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In my opinion, the Space Shuttle was hands down one of the coolest and most impressive feats of engineering that the United States ever designed. Something about the collaboration of sheer size and power alongside the delicate and intricate control of the vessel amazes me to this day. But, not everyone saw the Space Shuttle as a success. In reality, it was actually quite the failure. 

 

When the Space Shuttle was first developed, it actually had similar goals to the SpaceX Falcon 9. It was meant to be reusable, with two detachable liquid fuel boosters, a smaller cargo hold, heat protection similar to the X-15 spaceplane, and it was supposed to be cheap to operate with a quick mission turnaround. In short this did not happen. Thinking historically, the Space Shuttle program was beginning during the 1970’s. This is when the Vietnam War was getting into full swing and many of the United States’ resources were being shifted towards the war effort. This left NASA with a much smaller budget than they had anticipated, just 5 billion dollars to be exact. 

5 billion dollars may seem like a lot of money to the average Joe, but 5 billion dollars is an incredibly tight budget for the development of an entirely new Spacecraft. In a study by a firm called Mathematica, it was estimated that the development of the reusable boosters themselves would cost upwards of 10 billion dollars. In order to get more funding, NASA reached out to the U.S.A.F. The Air Force was more than happy to contribute to the funding of the Space Shuttle, but they demanded jurisdiction over the size and capacity of the cargo hold on the Shuttle. The Air Force required a much larger and heavier cargo hold than before, which pushed NASA to make even more changes.

Since the spacecraft needed to be so much larger, heat dispersion techniques like on the X-15 were impossible. NASA had to resort to ceramic heat tiles. There were hundreds of these tiles that needed to be fastened to the outside of the Shuttle. This caused the Shuttle to weigh much more than beforehand, so NASA had to go back to the drawing board on what type of boosters they could use. Because of the strict budget restraints, NASA could no longer use the more expensive and reusable liquid fueled rockets. They had to switch over to solid fuel rockets which were cheaper, but much more powerful. 

At this point, NASA had a Space Shuttle that was far from their original design. It used different boosters, was much larger, had heat protection tiles, and was built with concerningly tight monetary budgets. All of the changes and corner cutting led to disaster. The Space Shuttle had two major catastrophes, cost more than anticipated to operate, and took ages to get back in shape for another mission. 

 

The first disaster among the Space Shuttles was the Challenger disaster of 1986. This happened due to the O-rings in the solid engines malfunctioning. The launch date was cooler in temperature than the other Space Shuttle launches. The lower temperature shrunk the O-rings in the booster leading to an oxygen leak and, soon after, disaster. The entire disaster could have been prevented without the need for the solid boosters. This was one of the risks that the space program understood when choosing the solid boosters, but had no choice but to accept with the budget constraints. 

The second disaster was the Columbia disaster of 2003. This disaster occurred due to the problematic heat dissipation tiles fitted to the outside of the Shuttle. When the vessel was reentering the atmosphere, some of the heat protection tiles ripped off of the Shuttle. The exposure of the internal space Shuttle caused a rapid increase in heat, explosion, and ultimately disintegration. This was another example of how the design constraints caused the STS to fail. If the Shuttle had been designed as it originally was supposed to be, the Shuttle would not have used the risky heat tiles.

Finally, the Shuttle was a financial disaster. Each mission cost the Shuttle more than 12 months of repairs. This was much longer than anticipated, especially since the Shuttle was designed to be quickly returned to space. In addition, the Shuttle cost more than anticipated to operate. So ultimately the STS program was a big use of the Nation’s money. 

 

All in all though, the STS program was one of the Nation’s proudest eras. The STS launched hundreds of successful missions and paved the way for more space travel in the future. The Shuttle program influenced people across the nation and gained support for the exploration of the unknown!

At first glance, the phrase “Nuke Mars” seems a little scary and not at all realistic, but it is actually what scientist and inventor Elon Musk wants to do. Musk is the proud owner and CEO of SpaceX, the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space Station. It is safe to say Musk is a very reputable man in the space industry, and his idea to nuke Mars isn’t actually that crazy!

