The James Webb Space Telescope is on an outpost 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Washington:
The James Webb Space Telescope has fired its thrusters and reached its orbital destination about one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet, NASA said Monday, a crucial step on its mission to study cosmic history. milestone.
The observatory fired its thrusters for five minutes to reach the so-called second Lagrange point, or L2, at around 2:00 a.m. Eastern time (1900 GMT), where at any given time about half of the sky would have access. ,
“Welcome to the web, home!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“We’re one step closer to uncovering the secrets of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer!”
In this region of space, it will remain in line with Earth as it revolves around the Sun, allowing Webb’s sunshield to shield its sensitive instruments from heat and light.
For the giant umbrella to provide effective protection, the Sun, Earth, and Moon all need to be in the same direction, with the cold side running at –370°F (-225 Celsius).
The thruster firing, known as orbital burn, was the third such maneuver since Webb was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25.
The plan was intentional, because if Webb had received too much thrust from the rocket, it would not have been able to fly back to Earth, as it would have exposed its optics to the Sun, overheating and destroying them.
So it was decided to reduce the rocket firing slightly and use the telescope’s own thrusters to bridge the gap.
Webb, which is expected to cost NASA about $10 billion, is one of the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, on a par with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and its predecessor telescope, the Hubble.
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But as Hubble orbits Earth, Webb will orbit in a region of space known as the Lagrange point, where the gravitational pull from the Sun and Earth will be balanced by the centrifugal force of the rotating system.
An object at one of these five points, first theorized by the Italian French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, would remain stable and would not fall into the gravitational wells of the Sun and Earth, requiring only a little fuel to adjust.
Webb will not sit right on L2, but will instead move around it in a “halo” at the same distance as Earth and the Moon, completing a cycle every six months.
This would allow the telescope to remain thermally stable and generate electricity from its solar panels.
Past missions to L2 include the European Space Agency’s Herschel and Planck observatories, and NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
Webb’s position will allow for continuous communication with Earth via the Deep Space Network – three large antennas in Australia, Spain and California.
Earlier this month, NASA completed the process of unlocking Webb’s giant golden mirror that will collect infrared signals from the first stars and galaxies that formed 13.5 billion years ago.
The visible and ultraviolet light first emitted by luminous objects has been magnified by the expansion of the universe, and today comes in the form of infrared, which Webb is equipped to detect with unprecedented clarity.
Its mission also includes the study of distant planets, known as exoplanets, to determine their origin, evolution and habitability.
Next steps include aligning the telescope’s optics and calibrating its scientific instruments. It is expected to broadcast its first images back in June or July.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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