What is 6500 kilograms, and yet completely weightless? Read on to find out!
Hello! This is a special post, for two reasons. First of all, this is my first of a series of posts on the James Webb. Perhaps more importantly, this is my first post of my blog!
Wait! What is the James Webb?
The James Webb, also called JWST, which stands for “James Webb Space Telescope”, is an orbiting infrared telescope that will help cosmologists, astronomers, and astrophysicists understand more about the beginning of the universe and how the very first galaxies formed. The JWST also can see inside of dust clouds, and therefore is very helpful in studying nebula, supernovae remnants, and the like.
What is the JWST finding?
So far, the James Webb has made many incredible discoveries, including:
- Finding the oldest galaxies ever seen before
- Discovering the oldest supermassive black hole ever
- An exoplanet that has carbon-bearing molecules, like methane, (CH4), and carbon dioxide, (CO2)
- LHS 475 b, a rocky planet that’s about 40 light years away
- Taking beautiful images of the pillars of creation in the eagle nebula (pictured below and to the right)
The star is in the Wolf-Rayet phase, just before a supernova, where the star will shed its outermost layers. The JWST was able to capture this moment in detail, leaving a stunning and well defined image. (Image below)
- Last month, astronomers found smoke molecules in a distant galaxy 12.3 billion light years away. This means that the image that we are looking at is also 12.3 billion years old, as the light took that long just to arrive at earth. This is the first time they have detected this far away. A international team of astronomers was able to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – which are chemicals only found in smoke, smog, or soot.
Statistics
- The James Webb has found thousands of exoplanets
- The James Webb has taken tens of thousands of stunning images
- The James Webb’s temperature is below 50 Kelvin (-370°F, or -223°C)
- The Webb has a mass of 6,500 kg, or 14,300 lbs on Earth, but weights nothing in orbit, as everything is weightless.
- The James Webb has 18 smaller mirrors that make up the larger mirror, one of which has been damaged by a micrometeoroid
- Approximately ten billion dollars were spent on the James webb
- The primary mirror is plated with a thin layer of gold weighing in at a mere 48.25 grams
- JWST produces approximately 235 Gigabits of data every day, that is downlinked to the Deep Space Network
Additional information
If you want to learn more about the James Webb, you can check out these websites:
- https://www.space.com/news/live/james-webb-space-telescope-updates
- https://webb.nasa.gov/
- https://webbtelescope.org/home
- https://webbtelescope.org/images
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my first blog!
Nice milaina