Webb will act as an infrared detector, detecting light invisible to us and revealing otherwise hidden regions of space.
The Webb telescope will look at every phase of cosmic history, including the first post-Big Bang glow that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets that fill it today. Its capabilities allow the observatory to answer questions about our own solar system and examine faint signals from the first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago.
So far, what scientists have observed from this period resembles what we already understand.
“The logic dictates, however, that these familiar-looking objects must have originated and evolved somewhere in the first few hundred million years,” Rieke said. “Ultimately, galaxies don’t form out of nowhere, pretty much overnight.”
The infrared camera on Webb could reveal the faint first light of galaxies as they formed during the universe’s infancy.
As the universe expands, these distant galaxies move away from us so quickly that their wavelengths of light are stretched to the point that they’re only faintly visible in infrared light, Rieke said.
Origin of the Universe and How It Evolved
With Webb’s capabilities, researchers should be able to get four times closer to the Big Bang than the Hubble Space Telescope, she said. Hubble observed the universe 450 billion years after the Big Bang.
Marcia Rieke’s husband George Rieke, a Regents Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, also works on Webb as the scientific team leader for the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument. This instrument allows Webb to see even further into the infrared spectrum.
Collecting infrared observations from space prevents interference caused by the heat of our planet and its atmosphere.
The spacecraft has a five-layer sunshade that will unfold to the size of a tennis court. It will protect Webb’s giant mirror and instruments from the sun’s heat, as they must be kept at a very cold negative 370 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 188 degrees Celsius) in order to operate.
“This is really exciting that we’re going to look at things that were just completely out of reach before,” said George Rieke.
Important questions about the universe can be answered when scientists have access to data from different wavelengths of light.
“The excitement in astronomy over the past 70 years has looked at different wavelengths,” said George Rieke. “Before that, all astronomy was done in optical (visible light) and looking at the universe in optical is like going to a symphony concert and only listening to one note. Now we have the whole symphony.”
Observations by Webb can confirm or completely reverse the predictions and ideas that scientists have about the origin of the universe and how it evolved.
“We want to know, how did we get here from the Big Bang?” said John Mather, NASA’s senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. “We want to look at those first galaxies to grow. There are dark dust regions that distort our view at those earliest times when the stars are growing, but we can see them with infrared.”
Understanding why distant galaxies are so different from those closer to our own Milky Way galaxy would help fill a crucial knowledge gap.
“We’ve got this 13.8 billion-year story of the universe, and we’re missing a few key paragraphs in the very first chapter of the story,” said Amber Straugn, an astrophysicist and deputy Webb project scientist for communications at the Goddard Space Flight Center. nasa. in Maryland.
“What we’re really trying to do here is figure out how to put those pieces of the story together and learn more about that whole process.”
For more information about the telescope, watch the DailyExpertNews movie “The Hunt For Planet B” on DailyExpertNewsgo. The documentary follows scientists as they build and plan for launch. It also looks at the search for life on planets outside our solar system.