In the late 1600s, Newton penned the famous letter to Robert Hooke, which stated that, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” In the field of science, one discovery catapults the next into a deeper understanding. Imagine a magical window that opens into the cosmos, the one that allows us to spy into the very fabric of space and time, holding ancient and ages-old mysteries covered with pixie dust (oops, I mean cosmic dust). Well, this is exactly what the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Telescope do!
What makes ‘the Hubble’, a Hubble?
This Time Machine continues to prove itself as an engineering marvel. The idea of Hubble was born in the year 1946, through a research paper that examined the advantages of a space based observatory.
Fast forward to the 1970s; amongst the funding issues, political rallies, and bidding wars between manufacturing companies, we see that the optical assembly of the HST has two hyperbolic mirrors that provide better imaging over a wider field of view. The spacecraft system and its housing were designed and built by Lockheed, creating a structure that could withstand the fluctuations of temperature as night turned to day. The computer systems and microprocessor chips that are used now are twenty times more efficient.
Hubble, ‘then’
In 1995, something known as the Hubble deep field came into the picture. It took 10 days for the HST to form an image of the early universe. Looking back into time, approximately ten billion years, revealed galaxies of different shapes, sizes, and colors. With HST, we were able to see the evolution of galaxies from when the universe was created.
Hubble, ‘Now’
From 2003 to 2009, began the capturing of images at the near infrared wavelength, which eventually led to the most colorful image to be ever captured by Hubble in 2014. . Astronomers now use the ultraviolet light that is mostly emitted from the hottest stars to study the evolution of galaxies. At this wavelength, we are able to observe the galaxies that form stars and the exact location of the formation. The image captured at this wavelength consists of 10,000 galaxies going back in time to about a hundred million years after the Big Bang.
JWST: The Gen Alpha Telescope
JWST mainly focuses on infrared wavelengths, which allows it to detect the red light displaced by the most distant galaxies and stars, providing us with a glimpse into the early stages of the universe, even the period just after the Big Bang! This next-generation space observatory is like a super cool, high-tech detective, sleuthing out the universe’s deepest secrets. JWST is a massive 6.5-meter gold-coated primary mirror made of 18 hexagonal segments, designed to capture light from the farthest reaches of the universe. This primary mirror, the largest ever deployed in space, collects more light than Hubble’s 2.4-meter mirror. It’s like having a giant, cosmic magnifying glass. Being launched on December 25, 2021, JWST was developed by NASA in partnership with ESA and CSA and is currently operated by AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute.
How does JWST get its job done?
Focusing on infrared wavelengths, JWST is able to detect the red light emitted by the most distant galaxies and stars, which gives us a better understanding of the formation and evolution of the universe. One of the striking differences between JWST and Hubble is that they focus on different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. While Hubble specializes in visible and ultraviolet light, JWST is optimized for infrared observations. This ability is an essential tool to study the early universe, the formation of stars and planets, and the atmosphere of distant exoplanets. Located at the second Lagrangian point (L2), 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, JWST benefits from a stable observation point without interference from the Earth’s atmosphere, which provides an optimal environment for observations uninterrupted in the long run of the cosmos.
This article is a contribution from the Astrophysics Club (Dhruva) of Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (R.V.C.E.), Bangalore. And the authors are:
Krishna Vidhiprasad
Aerospace Engineering, 2nd year, R.V.C.E.- Bangalore
Harshhitha P
Electronics and Communications Engineering, 3rd year, R.V.C.E.- Bangalore
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