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James Webb Telescope

Scientific discovery and discussion
XFool
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James Webb Telescope

#449633

Postby XFool » October 12th, 2021, 7:41 pm

James Webb super-telescope arrives at launch site

BBC News

The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope has arrived in French Guiana to prepare for its 18 December launch.

"The $10bn (£7.3bn) James Webb observatory was delivered to South America by ship."

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#451072

Postby XFool » October 18th, 2021, 6:35 pm

$10bn James Webb Space Telescope unpacked in Kourou

BBC News

Engineers have unboxed the James Webb Space Telescope in French Guiana and will now prepare it for launch.

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#455374

Postby XFool » November 3rd, 2021, 5:19 pm

James Webb: Hubble telescope successor faces 'two weeks of terror'

BBC News

So much could go wrong, but the engineering teams believe they have all eventualities covered

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#456385

Postby SteMiS » November 7th, 2021, 9:07 pm

Looking forward to the results. The telescope can detect infra red (which isn't affected by space dust) at a much higher resolution than before and will allow us to 'see' the atmospheres of planets of other nearby stars and possibly detect signs of life. Of particular interest is the TRAPPIST-1 system, a mere 39 light years away, where there are 7 planets, of which 3 are in the habitable zone (the right temperature for liquid water).

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 ... exoplanets

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#456664

Postby XFool » November 8th, 2021, 10:02 pm

...I think the really big point about the James Webb Telescope being an infra-red telescope is that it will be able to see further back in time than the Hubble telescope. Looking deeper into space (further back in time) means looking at objects that are more and more red shifted, due to the expansion of the universe. Look far enough and they are red shifted right out of the spectral range of visible light telescopes such as Hubble. Hubble can only ever see so far back.

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#460706

Postby ReformedCharacter » November 24th, 2021, 10:14 pm

Launch postponed due to an anomaly:

NASA announced that the James Webb Space Telescope's launch was postponed to no earlier than December 22nd due to an incident that occurred during launch prep. The anomaly was due to a clamp band that shook the telescope unexpectedly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfLoayApkk4

RC

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#463471

Postby XFool » December 6th, 2021, 12:52 pm

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

Quanta Magazine

The James Webb Space Telescope has been designed to answer many of the core questions that have animated astronomers over the past half-century. With a $10 billion price tag, it is one of the most ambitious engineering initiatives ever attempted. But for it to achieve its potential — nothing less than to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it — a lot of things have to work just right.

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#463529

Postby NotSure » December 6th, 2021, 3:20 pm

It is apparently sensitive enough to detect a candle on one of Jupiter's moons!

https://www.ralspace.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/First-instrument-for-the-JWST-is-completed-and-handed-over-to-NASA.aspx

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#465291

Postby moorfield » December 12th, 2021, 4:30 pm

XFool wrote: If It Works.



But for it to achieve its potential — nothing less than to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it — a lot of things have to work just right.



Yes I was surprised to read there seems to be a lot of "unfurling" to be done en route to its L2 orbit. Let's hope they've tested, tested and tested again. If it works, it will be truly game changing. If it doesn't, I'm sure some will be reaching for those "a**e-covering" emails they wrote ...



And checked the testing.

Again.

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#465301

Postby kiloran » December 12th, 2021, 4:51 pm

moorfield wrote:
XFool wrote: If It Works.



But for it to achieve its potential — nothing less than to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it — a lot of things have to work just right.



Yes I was surprised to read there seems to be a lot of "unfurling" to be done en route to its L2 orbit. Let's hope they've tested, tested and tested again. If it works, it will be truly game changing. If it doesn't, I'm sure some will be reaching for those "a**e-covering" emails they wrote ...

And checked the testing.

Again.

I read somewhere that there are over 300 single points of failure.

"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

--kiloran

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#465309

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 12th, 2021, 5:15 pm

kiloran wrote:I read somewhere that there are over 300 single points of failure.

"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

--kiloran

I don't know if that includes the Ariane 5 launch vehicle which despite being considered reliable has a c. 4.5% failure rate. Maybe it's insured. It would be an expensive claim at c. $10B :)

RC

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#465316

Postby Lootman » December 12th, 2021, 5:38 pm

kiloran wrote:
moorfield wrote: I was surprised to read there seems to be a lot of "unfurling" to be done en route to its L2 orbit. Let's hope they've tested, tested and tested again. If it works, it will be truly game changing. If it doesn't, I'm sure some will be reaching for those "a**e-covering" emails they wrote ...

And checked the testing.

Again.

I read somewhere that there are over 300 single points of failure.

"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Does that 300 number mean that each of those items has no backup system? Usually aerospace craft have duplicate systems, sometimes triplicate systems, meaning that various items can fail and the craft is still viable.

Have you flown an Airbus A380? It has 4 million parts. Presumably a few of them fail regularly but there has not been a single crash, so far.

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#465327

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 12th, 2021, 6:19 pm

Lootman wrote:Does that 300 number mean that each of those items has no backup system? Usually aerospace craft have duplicate systems, sometimes triplicate systems, meaning that various items can fail and the craft is still viable.

Have you flown an Airbus A380? It has 4 million parts. Presumably a few of them fail regularly but there has not been a single crash, so far.

About 28 minutes after liftoff, Webb will detach from its launch vehicle and begin "the most complex sequence of deployments ever attempted in a single space mission...

There are 344 single-point-of-failure items on average," Menzel said about the Webb mission, adding that "approximately 80% of those are associated with the deployment … It's hard to avoid when you have a release mechanism. It's hard to put full redundancy into that...

Webb has 144 release mechanisms "which all must work perfectly".

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-deployment-points-of-failure

RC

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#466091

Postby XFool » December 15th, 2021, 2:38 pm

An extended BBC article on the JW telescope, in the days leading up to its launch.

James Webb: A $10bn machine in search of the end of darkness

BBC News

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#466097

Postby pje16 » December 15th, 2021, 3:19 pm

Fascinating article - thanks
all of a sudden I feel very very small ;)

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#467160

Postby XFool » December 18th, 2021, 10:18 pm

James Webb Space Telescope given revised 24 December launch

BBC News

US and European officials have confirmed 24 December for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

"Engineers completed final checks on Friday before closing the observatory behind the nose cone of its Ariane rocket."

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#467792

Postby stevensfo » December 21st, 2021, 2:13 pm

SteMiS wrote:Looking forward to the results. The telescope can detect infra red (which isn't affected by space dust) at a much higher resolution than before and will allow us to 'see' the atmospheres of planets of other nearby stars and possibly detect signs of life. Of particular interest is the TRAPPIST-1 system, a mere 39 light years away, where there are 7 planets, of which 3 are in the habitable zone (the right temperature for liquid water).

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 ... exoplanets


Well, having been a great fan of Douglas Adams, I do hope that the first thing they see in the Trappist1 system, is an even bigger and extremely intimidating telescope looking right back at them! 8-)


Steve

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#468382

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 24th, 2021, 3:45 pm

Launch time 12:20 pm 25th Dec. Can watch here:

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

RC

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#468389

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 24th, 2021, 4:24 pm

The Insane Engineering of James Webb Telescope:

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

RC

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Re: James Webb Telescope

#468483

Postby NotSure » December 25th, 2021, 12:43 pm

Phew! So far, so good. I was a bit worried about another Christmas day space event after the last one..............

https://www.techradar.com/uk/how-to/how-to-watch-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-launch-online


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