Tag Archives: JWST

James Webb Space Telescope and the Carina Nebula

The James Webb Space Telescope is by far the most intricate piece of technology we have ever sent into space. The engineering process for the JWST took nearly 30 years to build with Randy Kimble (who had worked on its predecessor – the Hubble Space Telescope) and had a cost of $10 billion. The components […] Continue reading

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The James Webb Space Telescope

As you may have heard in the news recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST) was launched into space on December 25, 2021. The JWST is meant to be the successor to the Hubble Telescope, as it detects light further into the infrared spectrum than the Hubble telescope, and so can see stars that […] Continue reading

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Blog Post #2

For centuries astronomers have used telescopes to look into the night sky. In 1946 Lyman Spitzer, a prominent astrophysicist in his time, theorized that a telescope placed outside of Earth’s atmosphere would be able to collect much clearer data than telescopes on the surface of the planet. The logic behind his theory is that the … Continue reading Blog Post #2 Continue reading

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Blog Post #2

For centuries astronomers have used telescopes to look into the night sky. In 1946 Lyman Spitzer, a prominent astrophysicist in his time, theorized that a telescope placed outside of Earth’s atmosphere would be able to collect much clearer data than telescopes on the surface of the planet. The logic behind his theory is that the … Continue reading Blog Post #2 Continue reading

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James Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, will be a large telescope that is intended to be the premier observatory of the next decade. The telescope will study every phase in the history of the universe, from right after the Big Bang to the formation of the universe that we know today, and even the … Continue reading James Webb Telescope Continue reading

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The Hubble’s Cooler Younger Sibling

Somewhat of an actual time machine, the telescope is probably the most well-known instrument of the field of astronomy. While the object itself is not a foreign concept, knowledge about specific telescopes is less common. In fact, aside from the Hubble, I probably could not have named one before this semester. Much to my surprise, […] Continue reading

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What’s in a Name?

The Hubble telescopes famous successor was not always called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope, initially dubbed the Next Generation Space Telescope, was rechristened in 2002 to pay homage to the celebrated James Webb, NASA’s second administrator. Webb ran NASA from 1961-1968, a time when the emergent agency was still trying to define […] Continue reading

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Blog #3 James Webb Space Telescope

The flagship of the next generation telescopes launches in October 2018. The James Webb Space Telescope is an infrared telescope with its focus on the very first light from the Big Bang. With its 6.5 meter primary mirror and various cameras and spectrometers, the JWST will study the boundaries of the observable universe as well […] Continue reading

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The James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) is set to be the official successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, due to launch is 2018. In order to understand how the JWST will be improving on the Hubble, I think it is first important to understand some of the light aspects of space observation. Model […] Continue reading

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What Comes After Hubble?

The Hubble Space Telescope, in use for about 25 years, will soon have to be retired in the next 5-10 years. Plans for a successor telescope eventually materialized into the James Webb Space Telescope, pictured below as a full scale model in Austin, TX. As big as a tennis court and as tall as a […] Continue reading

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