"James Web" .. a technological miracle that penetrates the sky to reveal the secrets of the birth of the universe. Subscribe to our postage and reach interesting topics

The astronaut had to overcome a number of physical challenges and obstacles, such as the effect of gravity on the human body and physiological functions, and other psychological obstacles, such as trying to comprehend the mind of what the eyes fall upon. Majestic hanging lamps, as if they had not been extinguished for a long time.

The astronauts are betting on a completely different view of the decorations of the earth’s sky, for those hanging lamps that captivate the beholder with their number, multiplicity of colors and genders and fill the scene from all sides, so the viewer imagines the centrality of himself in the universe as if the arrows of the stars are ready for him, and soon that impression will dissipate. Little by little, from fascination to apprehension accompanied by the tedious awe of the silence of the place.

Up there, in outer space, everything is muffled, so no sound can be heard, no instrument is seen, no atmosphere transmits sound waves, nor even refracts the starlight coming from deep space, so the stars appear rigid and silent before the eyes of the astronauts.

It may seem unfamiliar and not recommended to them, but it is the ideal case that all astronomers and amateurs seek in order to place their “telescope” approaches in it, and the reason is the same, as there is no atmosphere or air atoms that blur vision or filter star rays.

The Hubble telescope... the best predecessor to Khair Khalaf

What we seek to understand the universe in which we live is to reach a natural picture of the universe without any “filters”, and this is what prompted NASA scientists to send and establish the engineering marvel, the James Webb Space Telescope, to replace one of the largest Astronomical projects in human history, the Hubble SpaceTelescope launched in 1990.

The name of the “Hubble” telescope is attributed to the American astronomer “Edwin Hubble”, who developed the theory of the expansion of the universe at the beginning of the third decade of the last century. He managed to capture it with his 2.4m lens.

For three decades, the “Hubble” telescope was able to gain the confidence and respect of many scientists and engineers, although it was not the first telescope to operate outside the Earth’s atmosphere, as it was preceded in 1968 by the “Orbital Astronomical Observatory” telescope, which is the first of its kind. Then it was followed by other Soviet and American approaches.1

The “Hubble” telescope has contributed to more than a million discoveries, such as taking accurate pictures of the birth and death of stars, as well as pictures of galaxies several billion light years away from us, and its most prominent discoveries were as follows:

—help determine the age of the universe at 13.8 billion years, nearly three times the age of Earth.

- The discovery of two additional satellites belonging to the dwarf planet Pluto, which are “Nex” and “Hydra”.

—help determine the expansion rate of the universe.

- Being able to understand the nature of the main galaxies, as they contain black holes at their centre.

-Making a 3D map of dark matter in the universe.2

The mirror of the telescope...a lens 120,000 times stronger than the human eye

The “Hubble” telescope contains “Fine Guidance Sensors” that are able to direct and adjust the camera lenses towards the target in a superior way, and if the target is only one mile away, the pointer will not budge more than the width of a human hair due to its high accuracy, although Expert description.

In addition to a basic mirror designed in a way that gives it the ability to collect light 120 thousand times more than the ability of the human eye to collect light. The light bounces from the primary mirror to a secondary mirror that focuses the light and sends it back to the main mirror to pass through a small hole. The light gathers to be finally analyzed by 5 scientific instruments, each with a special purpose for studying the light spectrum.

As with humans and the rest of the creatures, everything in existence has a life that goes according to its requirements, and perhaps the machines that stay in space have the worst luck in this regard, due to their constant exposure to the solar wind that contains huge numbers of charged particles (EnergeticParticles). Which contribute to the damage and destruction of electronic devices, so the default life that scientists set for the “Hubble” telescope when it was sent was to live for about 25 years, but it exceeded expectations, and we do not know to what point good luck will remain standing in favor of astronomers, so work was on a more durable alternative It has been in operation for many years, and it is also more capable and capable.

A space cake for New Year's Eve... the juice of thirty years of hard work

Finally, after 30 years of tireless work on building the most modern and advanced electronic devices in contemporary history, which is also one of the most expensive engineering pieces in the world of technology, with a cost of $10 billion; A few days ago, on December 24, 2021, NASA was able to send the “James Webb Space Telescope” aboard an “Ariane 5” space rocket, to launch from the territory of French Guiana located in the north of the Latin American continent.4

News like this could not have passed unnoticed without being celebrated by major air stations and international newspapers, as well as social networking sites around the world, for what such a step means.

Of course, we may not remember the first image taken by the “Hubble” telescope with its lens about 30 years ago, and the reaction of the scientific community towards it, due to the scarcity of means of communication and the lack of access to the other world and its events at the time, but of course we live today in a unique moment and moment Stay tuned for the achievements of the telescope, as well as the first image it will take, according to what was published of the scientific and technical details that affected it during the process of preparing and preparing the “Space Cake for New Year’s.”

Raising the curtain on the birth of stars.. A journey to the early days of the universe

One of the goals assigned to the “James Webb” telescope is to search in the depths of the universe for clues that lead us to the primitive era of the universe, in the first hundred million years of the age of the universe in particular, when stars appeared and were created for the first time.

The physicist Nicole Colon, who works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, says: Thanks to the James Webb telescope, we will be able to reach a point that shows us the beginning of the universe closer than ever before, given that what astronomers know About the first era of the universe does not exceed 5% only.

Also, there is another goal of this mission, which is to search in the recesses and corridors of the universe for a planet similar to Earth, which shares heat and size with it.

Perhaps what drives everyone to feel excited is that the telescope was designed to be 100 times more sensitive than the “Hubble” telescope, that is, as if we exchanged glasses for another to see what we were unable to see before, thanks to the sensitivity and the multiplication of the size of the lenses / mirrors by 6 times, by 8 small mirrors combined together to form a huge mirror.

