6/23/2023 0 Comments Large telescope mirror![]() ![]() That may sound overly dramatic, but, then again, the universe is a dramatic place, and Dressler has been waiting for this moment for more than twenty years. “To finish Webb’s mirror is to hear the first heartbeat of the magnificent creature that will carry us to when the universe that bore us was itself born.” “The mirror is the heart of a telescope,” he says. ![]() ![]() For Alan Dressler, a senior astronomer at the Carnegie Institute for Science, Webb’s completed mirror brings other anatomies to mind. Turned skyward and concave in a supportive cobweb of carbon fiber called a backplane, the mirror looks like the giant, unblinking compound eye of an insect. There, at a point of gravitational quiescence called L2, Webb will begin what astronomers say will be revolutionary studies of the universe. After being mated to the rest of the telescope, which is still under construction, it will ultimately be launched to its deep-space destination some 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The entire mirror spans 6.5 meters edge to edge. Gripped by the robotic arm and guided by technicians, the last of the mirror’s 18 lightweight hexagons of gold-coated beryllium has been installed, marking the most tangible milestone yet in the observatory’s multi-decadal path to launch.Įach segment is as big as a coffee table but hollowed out to only weigh 20 kilograms. In a gymnasium-sized cleanroom dominated by a laser-guided robotic arm on mustard-yellow scaffolding, bunny-suited technicians have completed the primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope, a $9 billion orbital observatory planned to lift off in 2018, being built by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the agency’s biggest-ever science project is coming together at last. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |