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James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This will enable investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's design and development and partnered with two main agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, ...
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Optical Telescope Element
Optical Telescope Element (OTE) is a sub-section of the James Webb Space Telescope, a large infrared space telescope launched on , consisting of its main mirror, secondary mirrors, the framework and controls to support the mirrors, and various thermal and other systems. The OTE collects the light and sends it to the science instruments in Webb's Integrated Science Instrument Module. The OTE has been compared to being the " eye" of the telescope and the backplane of it to being the " spine". The primary mirror is a tiled assembly of 18 hexagonal elements, each from flat to flat. This combination yields an effective aperture of and a total collecting surface of . Secondary mirrors complete anastigmatic imaging optics with effective 20 focal ratio and focal length of . The main three-mirror telescope is a Korsch-type design, and it feeds into the Aft Optics Subsystem (part of OTE), which in turn feeds into the Integrated Science Instrument Module which holds the science instr ...
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NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968-1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management f ...
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Guiana Space Centre
The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is suitable as a location for a spaceport, because of its equatorial location and open sea to the east. The European Space Agency (ESA), the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), the French space agency CNES (National Centre for Space Studies), the Space Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azercosmos) and the commercial company Arianespace conduct launches from Kourou. It was used by the ESA to send supplies to the International Space Station using the Automated Transfer Vehicle. History In 1964 Guiana was selected to become the spaceport of France, replacing France's first launch site Centre interarmées d'essais d'engins spéciaux in Hammag ...
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Ariane Flight VA256
Ariane flight VA256 was an Ariane 5 rocket flight that launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space on 25 December 2021. It was 2021's final Ariane flight, its most valuable payload to date, and the Ariane mission. The launch was described by NASA as "flawless" and "perfect". Launch configuration Rocket Ariane 5 is a heavy lift two-stage rocket with two solid fuel boosters. It was used in its ''ECA'' variant, which offers the highest payload mass capacity. The total launch mass of the vehicle is of the order of . Payload The only payload on the flight was the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a NASA/ESA space-based observatory. The launch is one of the European Space Agency's contributions to the project. The telescope had a launch mass of about and a design lifetime of 5 to 10 years. Preparation campaign Arrival in Kourou The payload arrived in Kourou, French Guiana, on where it was unloaded from the MN ''Colibri'' cargo ship and transported to the space centr ...
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NIRSpec
The NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) is one of the four scientific instruments flown on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST is the follow-on mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and is developed to receive more information about the origins of the universe by observing infrared light from the first stars and galaxies. In comparison to HST, its instruments will allow looking further back in time and will study the so-called Dark Ages during which the universe was opaque, about 150 to 800 million years after the Big Bang. The NIRSpec instrument is a multi-object spectrograph and is capable of simultaneously measuring the near-infrared spectrum of up to 100 objects like stars or galaxies with low, medium and high spectral resolutions. The observations are performed in a 3 arcmin × 3 arcmin field of view over the wavelength range from 0.6 µm to 5.0 µm. It also features a set of slits and an aperture for high contrast spectroscopy of individual sources, ...
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Fine Guidance Sensor And Near Infrared Imager And Slitless Spectrograph
Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS-NIRISS) is an instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that combines a Fine Guidance Sensor and a science instrument, a near-infrared imager and a spectrograph. The FGS/NIRISS was designed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and built by Honeywell as part of an international project to build a large infrared space telescope with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). FGS-NIRISS observes light from the wavelengths of 0.8 to 5.0 microns. The instrument has four different observing modes. Physically the FGS and NIRISS are combined, but optically they are separate with the FGS being used by the telescope to point it, whereas NIRISS is an independent science instrument. The spectroscopic mode is capable of doing exoplanet spectroscopy. The detector for NIRISS is a 2048 × 2048 pixel mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) array, where each pixel is ...
