March 28, 2023

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James Webb Space Telescope - An astronomer tells us how to send it into space

The James Webb Space Telescope has a giant mirror. NASA explains its preparation

The James Webb Space Telescope has been launched at the end of december. Then he began preparing for the research. For this purpose, NASA has spread, among other things Gorgeous sun visorAnd last week he started preparing the mirror. In fact, this is only the beginning of a process that lasted several months.

The James Webb Space Telescope contains a large mirror consisting of 18 hexagonal parts. The sides were folded at the time of take-off, but it began taking them apart last week. Individual components are combined with highly capable actuators It moves with a precision of only 10 nanometers (about 1/10 thousandths of the width of a human hair).

Photo: Judy Schmidt/ESA/CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

James Webb Space Telescope mirror

The first transformations are not very precise and NASA makes movements that are measured in millimeters. Repositioning all sections by 1 mm requires about a day. This is definitely a stage that does not require rush but precision.

NASA says complete setup of James Webb Space Telescope optics It will last for several months. The machine is still on its way to the target, which is L2, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

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