aaaaaaaand....SCIENCE!

[disappoint]

And now for some much needed, check out what awesome stuff humans can do when we work together: SCIENCE!

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the successor to The Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

FAQ: https://jwst.nasa.gov/faq.html

Model of the James Webb Space Telescope, Austin, Texas
You’re looking at a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel of engineering. When it launches Spring 2019 if it stays on schedule, it will be the largest telescope to enter space. Equipped with a massive, gold-coated mirror to capture infrared light, the Webb will peer deep into space and glimpse the first stars, planets, and galaxies that were formed after the Big Bang over 13.5 billion years ago. It will do this all while orbiting the sun from a position about 940,000 miles from Earth.

Compared to Hubble:

 

[tynopik]

The telescope that ate astronomy - this was written 7 years ago, and let's just say that the the cost overruns didn't stop then

 

[John Connor]

What if God was one of us...♪♫♪♫♪♫

 

[Paratus]

The JWST is just a few minutes walk from my office. I should check it out before it's testing is done.

 

[clamum]

My favorite Facebook page/group is "I F*CKING LOVE SCIENCE"





Just kidding I'm not a complete failure. That telescope looks absolutely amazing. Can't wait for the pictures that badboy will be able to provide.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Woah I forgot about this telescope, I can't wait to see what it can do. That's a huge mirror compared to Hubble. Though is it going to be completely exposed? I guess they know what they're doing as far as how they designed it, but I'd be worried about micro meteorites.

Wouldn't it be freaky if they happen to find Earth when it's pointed away?

 

[Mayne]

Thats some crasy stuff. will we actually get

 

[disappoint]

Woah I forgot about this telescope, I can't wait to see what it can do. That's a huge mirror compared to Hubble. Though is it going to be completely exposed? I guess they know what they're doing as far as how they designed it, but I'd be worried about micro meteorites.

The site where it will be deployed SEL2 or Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 is one of the least gravitationally attractive sites in near Earth orbit. There would be very infrequent micro-meteorite hits and of the ones that do occur the small holes punctured in the mirrors would cause minute distortions of the image that can be corrected for in software.

https://space.stackexchange.com/que...he-james-webb-space-telescope-too-unprotected

 

[NoSoupforyou]

just hope it not the same team that built the Hubble. There be no Shuttle rescue missions if they do.

 

[Thebobo]

yea it was just last week that they upped it a year to 2019.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The site where it will be deployed SEL2 or Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 is one of the least gravitationally attractive sites in near Earth orbit. There would be very infrequent micro-meteorite hits and of the ones that do occur the small holes punctured in the mirrors would cause minute distortions of the image that can be corrected for in software.

https://space.stackexchange.com/que...he-james-webb-space-telescope-too-unprotected

Yeah I was thinking that too, that orbit is probably not very likely to have much get attracted in it.

 

[Rumpltzer]

The JWST is just a few minutes walk from my office. I should check it out before it's testing is done.

I go over there about once a month to see what state it's in.

 

[Paratus]

I go over there about once a month to see what state it's in.

Are you out at JSC where they've been doing tests (vibration tests I thought)?

 

[Thebobo]

It's really is exciting, and nerve racking at the same time. We've been waiting for so long and so many delays. And so much could go wrong, the launch could go bad, deployment could fail, not sure if I'll be able to watch the launch lol. But than thankfully the Ariane 5 rocket is extremely reliable with only two catastrophic failures out some hundred launches. Still the deployment of the shield has me worried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK_yguLapgA