What. One week.
On Monday, President Biden unveiled the first photo of the highly anticipated James Webb space telescope, the most powerful observatory ever launched into orbit, showing an impressive cluster of full-color galaxies. Not to be outdone, NASA released four more images the next day depicting star clusters, galaxy clusters, a particularly watery exoplanet, and a dying star.
Although the images were of various jaw levels, the most surprising part was that it was just the beginning. Webb has been fueled for 20 years, which means we have decades of photography and scientific discoveries ahead. Of course, this only raises the question: what’s next for Webb?
Literally the whole universe as it turns out. In fact, despite how amazing the latest images were, they are actually nothing compared to what is to come. Eric Smith, NASA’s JWST program scientist, said at a news conference Tuesday.
“They were more or less practical with the instruments,” Smith said, referring to the five published images. “We are making discoveries and we have not yet begun to prove it. So the promise of this telescope is amazing. “
While NASA has not released a calendar of what Webb will look at below, here are some things we can expect from the space observatory next year:
Tourist visits of the early Universe
Perhaps the biggest reason for the exaggeration behind Webb is the space observatory’s ability to observe some of the first stars and galaxies ever formed. This means being able to observe celestial objects as they were shortly after the Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago.
The image of the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster presented by President Biden is an example. Webb captured light from the region as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago through an ultra-deep near-infrared survey. Using its near-infrared spectrograph, an instrument that separates infrared light by wavelength in a spectrum, the observatory was able to collect data from one of the youngest galaxies in the field, which turned out to be about a billion years after the Big Bang.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
And remember: this is just the beginning. One of Webb’s main missions is to study the early universe. This means that we are just beginning to find some of the “youngest” space objects ever discovered. To this end, the entire mission of the JWST program is also focused on discovering how galaxies formed and evolved over eons. Their instruments will also offer a look at the life cycle of stars, something the Hubble Space Telescope had trouble doing, as it could only observe visible light.
Exploring exoplanets and solar systems
One of the images released on Tuesday was not at all a photograph of a celestial body. It was a graph showing the measurement of the water content in the atmosphere of a giant exoplanet called WASP-96b.
This may seem a little disappointing considering the other images, but it actually showed one important feature of Webb: the ability to study and observe more deeply the atmosphere and conditions of exoplanets. This is crucial in finding regions of space that can be hospitable to life.
Distant objects are also not the only place to look. Webb will also look at our own solar system, including places like Mars, Pluto, and Saturn to give us an even more detailed view of what’s in our backyard. NASA even released an image captured by Webb of Jupiter yesterday with its main image, the nearby infrared camera.
NASA, ESA, CSA and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)
Looking for ET
We can’t talk about a powerful space observatory without talking about the giant elephant the size of a flying saucer in the room: the aliens.
Because Webb can observe some of the most distant regions of space imaginable, many researchers hope he can find hidden exoplanets suitable for life. These would be planets in the Golden Rich Zone, or regions of the solar systems that are far enough away from their main star for liquid water. In other words, they are suitable for life.
Some exoplanets that Webb might start exploring aren’t that far off either. There are a few planets the size of Earth in a system that revolves around a star 40 light-years away, called TRAPPIST-1. Olivia Lim, an exoplanet researcher at the University of Montreal, has spent some time using Webb in the near future to explore TRAPPIST-1 and its planets, many of which are in the Goldilocks Zone. star and represent some of our best opportunities to find signs of life
“The Trappist-1 system is unique,” Lim told AFP. “Almost all the conditions there are favorable for the search for life outside our solar system.”
NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Presentation of proposals
Lim is not the only one submitting proposals. Astronomers and scientists around the world are asking to spend some time at the space observatory while they can.
Throughout its approximately 20 years of useful life, the JWST program will have annual open calls for the presentation of researchers from all strata to propose projects and experiments for the Webb to carry out. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which actually operates the observatory, will have the final say on who will be chosen.
Think of it as auditions for your high school musical, but instead of participating in a shabby In the Woods production, find out if you can study 13 billion-year-old galaxies, witness the birth of the universe, and hunt aliens. .
Webb operators have accepted 266 proposals for their first year of scientific observations, known as Cycle 1. One of the most interesting aspects of this is that all accepted projects are online and easily accessible for your visual pleasure. . This means that if you really want to know what Webb will do over the next year, you can click on the STScI website and check it out for yourself.
Along with what we’ve already covered in this article, Webb will closely examine a series of supermassive black holes, test dark matter, and study quasars.
Avoid catastrophe
While the Webb is orbiting a million miles away from Earth, it will not be alone. It has an army of engineers, scientists and researchers on the mainland who make sure things work as well as they should. Nor is it a bad feat, considering we can’t exactly send a repairman up there if the worst case scenario happens.
Hopefully, though, if all goes according to plan, we won’t have to worry about that at all. As the language says, “an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.” To that end, NASA built Webb to be incredibly resilient and able to withstand the hard, relentless elements of space. This includes tools like your sunscreen, which reflects large amounts of sunlight away from sensitive electronics.
In other words: Webb will not break because it was built not to break. This ethos was put to the test in May when a micrometeoroid hit the telescope. Although there was minor damage, Webb’s design allowed it to withstand it and continue to function.
While it may be a bit of a comfort for some of us on Earth, you can sleep easy knowing that Webb will continue to produce stunning images and even more amazing discoveries for the next twenty years. And even when it is over, it will have laid the groundwork for an incalculable amount of amazing science that will be discovered over the coming centuries.