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MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument)
MIRI, or Mid-Infrared Instrument, is an instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI is a camera and a spectrograph that observes mid to long infrared radiation from 5 to 28 microns. It also has coronagraphs, especially for observing exoplanets. Whereas most of the other instruments on Webb can see from the start of near infrared, or even as short as orange visible light, MIRI can see longer wavelength light. MIRI uses silicon arrays doped with arsenic to make observations at these wavelengths. The imager is designed for wide views but the spectrograph has a smaller view. Because it views the longer wavelengths it needs to be cooler than the other instruments (see Infrared astronomy), and it has an additional cooling system. The cooling system for MIRI includes a Pulse Tube precooler and a Joule-Thomson Loop heat exchanger. This allowed MIRI to be cooled down to a temperature of 7 kelvins during operations in space. Overview The spectrograph can observe wavelengths be ...
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NIRCam
NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) is an instrument aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. It has two major tasks, as an imager from 0.6 to 5 micron wavelength, and as a wavefront sensor to keep the 18-section mirrors functioning as one. In other words, it is a camera and is also used to provide information to align the 18 segments of the primary mirror. It is an infrared camera with ten mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector arrays, and each array has an array of 2048×2048 pixels. The camera has a field of view of 2.2×2.2 arc minutes with an angular resolution of 0.07 arcsec at 2 microns. NIRCam is also equipped with coronagraphs, which helps to collect data on exoplanets near stars. It helps with imaging anything next to a much brighter object, because the coronagraph blocks that light. NIRCam is housed in the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), to which it is attached by struts. It is designed to operate at , so it can detect infrared radiation at this wavelength. ...
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Space Observatory
A space telescope or space observatory is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971. Space telescopes avoid the filtering and distortion ( scintillation) of electromagnetic radiation which they observe, and avoid light pollution which ground-based observatories encounter. They are divided into two types: Satellites which map the entire sky (astronomical survey), and satellites which focus on selected astronomical objects or parts of the sky and beyond. Space telescopes are distinct from Earth imaging satellites, which point toward Earth for satellite imaging, applied for weather analysis, espionage, and other types of information gathering. History Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler in 1837 discussed the advantages of ...
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Integrated Science Instrument Module
Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is a component of the James Webb Space Telescope, a large international infrared space telescope launched on . ISIM is the heart of the JWST, and holds the main science payload which includes four science instruments and the fine guidance sensor. ISIM is the spacecraft chassis and instruments that take the light from the main mirror and convert that into the science data that is then sent back to Earth. The other two major sections of the JWST are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) (mirrors and their structure) and the Spacecraft Element (SE), which includes the spacecraft bus and sunshield. ISIM has a mass of 1400 kg (3086 lb), about 23% of the mass of the JWST. The infrared camera instrument integrated with ISIM passed its thermal tests in early 2016. ISIM underwent intense thermal cold testing in late 2015 to early 2016. NIRcam is extremely important to JWST, because it's not only a sensitive infrared camera, but it is also us ...
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Orange (colour)
Orange is the colour between yellow and red on the visible spectrum, spectrum of light, visible light. Human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometres. In traditional colour theory, it is a secondary colour of pigments, produced by mixing yellow and red. In the RGB colour model, it is a tertiary colour. It is named after the orange (fruit), fruit of the same name. The orange colour of many fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and Orange (fruit), oranges, comes from carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment. These pigments convert the light energy that the plants absorb from the Sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth. Similarly, the hues of autumn leaves are from the same pigment after chlorophyll is removed. In Europe and America, surveys show that orange is the colour most associated with amusement, the unconventional, extroversion, warmth, fire, energy, activity, danger ...
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Spacecraft Bus (JWST)
The spacecraft bus is the primary support element of the James Webb Space Telescope, launched on . It hosts a multitude of computing, communication, propulsion, and structural components. The other three elements of the JWST are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE), the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) and the sunshield. Region 3 of ISIM is also inside the spacecraft bus. Region 3 includes the ISIM Command and Data Handling subsystem and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) cryocooler. The spacecraft bus must structurally support the 6.5 ton space telescope, while weighing only . It is made primarily of graphite composite material. It was assembled in the U.S. state of California by 2015, and then it had to be integrated with the rest of the space telescope leading up to its planned 2018 launch. The bus can provide pointing precision of one arcsecond and isolates vibration down to two milliarcseconds. The fine pointing is done by the JWST fine guidance mirror, obviating t ...
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