The James Webb telescope, also given the title “The Big Brother of the Hubble Telescope”, was successfully launched on the 25th of December, 2021. The pride of NASA scientists, this telescope can help us see much farther than the Hubble Telescope, enabling us to learn about the heavenly bodies formed years ago. The fact that it can also see infrared rays with greater clarity is the reason we can see galaxies and stars formed about 13.5 billion years ago, at the beginning of the universe, clearly.
Infrared radiation can penetrate through dust clouds easily, giving a clearer picture of bodies. Additionally, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the space between two objects expands, and so does light. When the light of particles formed at the start of the universe, a billion lightyears away, travels to the earth, it expands and this light transforms to high wavelength infrared radiation which is not visible to our eyes.
Here, the image processors and cutting-edge infrared sensors on our telescope come into play. To absorb a large amount of light, the telescope is equipped with 18 hexagonal mirrors, angled in such a way to focus all infrared light on a sensor. This light is converted into electrical signals, which can help the telescope map the image of the body. The fascinating thing about this masterpiece is that not only does it look at faraway objects, but using the light patterns of the stars and planets, it can find out the chemical composition, nature, etc of that planet!
Using the James Webb Telescope, we can unravel the ways of our universe. We can also look into other solar systems and probably even find a life-sustaining ecosystem or planet! Using the Webb telescope, we can probably even learn more about the birth of stars and galaxies. Now we see the latest images from the telescope and groundbreaking theories have started to form and might even change science for us as we know it!
#NASA #JamesWebb #Galaxy # Universe #telescope
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