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NASA's next-generation space observatory successfully watched a moving asteroid as the telescope inches towards the end of its six-month commissioning period. The successful tracking of a nearby object shows that the James Webb Space Telescope can keep a watch on solar system objects as well as the distant galaxies, stars and other faraway objects it is expected to observe in its perhaps 20-year lifespan. asteroid named after Tenzing Norgay. The Tibetan mountaineer was one of the first two known individuals to summit Mount Everest, alongside Edmund Hillary. Coincidentally, the Webb observations took place just days before the 69th anniversary of...

Webb MIRI and Spitzer Comparison Image Comparison of a Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument image of the Large Magellanic Cloud and a past image of the same view using the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right) ************************************************************************ NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of...

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to cool down out at its location at Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Since JWST is an infrared telescope, it needs to operate at extremely low temperatures, less than 40 K (-223 degrees Celsius, -369.4 degrees Fahrenheit). But one instrument needs to be even colder. To operate at peak efficiency, Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) must be cooled to a chilly 7 K (-266 C, -447 F). And it will need a little help to reach those frigid temps.Most of the telescope and its instruments rely on JWST’s massive sunshield as...

But we know some of the later ones! The James Webb Space Telescope has a packed schedule for its first year of observations. (Image credit: ESA) In the first year of its scientific operations, the James Webb Space Telescope will study small galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, look for the oldest stars in the universe or peer inside mysterious remnants of an exploded star. Its very first science targets, however, remain top secret. The mighty James Webb Space Telescope recently aligned its mirrors and showed off the sharpness of its eyes on a random underwhelming star. But the world's science...

The 1960s agency administrator's treatment of LGBTQ people has come under question.New documents suggest that NASA officials dismissed concerns raised by the LGBTQ community over the name of its newest observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA was aware that discrimination against LGBTQ people took place in the agency under the leadership of 1960s administrator James Webb when it refused to remove the man's name from its flagship mission, new documents obtained by Nature reveal. In early 2021, a group of astronomers petitioned NASA to change the name of the space observatory of the century, the $10 billion James Webb...

Astronomers have long questioned whether Earth-like planets exist elsewhere in the universe and if they harbor life. So far, answers have only come from science fiction universes rather than our own. NASA’s latest observatory, the Webb Space Telescope, will take us one step closer to the answer, offering an unprecedented look into rocky worlds orbiting other stars and what they are like. “Imagine if we can establish that there are some rocky worlds with water vapor and with water oceans,” said Sara Seager, a professor of physics and planetary science at MIT. “That’s such a giant step forward from where...

Explanation: 2MASS J17554042+6551277 doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but that's the name, a coordinate-based catalog designation, of the star centered in this sharp field of view. Fans of the distant universe should get used to its spiky appearance though. The diffraction pattern is created by the 18 hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope. After unfolding, the segments have now been adjusted to achieve a diffraction limited alignment at infrared wavelengths while operating in concert as a single 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror. The resulting image taken by Webb's NIRcam demonstrates their precise alignment is the best...

It’s coming together! Engineers for the James Webb Space Telescope have now completed two more phases of the seven-step, three-month-long mirror alignment process. This week, the team made more adjustments to the mirror segments along with updating the alignment of its secondary mirror. These refinements allowed for all 18 mirror segments to work together — for the first time — to produce one unified image. As you can see in the image above, this view of the star HD 84406 shows one image instead of the 18 views – one from each segment – that we saw earlier this week....

There is no transcript of this video. There is a great interview with Dr. John Mather, who is the senior project scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The Youtube is very well done in explaining the JWST, what it is designed to do, how it is supposed to work, and how it will be deployed and emplaced over the next month.

NASA and its international partners are counting down to a Christmas Day launch of the most expensive science probe ever built, a $10 billion telescope designed to capture starlight from the first galaxies born in the fiery crucible of the Big Bang. Billions over budget and years behind schedule, the James Webb Space Telescope is targeted for blastoff from the European Space Agency's Kourou, French Guiana, launch site at 7:20 a.m. EST Saturday atop an Ariane 5 rocket, weather permitting. Equipped with two solid-fuel strap-on boosters, the workhorse rocket will propel Webb away from the northeast coast of South America...

