The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its destination
The James Webb Space Telescope burned the engines and reached its destination, a point 1.5 million miles from Earth; We can say that the key stage of this mission of studying the history of space has been successfully overcome.
The space telescope burned the engines in 5 minutes to make e. E. To reach the second point of Lagrange (L2), from where it will have access to almost half of the sky at any given moment.
In this region of the cosmos it will be along the earth and at the same time move around the sun; A special shield will protect its sensitive equipment from heat and light.
In order for a giant pharmacy to effectively protect itself, it needs the sun, earth, and moon to be positioned in the same direction. The temperature on the cold side of the shield will be -225 degrees Celsius.
The burning of the engines, also known as orbital burning, was the third such maneuver since the launch of the Web, after December 25th.
The plan was premeditated because the Web would not be able to fly around the Earth if it received an extra boost from the rocket, its optics would face the sun, and it would be damaged by overheating.
The James Webb Space Telescope has cost NASA about $ 10 billion and is one of the most valuable scientific platforms in human history; Then comes the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble orbits the earth, but the web moves in a zone called the Lagrange point, where the gravitational pull of the sun and the earth is balanced by the centrifugal force of the rotating system.
The existence of such a point was first suggested by the French-Italian mathematician Jose-Louis Lagrange; An object placed in one of five such points remains stable and will not fall victim to the gravity of the sun and the earth. Only a small amount of fuel is needed to pinpoint the location.
The web is not exactly located in L2, but will move around its “halo”, the distance between the earth and the moon; Each round will take about six months.
As a result, the telescope will maintain thermal stability and generate energy through solar panels.
At the second point of Lagrange were missions such as the European Space Agency’s Herschel Telescope and NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
The position of the web provides constant communication with the Earth, which will be achieved through the Deep Space Network. This network includes three large antennas in Australia, Spain and California.
In mid-January, the Web successfully unveiled its gold-plated key mirrors, which formed 13.5 billion years ago to collect infrared signals from one of the world’s first stars and galaxies.
The mission of the web also includes the study of distant exoplanets to determine their origin, evolution, and suitability for life.
The next step will be to straighten the telescope optical instruments and calibrate the scientific instruments. The first photos will be sent to Earth by the telescope in June or July.
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