The James Webb telescope is now fully deployed in space

Published on : 08/01/2022 – 18:14

The James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed the final stage of its deployment on Saturday. It will now have to reach its final orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope is now ready to explore the cosmos. A little more than five months before his mission began, he successfully completed, on Saturday January 8, the last stage of his deployment, with that of his main mirror.

The telescope’s iconic main mirror measures around 6.5 meters in diameter, so it was too large to fit into a rocket as it was when it lifted off two weeks ago. Its two sides must therefore have been folded back.

The first of these two wings was deployed on Friday, and the second opened on Saturday morning, as planned, NASA said. The space agency teams continued to lock it in place, however, in order to secure it permanently.

“I am moved,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of scientific missions at NASA, live by video. “What an extraordinary step.”

>> To read: The James Webb telescope, a new look at the infinitely distant and ancient in the universe

An unprecedented procedure

Deploying such a telescope in space, not only of its mirrors but also of its heat shield earlier this week, was an ultra-perilous procedure that had never been attempted in the past.

On Monday, the mission had reached a major milestone with the most difficult deployment, that of the heat shield.

Made up of five layers each the size of a tennis court, but as thin as a hair, this lens hood protects scientific instruments from the heat of our star.

These layers were carefully unfolded and stretched one by one. The face closest to the Sun can reach 125 ° C, and the furthest away -235 ° C.

Astronomers around the world can breathe a big sigh of relief today, as the mission now looks very successful.

It has yet to reach its final orbit

Before being operational, however, the telescope will still have to reach its final orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth (it is already more than a million kilometers from us).

Each hexagonal segment forming this immense primary mirror, covered with gold in order to better reflect the light, will also have to be carefully adjusted. Scientific instruments will have to continue to cool, and be very precisely calibrated.

Worth some $ 10 billion, James Webb is flown from Baltimore on the US East Coast. La Nasa Live broadcast Saturday morning images from the control room, where dozens of engineers applauded with joy at the announcement of the full deployment.

The most powerful space observatory ever designed, James Webb must notably make it possible to observe the first galaxies, formed only regarding 200 million years following the Big Bang.

He must also take a big step in the exploration of exoplanets, which orbit stars other than the Sun. He will examine their atmosphere, in search of conditions conducive to the appearance of life. Also planned are closer observations, in our solar system, of Mars or Europe, a moon of Jupiter.

The great novelty of this telescope is that it will only operate in the near and mid infrared (wavelengths invisible to the naked eye), and its instruments can therefore only operate in total darkness and at temperatures extremely low.

James Webb must operate for at least 5 years, and potentially up to 10 years.

With AFP

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