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Experts have completed the deployment of the components of the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope James Webb Space Telescope (JWTS) worth $ 10 billion to study the early stages of the universe. Telescope hardware deployment broadcast led American space agency NASA.
The last step before bringing the observatory into working order – the deployment of the main mirror, was completed at 10:28 am US East Coast time (18:28 Moscow time). Over the next hours, specialists controlled the reliable fixation of the mirrors before calibrating them, transfers Interfax.
The telescope was launched December 25 at 15:20 Moscow time from the launch complex at the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana using a heavy launch vehicle Ariane 5. Bringing the telescope components into working order lasted more than two weeks. During this time, solar panels, communication antennas, heat shield and auxiliary mirrors were deployed.
The James Webb Station, developed by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is an orbiting infrared observatory that will replace the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990. Compared to it, JWTS will be 100 times more powerful thanks to the latest photosensitivity technologies used. Among the main tasks of the James Webb telescope is to detect the light of the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.
According to scientists, the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old. The telescope will be able to detect the radiation of objects that formed about 100-250 million years after the Big Bang that created the Universe. In addition, the tasks of the telescope include the study of planetary systems and the search for signs of the existence of life on exoplanets.
The new space observatory weighing 6.2 tons has a composite (18 hexagonal segments) mirror 6.5 m in diameter with a collecting surface area of 25 m², which will make it possible to view the most distant objects in the Universe. For comparison, Hubble has a 2.4 meter mirror with a collecting surface of 4.5 m².
The James Webb telescope is equipped with a huge five-layer heat shield, the size of which is comparable to that of a tennis court. The screen is designed to protect the observatory from sunlight in order to keep the temperature of the mirror and instruments below -220 degrees. This is necessary for work in the infrared range of radiation.
It is planned that in 29 days after launch, the space telescope will have to reach the so-called L2 Lagrange point, at a distance of about 1.5 million km from the Earth, from where it will begin to carry out its scientific mission in mid-2022. The telescope will operate for 5-10 years.
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