In the future Musk wants to inhabit the planet Mars, but currently Mars isn’t habitable for humans. There is a severe lack of an atmosphere on Mars. This means that the planet doesn’t retain any of its heat or gasses. As of now the surface of mars is constantly being stripped by solar radiation, magnetic storms, and its water is completely frozen. So to fix this problem, an atmosphere needs to be created. 

 

An atmosphere is simply a barrier of gasses around a planet. Earth has an atmosphere and it is what is responsible for keeping us warm, holding in gas, and protecting us from solar wind and radiation. To create an atmosphere, a large amount of gas needs to be created at once. This is where Musk’s nuke plan comes into play. Ideally, multiple low-fallout, nuclear fusion reactions will take place simultaneously on the poles of Mars. The immense heat created by these reactions would theoretically create enough heat to melt the water in Mars’ ice caps. The melting of the water would release CO2 which is one of the most prominent greenhouse gasses found on Earth. 

As we know from our experiences here with global warming, greenhouse gasses are responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and warming up the planet. The same idea goes for Mars. The CO2 would trap the heat and an atmosphere would be created. The temperature of Mars would rise to a habitable temperature and people could begin to settle and terraform further. 

Another more popular opinion, among the general population, is to use massive mirrors on the poles of Mars to channel the Sun’s heat. The channeled heat would be used to heat up the ice just as the nuclear method would. Although, despite the general population’s interest in this idea, likely due to their ignorant fear of nuclear bombs, it has many flaws. For one, the mirrors would need to be massive. This would require lots of natural resources and many different missions to Mars. This would be very expensive and not something that Musk could do easily. On the other hand, the nuclear method requires less money, less missions, and has fewer places of potential error. 

 

It is too far off to tell now what Musk will end up doing, or what the government will let him do, but the idea is there and it is sound. Life on Mars is possible, and the science needed to get there is fascinating. The human race is full of new ideas, and this might be the next big thing!

As seen in this blog, I am quite the space nerd. I am not sure exactly what first got me interested in what was beyond our atmosphere. It definitely wasn’t a specific moment, but there are many times and things that I can think of that have increased my love for the universe. Today, I will briefly talk about the movie Interstellar, the Martian movie, Cherry Springs State Park, and SpaceX.

 

To begin, the movie Interstellar is one of the best movies of all time. It is the perfect mix of an incredible story and science. The movie covers the journey of a team of cosmic explorers on a mission to find a new home for the inhabitants of planet Earth. In the movie, the Earth has reached a point where it can no longer sustain the amount of life living on it. The explorers are sent deep into the universe. Along the way, they undergo and experience numerous scientific phenomena. They witness how gravity can affect the way that time moves and changes. They witness the first ever rendering of a black hole. They witness planets with geography like never seen before. The explorers travel through wormholes. They even mess with string theory and the idea that time is not in a linear dimension. This movie is a great way for people interested in astrophysics to visualize their ideas, and it is also a great movie to get people excited about space travel.

Next, the Martian movie and book are awesome examples of things that build excitement for space. The Martian covers the journey of a fictional astronaut, Mark Watney. Watney was working on the surface of Mars when a storm knocked him out and severely injured him. His team unknowingly left him for dead. The rest of the movie is very exciting. Watney engineers ways for him to survive on the surface of Mars without the help of others. He jerry rigs a communication device in order to contact Earth. He grows his own potatoes on Mars. He upgrades a rover to travel for longer. He even modifies a spaceship in order for him to leave the planet himself. This movie does a good job highlighting the dangers of space and the exciting engineering that goes on there as well. It is inspiring and educational to see how Watney uses what he has in order to survive. This movie was always interesting to me because of the engineering that it contained.

Finally, I have always loved Cherry Springs State Park. It is located on top of a mountain, roughly two hours North of State College. At Cherry Springs, there are vast, open fields for stargazing, concrete pads for telescopes, observatories, and a bunch of people who are excited by what lies beyond Earth. I truly encourage you to go and camp there. During a new moon, there are more stars than you could ever imagine. Depending on the planetary positions, you can typically see all 7 of the other planets in our universe in one night. It is so dark there that you can see the satellites going by as well as shooting stars. It is something that I believe everyone needs to experience. 

