On 25th December 2021, a project that was borne in the nineties came to fruition when it launched aboard an Ariana-5 rocket.
That project was the James Webb Space Telescope, a sort-of successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. Calling it a successor is a misnomer however as JWST isn’t designed to replace Hubble, despite the latter approaching its end of life.
As we approach a year since its launch, we wanted to look back on the year that was for one of the most powerful space observatories built by humanity.
Shortly after launch, at the beginning of the year, JWST’s mirrors were unfolded. This massive segmented structure needed to be folded to fit into the nose cone of the Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket.
In order to do this, the mirror was split into 15 hexagonal pieces 6.5m in diameter. This gives JWST a light collection area of 25 square meters, six times the area Hubble has.
Unfolding these mirrors actually began in early January before JWST arrived at its final destination. The reason for this early unfolding came down to the complexity of aligning the mirror correctly. As we saw later in the year, alignment is an arduous task made even more difficult given the 1.5 million kilometre distance between the telescope and ground teams.
In the end, the mirrors were aligned successfully and we were even treated to a selfie taken by the telescope.
Since that alignment, astronomers have been able to take full advantage of the power that the JWST offers up and we have since been treated to a number of jaw-dropping sights.
The first images released showed off a number of nebulas and systems. It was a stunning demonstration of the telescope’s power and a moment worth celebrating for those who dedicated their lives to building and operating the telescope.
The most heart-stopping of these is the image of the Pillars of Creation. This area of space is packed with dust and gas which are how stars are created. We’ve seen this area of space before but Webb let us see it in unbridled detail.
Closer to home JWST was able to captured never before seen images of Jupiter using the Near-Infrared Camera. This gave us views of Jupiter’s aurora’s and it’s faint rings.
More recently astronomers have been able to punch through the atmosphere of Titan – a Moon of Saturn – to see its surface more clearly. The image captured reveals a land mass, what is thought be an ocean of methane and clouds that confirm the moon has a weather pattern.
In June 2023, researchers expect to receive data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument which will give better insight into the gas composition of Titan’s atmosphere.
This is just a year on and in reality, the observatory has only been fully operational for about six months.
With JWST now orbiting Lagrange point L2 for the rest of its lifetime, the hope is that it will help us better understand how stars, solar systems and galaxies are formed. With this we can better understand our own galaxy and perhaps live a life beyond the stars one day.
[Image – CC BY 2.0 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope]
