James Webb Space Telescope Enters ‘Cooldown Period’; Here Are 5 Latest Updates

Washington, January 12: The James Webb Space Telescope is set to replace the Hubble Space Telescope. It will study the origin of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with sophisticated cameras. It will capture infrared light from celestial objects. The deployment of the telescope was completed on Saturday morning and has now entered a period of “cooldown”. The telescope was launched on December 25. James Webb Space Telescope May Last ‘Significantly’ Longer Than 10 Years in Space.

The James Webb Telescope is also expected to learn about distant worlds.  NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team fully deployed its 21-foot, gold-coated primary mirror, successfully completing the final stage of all major spacecraft deployments to prepare for science operations. James Webb Space Telescope Deployment Complete As Mirror Unfolds.

Here Are Five Latest Updates About The James Webb Space Telescope:

• All major structural deployments have been completed By NASA scientists. Notably, Saturday’s deployment began at 9 a.m. EST with teams of engineers sending commands to Webb to release latches first. The mirror-unfolding process only takes about 5 minutes, but locking it in place took about 2 hours, according to NASA.
• The final steps on Saturday wrapped up the most significant preparations to use the telescope – unfolding sun shields, mirrors, radiators and sensors.
• As per NASA, the telescope is still way off from its operating temperature, i.e. about -233° Celsius. This temperature is necessary to detect infrared light.
• Over the period of the next two weeks, scientists will move each of the 18 primary mirror segments of the telescope, and the secondary mirror, out of their launch positions.
• The telescope will undergo a third mid-course correction to place it precisely in orbit around the second Lagrange point, commonly known as L2, nearly 1.6 million km from Earth.

The USD 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25. Webb could help researchers understand the origins of the universe and begin to answer key questions about our existence, such as where we came from and if we are alone in the cosmos.

(The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Jan 12, 2022 04:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).