Finally, after hearing about these ways in which I have been inspired to learn more about the universe, I hope that you will go out and search for experiences of your own. We are such small specks in such a massive universe. We know so little, but we can explore so much. Space is a place where we can truly go new places and I urge you to check out some of the things I mentioned above for your own enjoyment.

What are the three types of galaxies? Most people have a general idea of what a galaxy is, but when asked to describe the difference between the three types, they have no idea where to start. To begin, it is important to understand what a galaxy is in the first place. Galaxies are concentrations of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and some are fated to collide, like the Milky Way and Andromeda. 

 

There are three main classifications of galaxies: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Elliptical galaxies account for about one third of all of the galaxies in the universe. They vary from elongated shapes and sizes to smaller and more circular shapes and sizes. Compared to the other two types of galaxies, they contain a lesser amount of gas and dust, but are replaced by older and dormant stars. In rare cases these galaxies can merge together to form giant galaxies, spanning roughly 300,000 light years, called giant ellipticals. 

Spiral galaxies are typically more flat and contain more blue stars. They often have yellowish bulges in their centers caused by large amounts of gas and dust that are pulled into the center by a strong gravitational force. An example of a spiral galaxy is the Milky Way Galaxy that we reside in. If you ever go outside and look up at the Milky Way, you will see that the majority of the galaxy is only in one strip along the sky. That is due to the aforementioned flat characteristics of a spiral galaxy. There appears to be a strip of concentration because we are looking out along the galaxy’s plane. 

Spiral galaxies are broken into two different types: normal spirals and barred spirals. Barred spirals are exactly as the word describes them. There is a bar of stars that runs through the center bulge. In a normal spiral there is no bar of stars running through the center, but eventually there will be. This is due to the theory that spiral galaxies are actually stars being formed. Spiral galaxies are constantly collecting dust, gas, and debris. Eventually, these collected masses will combust and become a star!

 

Finally, there are irregular galaxies. Irregular galaxies are not typical galaxies. They are formed with very little dust and are neither disk-like or elliptical. They are typically incredibly old as they existed before being sucked into a spiral or elliptical galaxy.

 

Beyond just the different types of galaxies, it is also easy to wonder how these different types of galaxies came into existence. The typical astronomer will tell you that it all began during the big bang, the explosion which many believe created the universe 10 to 20 billion years ago. They believe that the gravity waves caused by the big bang began to compress and decompress the gasses that were floating in the universe. Then, according to the bottom-up theory, clusters began to form and assembled into larger units that today we know to be galaxies.

Many people have heard of the black hole. They are some of the most fascinating and dangerous anomalies in the universe, and they make for some great sci-fi scenes. So what exactly is a black hole? A black hole typically is formed from the collapse of a star. When the gravity a star creates exceeds its ability to stay formed in three dimensional space, the star essentially implodes into a greedy abyss of gravity. Once the star is pulled in, the mass of the black hole is increased and therefore the gravity is increased. At this point the black hole will continue to strengthen. So in simpler terms, a black hole is a supermassive anomaly in the universe that uses its immense gravity to eternally pull more and more into it. The gravity of a black hole can get so strong that light itself cannot even escape it. This is why they are dubbed black holes. To put this strength into perspective, the Earth is being warped and manipulated by black holes that are over 1.3 billion light years away! Black holes are some seriously dangerous and strong forces in the universe.

Now that you understand what a black hole is, we can look into the first-ever accurately rendered black hole, found in the movie Interstellar. Interstellar is my personal favorite sci-fi movie and it’s black hole scene is one of the most scientifically accurate scenes in movie history, as well as one of the most renowned scenes in sci-fi history. The producers of Interstellar wanted a scene that was scientifically accurate. To achieve this, the producers gathered a team of astrophysicists. The astrophysicists were tasked with using the equations of a black hole to derive visual equations for a black hole. With these new equations, the producers input the equations into a supercomputer to be rendered by video effects software. Each scene was so complex that it took roughly 100 hours to render. When the final product was complete, the producers had a never seen before look at a black hole, but it didn’t look like they had expected.

