US and European officials have set the estimated time of departure for the James Webb Space Telescope launch on its Christmas launch.
The James Webb Space Telescope is set to launch in a week, at 7:20 a.m. EST (9:20 a.m. local time in French Guiana) on Dec. 24. Engineers conducted final tests before sealing the observatory below the Ariane rocket's nose cone on Friday.
"Late yesterday, teams at the launch site successfully completed encapsulation of the observatory inside the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space," NASA officials wrote in an update.
The Webb space telescope will undergo a final launch readiness check on (Dec. 21) to ensure that it is ready to launch, Space.com said. If that's the case, the Ariane 5 rocket will be launched on Wednesday from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
James Webb Telescope Specs
The James Webb Space Telescope, according to NASA, is the biggest and most powerful space science telescope ever built. Its goal is to improve on the discoveries of previous telescopes while obtaining more detailed information about the universe's early evolution.
According to Voice of America, the James Webb Space Telescope is a massive infrared telescope with a roughly seven-meter mirror that will be used to explore space. Infrared waves are a kind of electromagnetic radiation that the human eye cannot see. However, they exist at a suitable wavelength for detecting distant objects in space through gas and dust.
The whole telescope is built to compress within the launch vehicle before reopening in space. A large sun shield protects the telescope's mirror and scientific equipment. The shield is roughly the size of a tennis court when completely opened.
James Webb will orbit the Earth at a distance of around 1.6 kilometers. After that, it will spend six months in orbit "commissioning." The telescope's mirror, sunscreen, and other tiny systems will be opened during this time.
According to NASA engineers, this will be the most difficult time for the telescope. This is because of its enormous size, complicated opening mechanism, and extremely frigid temperatures in space.
Webb vs. Hubble: A Comparison
Space.com debunks the claim that Webb is Hubble's successor or replacement. Despite a few hiccups over the years, Hubble's research equipment is still operational, and the two large telescopes are prepared to explore space together (although far apart).
Hubble is near us in low Earth orbit, but Webb will fly far beyond the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2), a gravitationally stable position 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
Furthermore, despite the fact that both Hubble and Webb are enormous space telescopes (albeit Webb is somewhat larger), the two "view" the cosmos in fundamentally different ways.
Webb is designed to detect predominantly infrared light, whereas Hubble sees the light primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.
According to the information sheet, Hubble can see the light with wavelengths ranging from 200 nanometers (nm) to 2.4 microns, but Webb's range will be 600 nm to 28 microns. Visible light has a wavelength range of 700 to 400 nm.
Webb will be able to view the red/orange region of the visible light spectrum even though it predominantly studies infrared light. The mirrors' gold coating filters blue light from the visible spectrum, but it reflects yellow and red visible light that will be detected.
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