#James webb telescope location driver

Since then, astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy (exoplanets). When the first plans for JWST were being discussed more than 20 years ago, no planets were known other than those in our own Solar System. The observations will answer questions about how the clouds of dust and gas collapse to form stars and how planetary systems form around them. Unlike Hubble, it will be able to see right into “stellar nurseries”, where stars and their planetary systems are being born. Stars can be born in clouds of dust called ‘reflection nebula’. For example, observing in the infrared will allow JWST to see through the clouds of dust that enshroud very young stars, which are opaque to visible light. It is conceived as a general-purpose observatory on which astronomers from around the world can apply for time to support their research. Studying the first stars and galaxies is not the only scientific programme JWST will perform.

#James webb telescope location driver

The need to detect faint objects in the distant universe has been an important driver for the design of the observatory, determining its size, wavelength coverage and need to keep it very cool to minimise undesirable background light. Listen to Martin Barstow talking about the James Webb Space Telescope on The Conversation Weekly podcast. We know that the elements that are needed for life and modern technology, such as carbon, silicon and gold, were ultimately created in early stars – but we don’t currently have a good understanding of how this happened. Knowing when the first stars were formed, soon after the Big Bang, and understanding how they produced the building blocks of the first galaxies is an important scientific question and one of the primary science goals of JWST. It may even be able to see Population III stars (stars that formed from primordial material from the Big Bang) which have never been glimpsed before. Also, although Hubble has some capability to observe in infrared light, it cannot access the wavelengths of light from the very earliest stars and galaxies.

We hope and anticipate that it will continue to operate for many more years.īut the relatively small 2.4-metre diameter mirror, compared to ground-based telescopes, limits its sensitivity and ability to observe the faintest objects. Hubble has now operated for more than 30 years and given us amazing views of the universe and many thousands of scientific results. JWST is often billed as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, but I would prefer to view it as a successor. Its scientific potential is after all enormous – JSTW could answer some of the biggest questions about the universe. As chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council, which will run the operations centre for JWST, I’ll share their nervousness. The launch will be both exciting and terrifying for the thousands of scientists, engineers, managers and support staff who have brought JWST to this point. It’s an event that has been anticipated for a decade – it will be the largest and most expensive and complex telescope ever built, tested and launched into space.Īt the time of writing, the US$10 billion (£7.5 billion) telescope has been fuelled for its flight and mounted atop the Ariane 5 rocket at Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, which will carry it in to space. If everything goes according to plan on December 25, we will enter a new era of astronomy with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).