The scene was so scientifically accurate that the scientists were unable to comprehend beforehand what the black hole actually should have looked like. What they saw was a massive black hole with intersecting rings around the perimeter. Science had always concluded that there should be one ring around the black hole like Saturn or the Andromeda galaxy, and they didn’t know why. After some more research and mathematical exploration, the scientists learned that the black hole actually bent the light passing by it, so when looking at the black hole, you were seeing all of the way around it! The discoveries of the black hole scene in Interstellar were so accurate that scientific papers were actually written after it. One paper was written about gravitational scattering and the reason why the light bends around the black hole, and the other was written for the VFX community on astronomical renderings. 

It is crazy to see how a sci-fi movie can better show and render black holes than even the best scientists can!

Last week we talked about Newtonian and Einsteinian theories on relativity. We learned that, at one point in time, scientists believed that time was always constant. Einstein proved that time isn’t actually a constant and can be affected by the gravity surrounding it. To prove this theory, that gravity and bend and stretch reality as we know it, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory was created. LIGO is the world’s most precise instrument, and it is shaping the way we view the universe. Get ready to learn how it all works!

Unlike a typical observatory, LIGO doesn’t search for light. The only thing it can measure is gravitational waves. Given that LIGO doesn’t need to see light, and how precise it is, the entire system is isolated from the outside world. LIGO looks like a really big coordinate plane on the surface of the Earth, unlike the typical white domes that people typically relate to the term observatory. LIGO doesn’t get the luxury of gazing out into the cosmos, but it does get to see some of the most revolutionary phenomenon in physics.

LIGO is an incredibly complicated instrument, but the way in which it works is quite simple. View LIGO as a big “L” on the ground. A beam of high energy light is shot down a tube at a partial mirror. The light is then split by the partial mirror so that LIGO can detect gravitational waves in both the X and Y axis. To split the light, the partial mirror lets some of the light pass through, while directing the other half of the light 90 degrees to the side. The two beams of light then travel down perpendicular tubes roughly 4km long. The light then reaches the end where it bounces off of a mirror. The light then returns down the 4km tube to the partial mirror, where the light is once again combined into one beam. This is where LIGO gets interesting, but first one needs to understand what waves in antiphase are.

Waves in antiphase are very interesting things to play with and they are present in any interaction between two waves. Waves in antiphase are created whenever one wave cancels another wave. For example, take a sin wave and a sin wave 180 degrees out of phase. This will cause the two waves to cancel each other out. A practical experiment of this is to take two speakers. One speaker is connected to the amp with the correct polarity. The other speaker is connected with opposing polarity. When a song is played at max volume, there is no sound coming out of the speaker. This is interesting because both speakers are turned up to max volume, but the waves are cancelling each other out.

This antiphase phenomenon is exactly how the LIGO detector works. When the lights combine after going through the beam splitter twice, they are in anti phases. If a gravitational anomaly were to appear and ripple over the Earth, the physical dimensions of space and time will be altered. This would cause the beams to come back at different times, leading to a change in the waves’ synchronization. The waves would no longer be in antiphase and scientists could measure the difference between the two.

Most people think that time is constant. They think that time will tick at the same speed wherever they go in the universe. According to Albert Einstein, this is false. Einstein proved that gravity and acceleration are actually able to change the way in which time travels. For example, with the warping of time due to gravity, people who are on the space station are actually aging slower than everyone else on Earth! This is due to the idea of general relativity. 

 

In simple terms, the theory of general relativity is the basic idea that, instead of being an invisible force that attracts objects to one another, gravity is a curving or warping of space. The more massive an object, the more it warps the space around it. This is able to change the way in which time warps as well. To explain further, one needs to understand relativity and how time works.

