Webb Space Telescope, does it cost $ 10 billion in $ 10 billion?

On July 12, 2022, James Web Space Telescope (JWST is abbreviated in JWST, hereinafter referred to as Webu), after several months of lens alignment, calibration, and equipment debugging, about this summer returned. Its first photo.

Stephen's near infrared and medium infrared synthesis

Webu's first photo is the most distant and clearest cosmic image that humans have seen so far. Some of these galaxies have entered 13 billion years before reaching the mirror of the telescope. After all, the Big Bang is only about 13.8 billion years away.

More importantly, it is colorful.

One -generation pigeon king

Webu's first full -color image, SMACS 0723 shot, 4.6 billion light years from Earth.

Astronomers predict that Weibu will fill a mysterious blank universe in our known history -the first 400 million years after the Big Bang, and will determine the distant world of alien life.

But looking back at Webu's history, you will find that it has experienced too much twists and turns.

As the largest, most complicated, and most challenging space mirror so far, Weber was originally planned to launch in 2007. Due to various setbacks and delay, the budget expanded from the initial 500 million US dollars to 10 billion US dollars.

Wabu, as a successor of Hubble, began in the early 1990s. NASA's Space Telescope Technology R & D team proposes the conceptual design scheme that measures the next -generation Space Telescope (NGST: Next Generation Space Telescope).

Comparison of Webb and Hubble

Different from Hubble's main observations of visible light and ultraviolet bands, Weibu's advantages are in infrared bands, which can be seen at a glance of wavelength from 0.6 microns to 28 microns.

But entering the infrared band means that the telescope must have a large caliber, which also brings the trouble of launch. Weibu's mirror is too large, and no existing rockets have no way to send it to heaven. Therefore, it has to be "turned into zero", first put the mirror surface to be launched and then opens the mirror surface.

In order to observe in the infrared band, Weibu must be far away from the heat source. It sets up a huge shading cover of tennis court to protect the telescope from being illuminated by sunlight, and at the same time, it is far from the influence of the earth. As a result, Webb was launched near the second Laglang point that reached 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, where it can have a larger visual area than Hubble.

Native

It is such a small problem after another, which constantly appears, making the Weibu telescope last 14 years later than the original plan, and the budget has exceeded 20 times.

On December 25, 2021, "One -generation Pigeon King" Weibu finally ran to the universe.

Wounded Weib

After the successful launch, Weibao spent a whole month and arrived at the second Laglang Day. In this process, Webb took a little bit of his mirror after hundreds of steps until he became a huge golden "flower", and it was fully blooming on the "silver leaf" shading cover.

Although the first batch of colored photos had been successfully passed back, all scientists participating in the Weibu project were still attentive.

Because Weibu is a "one hammer buying and selling".

Webb's main mirror with a diameter of 21.3 feet (6.5 meters)

It is 1.5 million kilometers from the earth. Any problem, no astronauts can take the tools to repair, scientists and engineers have no other way.

Engineers estimate that Webu can withstand the intensity every month that will damage the mirror, but they think it is worthy of adventure.

They calculated that the impact pit will accumulate over time. After 10 years, these concave pits will only cover 0.1%of the main mirror area. Even if the main mirror is damaged, Weibu can still work.

So far, Webb has been hit by 5 small micro -stars.

The worst of these is the micro -flow star impact in late May 2022. This time the impact on one part of the Webb main mirror caused a tiny deformation. However, due to the position of the Weibu mirror that can be adjusted remotely, the engineer offsets some of the image degradation by adjusting the affected part.

However, in order to prevent greater impacts, the Bill COOKE team of the NASA Meteor Environment Office is now having a custom meteor shower forecast for the Wabu team, so that researchers know when Weibu will pass through a huge dust and re -re -. Adjust the direction of the instrument to prevent the dust particles from hitting the mirror surface.

On the road

Webb has launched a launch, and in the future, it will continue to bring photos of the universe to all human beings to explore the mystery of the universe. So, how far is China's space telescope?

In fact, in accordance with the Chinese manned space engineering plan, the sky -to -space telescope is expected to be put into scientific operation around 2024. The planned task life is 10 years. It can continue to extend life through maintenance.

Compared with Hubble and Webb, the space patrol telescope of my country will run in nearly 400 kilometers of near-ground orbit after launching the air. The main mirror has a caliber of 2 meters. Observation. After running, it will become the largest astronomical camera in space.

Webb's "selfie" in space

If the Hubble Telescope has opened the corner of the universe with high -clear images, then after the launching space telescope in the development of the development is lifted, it will bring human beings back to the entire universe's high -clear image, open human beings, and to human beings.New understanding of the universe.Let us look forward to the future performance of the Temple Space Telescope!

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