James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally completed its million-mile journey
The world’s most advanced telescope, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally completed its million-mile journey into the deep dark cosmos. The telescope was launched on 25 December 2021 on the Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport. And now almost 1 after one month, the telescope has unfurled and has been placed at the Lagrange Point 2.
The first image of JWST at its final position was captured from a single 300-second exposure by the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome. The Virtual Telescope Project took the exposure of over five minutes using its robotic telescope, a PlaneWave 17-inch, tracking Webb on a Paramount ME mount.
The Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in near Space where the gravity of the Sun and the Earth-Moon system balance each other. With regular course correction, the telescope can stay in the same place compared to other bodies. This will allow the sunshine to point towards our home star, enabling the instrument to cool about -233 Degree Celsius.
5 more crucial months ahead for the Golden Eye – JWST
The scientific observations will be possible after 6 months of launch. Out of which, the 1st month has gone as it was expected. The first month saw the launch, unfolding, and turning on instruments in the telescope. From here, the telescope will spend the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months testing instruments and aligning the optics of the telescope.
The 5th and the 6th month will witness the calibration of the telescope and after that, the telescope will be ready for transmitting the observations from deep space. In a way, the telescope will time travel at the same time it’s examining space. JWST will look back through the universe, close to the edge of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago.
JWST can exceed the estimated mission timeline
Before the launch, NASA estimated that the Webb had enough fuel for a roughly 10-year mission. But, after studying the telescope during its one-month course, the team thinks that the mission would exceed the estimated time of 10 years.
Every Mission into dark Space has given humankind a curious opportunity to push themselves to answer the unsolved mysteries of the cosmos. Similar to that, JWST has the potential to discover something that can revolutionize how we think about our planet and Solar System in the cosmos. Each time Planet earth has looked at the universe it has seen more glorious dawn.