Collection of rays.. Technical laboratories in space for image analysis

Unlike the eye and the lenses of visible cameras that capture only the light spectrum, these mirrors carried by the telescope have the ability to collect light as well as infrared radiation in particular, and they are the basis for the success of the telescope and its uniqueness from others, as we will see details that we have never seen before. .

After the rays are collected by the mirrors, they will be reflected in order to pour into a specific focus, and at this point all the data will be reduced, and then it will be analyzed by specialized scientific tools to deal with infrared radiation, and according to the telescope engineers, it is divided into four scientific tools, which are as follows:

Mid-Infrared Instrument.

Near-Infrared Camera.

Near-infraredspectroscopy.

Near-Infrared Imager and SpitlessSpectrograph

This is certainly in addition to a precise sensor to direct and adjust the camera lenses to track the target, and each of these four devices has a full package of advanced technical equipment capable of extracting and analyzing the most complex data.

Digital photography.. High resolution captures space details

The James Webb telescope was designed to operate in an optical band with wavelengths ranging from 0.6 microns (visible red) to 28.8 microns (mid-infrared). Each device is specialized in a specific range, so that in the end a very accurate painting is formed, resembling a multi-spectral space mosaic of waves.

As mentioned earlier about the telescope's ability to analyze spectroscopy in analyzing the intensity and brightness of colors or different wavelengths separately, this would give us additional information such as the object's temperature, composition, density and movement, as well as the distance that separates us from it.

Also, the ability to photograph in the usual way that we are familiar with, which is digital photography, but with high accuracy and four modes, which are as follows:

Familiar or direct photography.

Coronagraphic Imaging This mode has the ability to block out intense light sources such as starlight to focus on faint lights from planets or other celestial bodies.

Aperture MaskInterferometry, which is a method to increase the accuracy and focus of the lens towards certain points by using a special mask with holes on the lens that blocks only rays.

Time-Series Imaging, this mode is concerned with taking several pictures of the same subject at different times, in order to study the changes.

Lagrangian points, where forces balance

Some specialists tend to differ in the issue of the eligibility of granting the title of “heir” to the “James Webb” telescope, as a sign of its appearance with the approaching retirement date of the “Hubble” telescope, as both differ from each other in essential points, as well as the location of each of them in space.

It is known that the “Hubble” telescope is located in orbit around the Earth at a distance of about 545 km, i.e. in LowEarthOrbit. As for the “James Webb” telescope, it will go to a point where humans will not be able to reach it again. After one and a half million kilometers, specifically the second “Lagrange” point.

As it may seem to those who do not understand the significance behind this point, they may think that it is a coded word for a place in space, and it may be so, but it is not encrypted in the meaning that we are discussing, but only mathematically.

In the year 1772, the famous Italian-French mathematician “Joseph Lagrange” revealed in a research paper about distinct points at which there is no gravitational effect between two large celestial bodies, in what is known as the Three-Body System, and there are five points centered around a body The smallest celestial body, as in the terrestrial -solar system.

Because of the absence of the effect of gravity, the (third) body remains stuck in those points and in that spatial space for eternity, or until it is affected by the gravity of a huge third body. These five points were named in the numerical sequence, preceded by the first letter of the name of the discovered scientist, the letter L, and NASA scientists chose the site “L-2” (L-2) to be the location for the telescope. 7

The reason for choosing this particular point is due to the telescope's need for infrared imaging that is affected by any incoming heat, and because the "L2" point is located directly behind the Earth, our planet gives something similar to a shadow that prevents or mitigate the incoming solar radiation.

“James Webb” .. a victory for the ingenuity of human civilization

It seemed as if this day when the telescope was launched would never come after the engineering masterpiece continued for nearly three decades, with an engineering crew that overcame many obstacles and difficulties with multiple nationalities from various countries.

Karan Jani, an astrophysicist of Indian origin at Vanderbilt University, says: After 30 years of planning and development, we now have the greatest telescope in the history of astronomy, which is why it is a measure of civilization for humanity. Then he added: This telescope belongs to all of us, regardless of our origin and birthplace. It represents a victory for human ingenuity.8

As it seems, the space that was a dream for us in the past is becoming closer to us day after day, and who knows what the “James Webb” space telescope will bring to us in terms of expected surprises, although it will not show us what it has in store until the summer of 2022, and thus everyone leaves Planet Earth is in a state of waiting and waiting.

Sources:

[1] Lattice, James (2018). The world's first space telescope. Retrieved from: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-worlds-first-space-telescope/

[2] Site editors (date unknown). What did the Hubble telescope discover? Retrieved from: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-has-hubble-space-telescope-discovered

[3] The editors of the site (2020). What is the Hubble Space Telescope? Retrieved from: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-the-hubble-space-telecope-58.html

[4] Wall, Mike (2021). "29 Days on the Edge:" What's Next for NASA's Recently Launched James Webb Space Telescope. Retrieved from: https://www.livescience.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps

[5] Johnson, Veronica (2021). TelescopeWeb: A cosmic time machine that will show the first galaxies and stars. Retrieved from: https://wjla.com/weather/james-webb-telescope-cosmic-time-machine-to-show-first-galaxies-and-stars-we-alone-in-the-universe

[6] Official website (date unknown). Tools for imaging the universe. Retrieved from: https://webbtelescope.org/news/webb-science-writers-guide/webbs-scientific-instruments

[7] Tripathi, Cebu (2021). Explainer: Where is the James Webb telescope headed and why we need to send it farther away. Retrieved from: https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/where-is-james-webb-telescope-going-second-lagrange-point-explained-nasa-esa-1892637-2021-12-27

[8] The same source.

Source: Al Jazeera