The Webb Space Telescope left Earth safe and legal on Christmas morn , and astronomer across the creation respire a suspiration of ease . But the weeks ahead curb a serial of hurdles that must be crystallize for the $ 10 billion telescope to begin its scientific duties . On Monday night , Webb formally passed the orbital distance of the Moon , journey over half a mile per second on its journeying to its net destination .
At clip of writing , the scope is over 305,000 Admiralty mile from Earth , about a third of the way to its destination , a point in quad call L2 . ( you could check the location of Webbhere . ) The scope ’s current deployment step is what NASA calls its “ second mid - course correction sting , ” meaning the second use of fuel to objurgate the spacecraft ’s flight toward its destination . Next up today is the kickoff of the deployment of the all - important sunshield , which will protect the galactic datum Webb collects from heat . According to NASA , this will be “ one of the most intriguing spacecraft deployment NASA has ever essay . ”
The sunshield pallets will be unfurled in the coming days , like the wings of a butterfly come forth from a chrysalis . In a hebdomad ’s fourth dimension , the sunshield will be fully deployed , comply by the mirrors and mirror wings . The entire spacecraft will be unfolded by the end of the first workweek of January , but there’splenty that still can go wrongwith these step , even though the most nail - biting part of the operation ( the launch ) is now terminated .
A rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope, completely deployed.Illustration:NASA
It ’s been a meddling eve ! Not only did we just complete our second tan , but#NASAWebbalso pass on the altitude of the Moon as it continue cruise on to the second Lagrange decimal point to#UnfoldTheUniverse . Bye,@NASAMoon ! 👋 🌑 pic.twitter.com/IStul0fwFB
— NASA Webb Telescope ( @NASAWebb)December 28 , 2021
The destination , Lagrange point 2 or simply L2 , is perfect for a telescope that is test to see some of the old stars in the universe . Asnoted by NASA , L2 is good for astronomy because it ’s comparatively close to Earth and can keep Earth , the Moon , and the Sun behind it for an unobstructed view of the cosmos . L2 is about a million naut mi from Earth , so it ’ll take the scope a calendar month to get there .
The first images from Webb are expected in June 2022 , assuming all goes well in these next few weeks . scientist are trust to habituate the scope ’s observations to learn more about the earliest earned run average of the creation , to get potentially habitable exoplanets , and to better understand how Galax urceolata form and evolve .
Infrared telescopesNASASpacecraftTelescopes
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