To start off, one needs to understand the effects of gravity on objects. Gravity is the reason humans are stuck to the face of the Earth and it is the force preventing us from floating away into the abyss of space. Gravity isn’t something that just exists either. Gravity is formed by any massive object in the universe. For example, every planet makes its own gravity. The planet pulls space in towards itself, getting it to accelerate at ever increasing speeds. It also depends on the mass of the object. For example, a pencil will create its own gravitational field, but the gravitational pull will be so miniscule and small that it simply could not be detected with modern technology. On the other hand, the acceleration of gravity on the surface of the Earth (at sea level) is -9.8m/s/s. As one gets farther and farther from the center of mass of the object, the gravity decreases more and more. To put this in perspective, if one were to go to the beach and weigh themselves and then go weigh themselves on top of mount Everest, they would be slightly less heavy on the top of Everest. This is because they are farther from the center of gravity. It is also important to note that gravity only affects weight, not mass. Mass is how much matter something is composed of, and weight is how much gravity affects the mass.

 

The next concept is that acceleration and gravity are essentially the same thing. This is dubbed the equivalence principle. Consider someone weighing themselves on a scale at the beach and they weigh 80kg. Then consider someone in outer space riding a spaceship accelerating at 9.8m/s/s. (remember the acceleration of gravity at sea level is -9.8m/s/s) Would the person weigh the same amount on the spaceship in outer space as they would on Earth? The answer is yes, and only because the acceleration of the rocket matches the acceleration of the gravity on Earth. This proves that acceleration and gravity can act in replacement of one another.

 

Let’s relate these concepts to a physical example, like light in an elevator. If a person were to stand in an elevator and shine a laser at the wall opposing them parallel to the floor of the elevator, the laser and the laser’s point on the wall should be at the same height. Now let’s assume the elevator is accelerating upwards extremely fast. In this scenario, the laser and its corresponding mark would be at different heights. The mark on the wall of the elevator would actually be lower!

 

One of the common principles in the universe is that light will always take the straightest path, or the shortest path. In the stationary elevator, this path is straight across from the laser onto the wall. In the moving elevator, the path is not actually a straight line. This is confusing because physicists had always figured that the straight line was the shortest path. This idea can further be visualised by thinking about the fastest way to get from the north pole to the south pole. The true fastest way would be through the core of the Earth in a straight line, but that isn’t possible. Since humans cannot go through the core of the Earth, they go around the curve of the Earth. This is an example of how the shortest possible path isn’t always the straightest one. 

 

Time follows the same pattern as light does in this scenario. As the gravity warps the fabric of space around a massive body, time warps as well. To explain this, it is important to know that light has been proven to travel at the same speed in the presence of gravity and in the absence of gravity. Now remember that the shortest path for light to travel isn’t always a straight line. With this information we can use the formula for speed (s=d/t) to determine how time warps. Consider light traveling from point A to point B with a set distance. The speed of light is always constant, and the distance is fixed, so time equals distance divided by speed. Now consider light traveling from point C to point D but in a curved line due to gravity. The speed is constant, but the distance is longer than before. This means that the numerator is bigger than the previous equation. With a bigger numerator, this means that the time it takes for the light to travel the exact same distance is longer. Therefore time has just been warped.

To sum it all up: gravity affects the accelerations that the universe is subject to. The accelerations are responsible for the compression and decompression of space and that affects the distance at which light travels. Since light travels at a constant speed, the difference in distance outputs a change in time. That’s all there is to it!

Similarly to optical telescopes that collect visual light, focus it to a point, amplify it, and produce an image, radio telescopes do the same with radio light. They add another piece to the puzzle that is exploring the cosmos. Visible light is all us humans can see with our naked eyes, but there is much more than just visible light coming from a star, quasar, or nebula.

To understand how a radio telescope works, you need to understand what a radio light wave is. Radio waves are the least powerful, lowest frequency, and highest wavelength spectrum of light that humans have discovered. The wavelengths for radio waves can range from one mm to close to 10 meters! To put that into perspective, visible light ranges from .4 to .7 micrometers. Refer to the light wavelength chart below to visualise the difference in waves.

To collect the radio waves, we use a radio telescope. These telescopes are different from others in a few key ways. They are massive, they are incredibly susceptible to interference, they can work during most conditions, and they can send signals out. The telescopes are huge because of how long the radio waves are. In order to capture a clear image of something, you need a lot of data. Since the radio waves take up so much space, a large collection area needs to be created. This can look a few different ways. Many radio telescopes look like big satellite dishes that are built into the ground, others look like many smaller satellite dishes all lined up in an array. Pictured below are the arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico. These are two very well known and frequently used telescopes. The Arecibo telescope uses one large dish to gather enough data, and the VLA uses many smaller dishes to gather enough data.

