July 1. NASA has said the Webb has enough fuel to operate for at least 20 years. “Webb’s first year of science has not only taught us new things about our universe – but it has revealed the capabilities of the telescope to be greater than our expectations – meaning future discoveries will be even more amazing,” Smith said. He said the Webb’s wide abilities to support new science discoveries has already become clear. (Image Credit: NASA, ESA,Įric Smith is a Webb program scientist and associate director for research in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. In this image produced by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a group of five galaxies that appear close to each other in the sky are shown: two in the middle, one toward the top, one to the upper left, and one toward the bottom. In a statement marking the Webb’s one year anniversary, NASA noted the telescope had “resulted in hundreds of scientific papers answering longstanding questions and raising new ones.” And the instruments have also led to discoveries about the chemicals and gases that exist around collections of stars and exoplanets outside of our solar system.įor example, the Webb helped astronomers observe the most distant molecules known to exist in the universe and also led to the discovery of 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter In addition, the telescope’s data has provided more detailed information than ever before about the makeup of planet atmospheres. The Webb’s instruments have also confirmed the distances of some of the farthest galaxies ever observed, NASA reported. The first full-color image released by NASA from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, in a composite made from images at different wavelengths taken with a Near-Infrared Camera and released July 11, 2022. The infrared system also shows light from more distant parts of the universe. The instruments collect infrared waves passing through gas and dust that can hide objects in space. The black hole discovery and others that received help from the Webb were in part made possible through the telescope’s infrared instruments. The galaxy is thought to have existed about 570 million years after the Big Bang – the explosion many scientists believe created the universe. Scientists say the black hole sits in a galaxy called CEERS 1019. Scientists said the image was a good representation of this brief period in a star’s life.Īt around the same time, researchers announced they had used data from the Webb to identify the most distant, active supermassive black hole ever observed. NASA said the image showed an area of space that is full of hydrogen gas and dust. The image showed a cloud collection of 50 stars in the process of forming. Most recently, NASA celebrated the Webb’s one year anniversary by releasing one of its latest images.
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