It’s almost time to see the first official images from the new James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope launched from French Guiana on Christmas day 2021 and after 6 months of cooling, instrument alignment and commissioning is nearly ready to send back its first official science images. But what is so darn exciting about them? Well James Webb will see things different from its previous space telescope friend, Hubble. After years of using the Hubble Telescope (which mainly views objects with visible light), astronomers learned they wanted to see further into space. To do so would require something different, a telescope that could see near infrared light. They build the James Webb telescope with these differences in mind and will view objects using infrared light. So for that reason Webb isn’t really a replacement, it just different than Hubble.
The use of infrared light instead of visible light makes the telescope a type of time machine. Because Webb will view infrared light, it allows us to see the ancient light of the first galaxies, which has been redshifted as it travels toward Earth over billions of years. That light takes 13 billion years to reach us so we will be viewing objects that are potentially only hundreds of millions of years old. That means Webb will be able to look back in time to see how galaxies first formed!! That seems pretty amazing and all without a Tardis! I can’t wait to see what images are returned later this summer. So far the telescope has only sent back test images but what will be revealed when the real science images are published this summer? Stay tuned!
Want more details? Read more about the goal of the telescope, its differences between Hubble and its use of infrared light here.
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