I have carried out a search for Planet 9 in the IRAS data. At the distance range proposed for Planet 9, the signature would be a 60 micron unidentified IRAS point source with an associated nearby source from the IRAS Reject File of sources which received only a single hours-confirmed (HCON) detection. The confirmed source should be detected on the first two HCON passes, but not on the third, while the single HCON should be detected only on the third HCON. I have examined the unidentified sources in three IRAS 60micron catalogues: some can be identified with 2MASS galaxies, Galactic...

It’s taken 25 years to build, has faced long delays, and cost many billions of dollars more than expected, but the countdown is finally on to launch the James Webb telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. In just six weeks, a powerful rocket is expected to carry into space the most ambitious space telescope ever built, one promising to revolutionize how we see the universe. At a news conference this week, scientists said that after more than a decade of delays, the James Webb telescope is finally ready to fly.

NASA does not plan to rename its new $10 billion technological marvel, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite concerns about it being named after former NASA administrator James Webb, who went along with government discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the 1950s and 1960s. The space agency tells NPR it has investigated the matter and decided to keep the telescope's name as is, ahead of the long-awaited launch in December. "We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope," says NASA administrator Bill Nelson. The powerful telescope, often viewed...

Posted on August 20, 2021August 20, 2021 by Matt WilliamsJames Webb’s Upper Stage is off to the Launch SiteIn November (or early December) of this year, after many excruciating delays, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will finally launch to space. As the most advanced and complex observatory ever deployed, the James Webb will use its advanced suite of instruments to observe stars, exoplanets, and galaxies in the near and mid-infrared spectrum. In the process, it will address some of the most enduring mysteries about the nature of the Universe.When the time comes, the James Webb will fly aboard an...

NASA's beloved Hubble Space Telescope has been facing one of its greatest challenges. A technical glitch left it in safe mode for over a month. This week, NASA said it finally tracked down the source of the issue and tried a new fix, and it seems to have worked. "NASA has successfully switched to backup hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope, including powering on the backup payload computer, on July 15," the space agency announced on Friday. The telescope has been in service for over 30 years. The Hubble team had been looking at the payload computer -- hardware dating...

Posted on June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 by Evan GoughNASA has Approved a Space Telescope That Will Scan the Skies for Dangerous Near-Earth AsteroidsA lot of the threats humanity faces come from ourselves. If we were listing them, we’d include tribalism, greed, and the fact that we’re evolved primates, and our brains have a lot in common with animal brains. Our animalistic brains subject us to many of the same destructive emotions and impulses that animals are subject to. We wage war and become embroiled in intergenerational conflicts. There are genocides, pogroms, doomed boatloads of migrants, and horrible mashups of...

After my recent move to Arizona I am amazed at the night time sky. I am now looking for a decent telescope to study the Messier objects, planets and such. It appears that there are some great buys below $2,000 in the Schmidt Cassegrain field, even some Macs. Does anybody have any information they can give on this? I had an old 8" Newtonian, which was a royal pain to take anywhere.

Apr 7, 2021NASA’s Webb Telescope Packs Its Sunshield for a Million Mile TripEngineers working on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have successfully folded and packed its sunshield for its upcoming million-mile (roughly 1.5 million kilometer) journey, which begins later this year.The sunshield — a five-layer, diamond-shaped structure the size of a tennis court — was specially engineered to fold up around the two sides of the telescope and fit within the confines of its launch vehicle, the Ariane 5 rocket. Now that folding has been completed at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, the sunshield will remain in this compact...

The massive space telescope, featuring a 21 foot mirror, and a tennis court-sized protective cage, is far too large to stick inside a plane. Instead, NASA will have to ship the massive mirror right through the Panama Canal for its eventual launch in French Guiana — and NASA is worried that the journey could attract robbers. The shipping time and location will be hush-hush to ward off any extremely ambitious thieves. All we know is that it will sail off in late summer. It’s an especially harrowing sea passage for a project that has been going on for over two...

The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is recovering from a glitch that halted its science operations over the weekend, according to NASA. The telescope entered "safe mode" unexpectedly on Sunday morning (March 7), stalling the observatory's science observations due to an apparent software glitch. Science operations resumed late Thursday (March 11). While Hubble is partially back to work, NASA is still troubleshooting one instrument on the 30-year-old telescope, according to a statement released on Friday (Mar. 12). The WFC3 issue was an "unexpected error," according to NASA, that occurred when the telescope was transitioning from safe mode into pre-science after the...