The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched the James Webb Space Telescope – IT Pro – News

The European Space Agency successfully launched an Ariane 5 rocket containing the James Webb Space Telescope at 1.20pm Dutch time. All important steps have been completed after launch. The exciting phase of the telescope now begins, during which the necessary parts must unfold.

The launch was conducted by Arianespace from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana, in overcast conditions. The 32-minute launch window began at 13:20 Dutch time. At that exact moment, the two solid rocket engines and the first-stage cooled main rocket engine were ignited and the Ariane 5 flew into the sky. After two minutes and twenty seconds of separation from the launch pad, the two stationary rocket boosters were dislodged and after about forty seconds, gift Or a nosecone dropped, revealing a collapsing telescope.

Then, about nine minutes after launch, it was like that the basic engine Cuts turning offMoment and detachment of the first stage of the rocket. After that moment began a special stage called barbecue They are performed, which is sometimes compared to shaking a baby. This is done to protect the telescope from the sun’s radiation during this phase of its path. 25 minutes after launch, the rocket engine of the second stage was turned off. And 27 minutes after launch, the spacecraft exited the second stage. This puts James Webb on a direct path toward his destination. The telescope does not orbit the Earth first.

The James Webb Telescope will now take a month to reach its destination: second Lagrange point at 1.5 million km. The space telescope there will orbit the Sun at the same rhythm as the Earth. Because from that point, the Earth, the sun, and the moon are at the same point, the telescope can block all that radiation with its sun shield. This is very important, because various scientific instruments must operate between -233 and -266 degrees Celsius. Before James Webb reaches L2, necessary critical steps must be completed, such as opening the solar panels, solar shield and base mirror. In particular, opening the shield and placing eighteen hexes in the mirror are nail-biting moments where nothing should go wrong.

Tweaker recently published four articles about James Webb, in which general wallpapersAnd NIRSpec spectrometerAnd mid infrared instrument in a The importance of data reduction been discussed. There is also something else backstory In particular the magnification of the characteristic factor of the James Webb Telescope from Hubble, that is, the focus on the infrared part of the spectrum. With this, the telescope will detect light from the first generation of galaxies, which formed shortly after the Big Bang. In addition, James Webb will also play an important role in studying the composition of the atmospheres of the discovered exoplanets, and the telescope can also see through dust clouds much better than Hubble to see potential stars and planets.