NEWS

THE FRAME OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IS READY

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The construction of the James Webb Space Telescope continues with the delivery of the structure that will support the mirror 6.5 meters in diameter.

While eighteen beryllium (telescopes) segments coated with gold which will form the main mirror JWST are in progress, is the frame of the future space telescope that arrived at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland where the NASA has the largest clean room in the world (1200 m²) to assemble and test its space systems.

Successor to the Hubble pace Telescope, (telescopes) the James Webb Space Telescope (named in honor of James Edwin Webb, NASA administrator between 1961 and 1968), will be equipped with a mirror three times larger that the surface coating will study the infrared radiation of the most distant stars of the universe, as did before it the Herschel space telescope.

As recalled former astronaut John (telescopes) Grunsfeld (qui est désormais administrateur associé à la Direction des missions scientifiques de la NASA),"JWST  can go much further back in time and space than the Hubble telescope, in order to show us the first stars and galaxiesformed in the Universe."

Funded primarily by the US, the James Webb Space Telescope(including an artist's representation seen above) should cost a whopping $ 10 billion. This instrument more than 6 tons, the temperature must be maintained at -223 ° C to allow the infrared observations will be launched in 2018 from the base of Kourou in French Guiana using a rocket Ariane 5. The JWST will be placed in an orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to carry out observations. (metal detectors)