Three Decades Later and NASA’s Newest Space Telescope is Almost Functional

For the past couple of months, newsfeeds have been flooded with articles and information regarding COVID-19, and more recently the nation-wide tension and protests in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd.  And yet, one piece of recent news was powerful enough to unify and rally an entire nation despite such bleak times.  That piece of news was of course the successful launch and docking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the ISS.  While this event was impactful enough to break into the stream of other issues being reported on at this time, many other remarkable scientific developments have occurred over the past couple of months and gone unnoticed because of other news stories at the time.  Another space related enterprise that has recently reached significant, newsworthy milestones is the James Webb Space Telescope.

What is the James Webb Space Telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is being developed by NASA with a mission that includes “observation of the first luminous objects after the Big Bang, the evolution of galaxies, [and] the birth of stars and planetary systems” (Greenhouse).  It will not act as a replacement to the Hubble Space Telescope, but rather as more of a successor to Hubble in the sense that Webb’s viewing capabilities will pick up where Hubble’s left off.  While Hubble’s instruments are able to easily capture wavelengths that fall within the ultra-violet and visible portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, the telescope has very limited infrared capabilities.  Webb’s instruments will be able to capture part of the visible light spectrum, but their main purpose is to observe the universe in the infrared.

Why is a predominantly infrared telescope necessary?

In short, it allows us to see beyond what Hubble is capable of seeing.  As the light emitted from stars and planets billions of light years away travels through space, the light’s wavelength is lengthened and shifts from the ultra-violet and visible spectrums into the infrared spectrum, a phenomenon called redshifting.  At this point, Hubble is no longer able to capture those wavelengths.  As a result, Hubble is only capable of seeing 10-15 billion lightyears away from the earth.  Webb will be able to capture wavelengths that shift into the infrared and see more distant objects that have been more highly redshifted.  Another benefit of capturing infrared light is the ability to see through large clouds of dust.  As stars and planets begin to form, they are cloaked in large clouds of dust that block visible light from passing through, but not infrared light.  Webb will be able to gaze through these massive clouds to see what lays within and beyond the dust (Jenner).

Why is this relevant now?

Development on the JWST began in the mid 90s with a planned launch date in 2007, but numerous delays along with a complete design overhaul in 2005 have pushed the launch date back nearly a decade and a half to March 2021.  Construction on the telescope was completed in August 2019 and thorough testing has been taking place since then (Jenner).  In the past month, a couple of monumental milestones have been reached regarding the telescope’s readiness for launch into space.  At the end of March, the telescope was able to completely deploy its primary mirror into the configuration that it will take in space.  The primary mirror is 6.5 meters tall , making it too large for any available rocket to carry into space.  For this reason, the mirror is constructed out of multiple movable parts that allow for folding so that it can be compact enough to fit into the payload fairing.  Then in mid-May, for the first time ever, the entire telescope was able to successfully fold itself up into the compact size required to fit into the Ariane V rocket that will take it up to space (Jenner).  In the coming months before the planned launch date, the telescope will undergo deployment and stowing tests just one more time.  After decades of development and work, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally nearing its time to shine as the “world’s premier space science observatory” and one of the most ambitious and complex projects NASA has undertaken (Jenner). 

How has COVID-19 affected other space research?

NASA has been operating under additional safety procedures to ensure the safety of their employees but Gregory L. Robinson, the Webb program director at NASA headquarters in Washington D.C., says, “The project continues to make good progress and achieve significant milestones in preparation for upcoming environmental testing.”  The project will continue to assess the still developing situation over the next couple of weeks and make the appropriate adjustments regarding decisions and scheduling.

Most of the observatories here on Earth have had to shut down for the past couple of weeks due to the global pandemic.  In her “Missing Memories of the Universe” article published in Scientific American, Rebecca Oppenheimer likens the light that travels to Earth, some of which came from billions of miles away, to “the memories of the universe.”  But with observatories closed and unable to collect and decipher the photons arriving at Earth, Oppenheimer acknowledges that “many of the universe’s memories that have rained down on Earth over the past couple of months are lost forever.”  While this lost data will never be replaced, she feels that these unprecedented times will yield a new surge of scientific interests for future generations, hopefully leading to incredible discoveries in the future.

This article is not an attempt to distract from the other pressing issues around the United States and the world but rather to encourage all of us that great, scientific progress which will benefit all of humanity is still being made.  Similarly to how SpaceX was able to relieve us all for a moment from the stress of current events, hopefully seeing more of the exciting work that NASA is still carrying out on a daily basis can continue to bring hope to those around the world.

Works Cited:

Greenhouse, Matthew A, et al. “Status of the James Webb Space Telescope Integrated Science Instrument Module System.” The Space Telescope Science Institute, June 2011. https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/resources/ISIMmanuscript.pdf

Jenner, Lynn. “First Look: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Fully Stowed.” NASA, NASA, 14 May 2020, www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/first-look-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-fully-stowed.

Jenner, Lynn. “NASA James Webb Space Telescope Assembled for the First Time.” NASA, NASA, 28 Aug. 2019, www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-has-been-assembled-for-the-first-time.

Jenner, Lynn. “NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Full Mirror Deployment a Success.” NASA, NASA, 31 Mar. 2020, www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-full-mirror-deployment-a-success/.

Oppenheimer, Rebecca. “Missing Memories of the Universe.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 29 May 2020, blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/missing-memories-of-the-universe/.