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Zoe Surles
Welcome to the first-ever edition of the Champaign Central Chronicle’s Science Corner! What a mouthful… the name is definitely a work in progress…
Anyway, this section is where you can learn about super cool things that are going on in the world of science right now! To celebrate the first edition of the unnamed science column, I’ve got an incredibly interesting topic! The very cool - and VERY big - James Webb Space Telescope!
The first thing to know (and the easiest to understand) about this topic is that scientists and mathematicians are just a tad lazy. Due to this, they absolutely LOVE abbreviations. The James Webb Space Telescope is no exception. Its abbreviation is JWST. Nothing crazy! JWST was named after James Webb (shocker, right?) who was the second ever administrator, from 1961 to 1968, of NASA - another abbreviation that stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. James Webb is well known for having started up the Apollo program, which led humans to the moon, and for having inspired several other prosperous projects at NASA as well as in the greater scientific community. Despite not being a scientist himself, Webb was an inspiration for science and will continue to lead this legacy through the use of JWST.
Now onto the actual telescope. As previously mentioned, JWST is a pretty big boy of a telescope. Its primary mirror, or more accurately 18 mirror segments, is 6.5 meters in diameter. That’s 21.3 feet. For reference, imagine the tallest person you know, probably like 6’4 or something, and then have two more people of the same height standing on top of them. Plus like half of someone else. So, around 3.4 - give or take a toe or two - people in total. Now take that and turn it into 18 beryllium gold-plated mirrors in the sky. Crazy, right? The bigger the mirrors of the telescope, the more light it can take in, and generally the stronger it will be.
Speaking of gold, JWST’s mirrors have a thin layer of gold on the edge. The reason for this is not to look amazing (which it does anyway) but actually, as NASA states, “optimizes them for reflecting infrared light, which is the primary wavelength of light this telescope will observe”. To put this into more simple terms, the mirrors have gold so that they can reflect the proper “type” of light that the telescope uses to take pictures. JWST uses mid-infrared and near-infrared light, which allows scientists to, with better detail and more accuracy, look into the PAST and observe things that we haven’t been able to see yet! How exciting! These light waves also allow the scientists to look through big dust and gas clouds to see inside nebulae, which are known as stellar nurseries. SO cool!
So, this telescope is big and strong, but you may be thinking, why is it in space? Why does it exist? What is its purpose in life? I, too, ask myself these questions. Well, not about telescopes, but anyways… According to NASA, JWST has four “main science goals” and they are as follows:
Search for the first galaxies or luminous objects that formed after the Big Bang.
Determine how galaxies evolved from their formation until the present.
Observe the formation of stars from the first stages to the formation of planetary systems.
Measure the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems and investigate the potential for life in those systems.
JWST has lots of goals, potential, and abilities. It is hoped to last at least 6 years and has fuel to last up to 10. Throughout the next decade, this telescope will surely provide lots of new information for us to discover more about the universe, and I am incredibly excited to see how this allows science to progress!
What I have explained about JWST today is just the very very tip of the iceberg. JWST is a super awesome invention and I highly recommend looking further into it if you are interested!
Thank you for reading and happy sciencing :)
All information referenced and used in this article, plus more, can be found from the following sources:
https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faq.html#whatis
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/observatory/ote/mirrors/index.html
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/754/what-is-a-lagrange-point/
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