{"id":17430,"date":"2022-01-24T17:39:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T09:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/webb-telescope-fires-thrusters-to-settle-in-at-destination-a-million-miles-from-earth\/"},"modified":"2022-01-24T17:39:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T09:39:53","slug":"webb-telescope-fires-thrusters-to-settle-in-at-destination-a-million-miles-from-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/webb-telescope-fires-thrusters-to-settle-in-at-destination-a-million-miles-from-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Webb Telescope fires thrusters to settle in at destination, a million miles from Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"448\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220124-jwst2-630x448.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-670326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220124-jwst2-630x448.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220124-jwst2-768x546.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/220124-jwst2.jpg 1203w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>An artist\u2019s conception shows the James Webb Space Telescope operating at L2, with the sun, Earth and moon behind its sunshield. (NASA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope successfully fired its thrusters today to put it in position at the destination where it\u2019s expected to probe the mysteries of the universe for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>The nearly five-minute firing at 11 a.m. PT sent JWST into its prescribed orbit around a balance point known as L2, a million miles beyond Earth. It\u2019s a point where the gravitational pulls of the sun and the Earth align to keep spacecraft in a relatively stable position, minimizing the need for course corrections.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s maneuver came 30 days after the telescope\u2019s Christmas launch from the European Arianespace consortium\u2019s spaceport in French Guiana. NASA is playing the lead role in the project, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWebb, welcome home!\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. \u201cCongratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb\u2019s safe arrival at L2 today. We\u2019re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can\u2019t wait to see Webb\u2019s first new views of the universe this summer!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the coming months, JWST will continue to cool down its scientific instruments, reaching temperatures in the range of 50 Kelvin (370 degrees below zero Fahrenheit). It\u2019ll also fine-tune its mirror alignment and instrument settings to get ready for the first science observations, set for release five months from now.<\/p>\n<p>To align the 21-foot-wide telescope\u2019s 18 hexagonal mirror segments, JWST will focus on a bright star known as HD 84406 in the constellation Ursa Major, and compare the images to guide adjustments in each segment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t quite see it with your naked eye, but I\u2019m told you can see it with binoculars,\u201d said Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Webb Telescope orbiting the Sun\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fO_mbCEamZ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>JWST\u2019s detectors are designed to make observations in infrared wavelengths, which requires the instruments to be super-chilled. To make sure the sun\u2019s rays don\u2019t warm up the instruments, the spacecraft is equipped with a five-layered sunshield \u2014 and will always face away from the sun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can\u2019t ever look back toward the sun, so it can only see a part of the sky at once,\u201d said deputy project scientist Amber Straughn. JWST\u2019s orientation also means it can never look back at Earth or its moon, or at Mercury or Venus.<\/p>\n<p>But over the course of a year, the telescope will be able to study objects beyond Earth orbit in unprecedented detail. It\u2019s built to be 100 times more sensitive than the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. And its infrared focus is well-suited for studying planets beyond our solar system, faraway galaxies and the extremely redshifted frontiers of the observable universe.<\/p>\n<p>During a teleconference, operations project scientist Jane Rigby said the region of space around L2 was saddle-shaped, like a Pringles potato chip. JWST is programmed to trace a six-month-long orbit around that cosmic potato chip, while the L2 point itself traces a yearlong orbit around the sun.<\/p>\n<p>JWST isn\u2019t the only telescope to use L2 as a vantage point: In the past, NASA\u2019s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe as well as ESA\u2019s Planck and Herschel telescopes have spent time at L2. Two telescopes are currently sharing the L2 region with Webb: ESA\u2019s Gaia observatory and the Russian-German Spektr-RG probe. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows the James Webb Space Telescope operating at L2, with the sun, Earth and moon behind its sunshield. (NASA Illustration) The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope successfully fired its thrusters today to put it in position at the destination where it\u2019s expected to probe the mysteries of the universe for years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1661,1560,190],"class_list":["post-17430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomy","tag-james-webb-space-telescope","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}