Radio telescopes are also very susceptible to interference. Radio waves coming from outer space are often incredibly weak by the time they arrive here to earth. This causes problems when people begin to use cell phones, watch television, or listen to the radio. Cell phones themselves emit radio waves that are billions of times more powerful than the radio waves as they enter our atmosphere. Because of the extreme sensitivity, radio telescopes are placed in places where there is little to no population. For example, the VLA in New Mexico is surrounded by mountains and hours from the nearest city. This allows the scopes to gather the faint cosmic radio waves without disruption from natural and manufactured radio waves.

For the purpose of this blog, I’ll explain how a massive dish radio telescope works. As light comes down from the cosmos, the massive dish on the ground focuses all of the light to a point. The dish does this because it is curved like a magnifying glass. The focused light is then bounced around in a gregorian dome. This dome will always focus the light to a single point. This is important because the dome actually moves. Since the dish is focused straight away from the surface of the earth, the telescope appears as if it cannot be directed at anything except for what the earth allows it to be directed at. This is infact false because the Gregorian dome moves around above the dish. This allows it to collect light coming from different parts of the universe. The focused light is then directed towards a receiver that filters out all non-radio light and the radio waves are collected.

With all of that technology and science that goes into collecting radio waves, the images collected are spectacular.

 

Once you start delving into the word of Lagrange points, you will never be able to leave. Literally!!! This is because Lagrange points are positions where the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centrifugal force required for a small object to move with them. Which in Layman’s terms means, they are essentially pockets of no gravity where things aren’t influenced to leave. It is so cool! 

 

There are five Lagrange points, labeled Lagrange 1 through Lagrange 5. Out of the 5 Lagrange points 2 are stable and 3 are unstable. This is simply a metric of how strong the dead zone is. For example, L4 and L5 are at the apex of equilateral triangles with the two other vertices based on the two massive objects. These are the stable Lagrange points. The unstable Lagrange points 1, 3, and 5 lie along an imaginary line connecting the two massive objects. Lagrange point 1 being between the two objects, L2 being opposite the two massive objects on the side of the object of smaller mass, and L3 being outside the object of greater mass. 

For our purpose, we will assume that the two massive objects in question are the Sun and the Earth. In this scenario, L1 lies between the Earth and the Sun, closer to the Earth. This is the point where the Earth’s gravity and the Sun’s gravity are equivalent. This creates a space where the Earth and Sun pull equally on an object, keeping it stable and centered in the Lagrange point. 

 

L2 is on the opposing side of the Earth compared to L1. This is where the Sun and the Earth both pull the L point in the same direction. Now you might ask why the combined gravitational forces don’t move the L point towards them. This is because of centrifugal force. It is the same principle that explains why the clothes are always stuck to the side of the washing machine when it is done the spin cycle. Since the planets are always orbiting the Earth, the L point is always thrown outwards/away from the Sun. (Reference the centrifugal force diagram in the figure below) L2 is the point where the gravity of the Earth and Sun equal the tangential force created by L2’s orbit. This is the location where the JWST is located. It allows for the JWST to always be shielded from the Sun by the Earth, as well as keeping it in position due to the gravity in equilibrium. 

L3 is something that we as humans don’t know much about. It is only proven by math. Since L3 is on the other side of the Sun at all times, we have been unable to reach it. Because of its mysterious nature, it is often used in sci-fi novels and movies.

 

L4 and L5 are very similar. They use centrifugal force and the triangular pull of the Sun and Earth to keep them in place. These are considered to be stable Lagrange points because they are influenced by three different vectors. Centrifugal force is pulling the L point outwards, the Earth is pulling it towards itself, and the Sun is pulling it towards itself. This allows for the L point to be very consistent. This is seen due to the number of asteroids and space debris that are trapped there. L1, L2, and L3 aren’t as stable because they are only held in place by 2 vectors along the same axis. L4 and L5 are like pyramids standing up, when L1, L2, and L3 are like trying to stand on top of a pencil. 

