After a flawless departure, today will be a crucial day for the new James Webb space telescope. Then he has to unfold his most important part: a meter-sized mirror that receives the light from the universe. It is the last step of the first part of the observatory installation. The operation will start at 15:00 Belgian time at the earliest. In the course of the evening it will probably become clear whether everything went well.
The James Webb is the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope. It was developed and built by the space agencies of Europe (ESA), the United States (NASA) and Canada (CSA).
The telescope was launched from French Guiana on Christmas Day. It is now more than a million kilometers from Earth. It flies towards its destination at a speed of 420 meters per second. It is still about 400,000 kilometers away. The space telescope will arrive there in about two weeks.
The James Webb is about the size of a tennis court. When he left, it was folded to fit the rocket that took it to space. The core of the space telescope is a 6.5-meter mirror, six times the size of the Hubble. That mirror captures the light from space and reflects it to a second mirror, which bundles the light and sends it to the measuring instruments on board. Scientists want to use the James Webb to search for planets where life might be possible, distant galaxies and traces of the Big Bang. The space telescope can look a billion years further back in time than the Hubble.
The mirror of the James Webb consists of eighteen hexagons that are attached to each other, but can move independently of each other. The mirror is made of beryllium, with a tiny layer of gold 100 nanometers thick on top. That’s a thousand times thinner than a human hair or a sheet of paper. Beryllium is light, strong and can withstand extreme cold. Gold makes the mirror better able to see infrared light.
When the James Webb is at his workplace in a few weeks, he can’t get to work right away. First, all devices on board must be cooled to 266 degrees below zero. That takes about a month. After that, it takes a few months to test if everything is working properly. In the summer, the James Webb can take the first measurements.
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