![]() This motion is manifested as a Doppler shift in the wavelength of light from the star’s motion. It was found orbiting the star 51 Pegasi in the constellation Pegasus based on periodic changes in 51 Pegasi’s radial velocity. 12 The first exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star was discovered in 1995. In March 2022, NASA announced that more than 5,000 planets beyond our solar system had now been catalogued. It is only in the last three decades that we have been able to investigate how common these types of planets are and how they are configured within solar systems. The outer planets include the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and, in Neptune and Uranus, two smaller ice giants. Earth is ideal for supporting animal and plant life, while Venus is enshrouded in a thick atmosphere of heat-trapping gasses. Mercury is barren and Mars has only a tenuous atmosphere. Three receive enough sunlight that they could support liquid water. The inner planets-Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars-are all rocky, terrestrial worlds. O ur solar system contains a variety of planets. In its first year alone, Webb is poised to answer deep questions about the nature of planets, the formation of galaxies, and the formation of their stars following the first moments after the Big Bang. What do astronomers expect to learn from Webb’s observations? Based on everything we have learned from Earth-based telescopes and Hubble, we can make some educated guesses. In the remaining allocated time, Webb will study other kinds of objects, including those in our own solar system and gas accreting onto supermassive blackholes in the most distant galaxies found so far. 10 Approximately one-third of the time available will be spent studying the properties of galaxies, one-quarter will be devoted to characterizing exoplanets, and one-sixth will focus on the stellar life cycle: the births, lives, and deaths of stars. NASA received approximately 1,200 proposals for first-year research and, after a peer review process, selected 266. The majority of time available in the first year, around 6,000 hours, has been left to the astronomical community. These programs are designed to demonstrate Webb’s scientific and observational capabilities. Roughly 460 additional hours are reserved for programs established by the STScI director, Ken Sembach. 8 These scientists have been allocated approximately 4,000 hours during the first year of operation. S ome of Webb’s observational programs will be carried out by the scientists who built the instruments, developed the software, and set the scientific and design requirements of the observatory. The first data from the new telescope are due to begin arriving in the next month. Webb is in fact the successor to both Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope (3,000 to 160,000nm), 7 and carries a mirror with a collecting area five times larger than that of Hubble and 45 times larger than that of Spitzer. 6 This is well beyond the wavelength capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope (100 to 2,500nm). Webb observes light in the infrared spectrum from 800 to 24,000 nanometers (nm). In all likelihood, Webb’s observations will transform our understanding of astronomical phenomena. In the months and years ahead, Webb will observe light from the first galaxies that formed after the universe began nearly 14 billion years ago 5 study objects in our own solar system observe the life cycle of stars in distant galaxies and investigate the properties of planets orbiting other stars, so-called exoplanets. (Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI) Images of the Large Magellanic Cloud as taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope (right). 4 By all accounts, the first calibration images (Figure 1) delivered by Webb surpass expectations. 3 Teams of technicians at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, are in the final stages of testing and calibrating the telescope and its instruments. ![]() ![]() The successful launch was the culmination of many years’ work and planning by thousands of scientists and engineers working with NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It is now in orbit at the second Lagrange point, a stable gravitational position created through the interaction of the sun and Earth. A jubilant Jean-Luc Voyer, director of operations for the launch, announced the separation, adding “Go Webb!” 1 After a two-month journey, Webb arrived at its final destination 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Twenty-seven minutes and seven seconds after launch, the telescope separated from the second stage of the launcher. The payload was the largest and most advanced orbiting optical observatory ever developed: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. O n December 25, 2021, an Ariane 5 rocket launched from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana at precisely 7:20 a.m.
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