 

And now you know about Lagrange points! It is super interesting how objects in the universe can create their own gravitational fields and even cancel others out. L points have provided unique ways to explore the solar system, and they will be a crucial part of exploration for years to come! Although make sure you don’t read too much about them, you might get stuck!

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Figure 1: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/754/what-is-a-lagrange-point/

Figure 2: https://microbenotes.com/centrifugal-force/

 

Space is crazy! Really really crazy! There is so much to explore, so far to go, and so much to see. Humans have been trying to go further into the unknown for decades now, and they are hard at work on a new way to see farther: The James Webb Space Telescope.

Many people have heard of the Hubble space telescope. It is famous for its pictures of deep space nebulae, baby stars, and that weird flap that was put onto it. Similarly, the JWST plans to look deep into the cosmos at the beginnings of stars and astral forms.

Unlike the Hubble though, the JWST (or Webb) is an infrared telescope. This is really intriguing. Visible light lies between approximately 0.4 to 0.7 µm on the wavelength spectrum and that is what is captured by the Hubble, as well as our own eyes. Infrared, on the other hand, cannot be seen by the naked eye. It lies between approximately 780 nm and 1 mm on the wavelength spectrum and is slightly less powerful than visible light. This is where the JWST will do most of its work.

Infrared telescopes are unique because they show us what visible light can’t. Visible light gets easily obstructed by dust and debris, so a clear line of sight is required to capture a picture of something. For example, the JWST will focus mainly on the formation of stars and other gaseous astral formations. The visible light is blocked by the dust that the star is collecting for its own growth and a clear image cannot be produced. The JWST will be able to search for the much more robust infrared waves. These waves are easily able to penetrate the dust cloud and can easily be picked up by the scope. Because we will be able to see into a star much earlier than we have been able to, we will be able to learn much more about the formation of stars in the universe.

Catching all of that IR light is a massive mirror. The JWST is very large compared to the Hubble. The mirror on the JWST is 6.5 meters in diameter, compared to the still impressive 2.4 meters on the Hubble. Once again, this allows for more light to be captured, and more information to be gathered. The field of view alone will be increased by approximately fifteen percent compared to the Hubble.

In order to protect all of the impressive light-catching machinery, a heat/light shield needs to be fitted onto the scope. Infrared telescopes are very susceptible to heat, so all of the light from the sun, and other bright objects, needs to be shielded in order to get accurate images. Because the telescope itself is so large, the heat shield needs to be large. Infact, it is roughly 14 meters wide and 21 meters long. That is almost the size of a full tennis court!

Unlike the Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope will spend its time orbiting Lagrange point 2. The Hubble orbits the Earth at approximately 570km. The JWST, on the other hand, will orbit approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Lagrange points are one of the most fascinating aspects of the JWST’s mission. In short, Lagrange points are places in the universe between two massive bodies in space where there is little to no pull on an object from the outside. This will allow the JWST to stay positioned in deep space with little to no fuel consumption. It will also be shielded from the sun by the earth’s shadow Stay tuned for an in depth explanation of Lagrange points in an upcoming blog post.

To get the telescope to L2, a large rocket is needed. The JWST is designed to launch using the Ariane 5 rocket, produced by the ESA (European Space Agency). Since the trip is so long (30 days), the Space Shuttle could not be used and the JWST is designed to function with no scheduled maintenance.

Once the JWST gets into position, it will be able to see back in time. This is a very cool phenomenon that occurs when viewing objects in space. Since light moves so slowly, compared to the size of the universe, we are seeing images that occurred long before they reached us. With this information, the JWST is expected to see back to the beginning of time. 13.7 billion years ago, we predicted that the universe was born. That is long before the modern universe came to be. With this information, the JWST could see things that existed before humans even knew about space at all, or even humans themselves!

I know that was a lot of information, and I know it may be overwhelming, or hard to piece together, so I have attached a few links below for you to look into. They explain more about Lagrange points, the JWST, the Hubble, deep space, and more! Tune in next week for a deep dive on Lagrange points!

 

 

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparisonWebbVsHubble.html#wavelength

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg

 

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ImagesContent/heic1406c.jpg