The James Webb Space Telescope (James Webb) will not only help to look into the early days of the universe, but also open the way to a detailed study of the nooks and crannies of our solar system. This amazing tool is able to capture relatively close and fast moving objects. Not so long ago, this mechanism was successfully verified on a small asteroid 6481 Tenzing (“Tenzing”) in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Image Source: NASA
Planetary scientists have long planned to study the planets, moons, comets and asteroids of our system using Webb. In the first year of the telescope’s operation, up to 7% of the working time will be devoted to the study of objects in the solar system. The telescope, using infrared cameras and its two spectrometers, will explore the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, distant Uranus and Neptune, and much, much more, where automatic probes have not reached. For example, astronomers are very interested in the subglacial oceans of Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The James Webb spectrometers will be able to analyze gas emissions from crevices and cracks on its surface.
“In preparation for upcoming solar system observations, Webb has successfully completed its first moving object tracking test!” — reported the telescope team in their Twitter feed.
At the moment, the James Webb telescope is being tested scientific instruments – two spectrometers and two infrared cameras. Mirror and optical systems of the telescope fully focused, and the resulting sharpness exceeds all bold expectations. The scientific work of the telescope will begin at the end of June or in July. The research plan for the first year has already been approved. The telescope will begin to follow the nearest galaxies and galactic objects to us. The resolution of the telescope should be enough to look at the time of the formation of the first stars and galaxies – so far a person has not yet looked.
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