Tracking the James Webb Telescope

[rockytopva]

Dealing successfully with the change of temperature this spacecraft has endured with since launch…
Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator
Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator (ADIR)
Nominal Event Time: Launch + 12 days

Status: Complete.

This activity releases the last of four launch locks that holds the Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator (ADIR) in its launch configuration. Releasing the last device allows springs to drive the ADIR into its final deployed position. The first three launch locks were released just after launch to prevent any unwanted strain in the system as the ADIR and telescope cools.

Video: This Step
Video: Full Deployment
Photos: Instrument Module

 

[rockytopva]

Beginning the Primary Mirror deployment phase. Wonderful web page by the way….

https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

 

[rockytopva]

WEBB IS FULLY DEPLOYED!
The largest, most complex telescope ever launched into space is fully deployed.
Nominal Event Time: Launch + 14 days (Saturday 1/8/22)

Status: Completed. WATCH: Post-Deployment Briefing | Re-Watch Live Broadcast

Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Webb will continue to travel to the second Lagrange point (L2) for another two weeks, at which point it will enter a large orbit around the L2 point. The following five months will be used to cool the telescope to operating temperature, fine-tune the mirror alignment, and calibrate the instruments.

Video: Full Deployment | 29 Days On the Edge
3d Spins: Top View | Bottom View | Y-Axis
Photos: Flight Telescope | Story of Webb
Read: Science | Observatory | Sunshield | Mirrors

 

[jayem]

Can hardly wait to see the images when JWST is fully operational. They should be spectacular.

 

[Ophiolite]

Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade,

The accuracy of orbital insertion by the Ariane rocket and the precision of the subsequent mid-course corrections means that there is substantially more fuel available to maintain JWT on station for more than the planned ten years. Operational life may now extend up towards twenty years.

 

[durangodawood]

Can hardly wait to see the images when JWST is fully operational. They should be spectacular.

Will the images even be visually interesting? Or "just" scientifically interesting?

I ask because its designed to view largely spectra outside the visible light range.

 

[sjastro]

Will the images even be visually interesting? Or "just" scientifically interesting?

I ask because its designed to view largely spectra outside the visible light range.

Like Hubble, JWST will produce two type of images.
(1) Black and white infrared images of very distant galaxies which have a scientific value.
(2) Spectacular colour images as a public relations exercise to not only impress the public but particularly the politicians who control future funding.

 

[Ophiolite]

(2) Spectacular colour images as a public relations exercise to not only impress the public but particularly the politicians who control future funding.

In regard to this, it is my understanding that most of the "popular" Hubble photographs were heavily manipulated to enhance visual impact. This seems perfectly reasonable, not just as a way of producing "pretty pictures", but as a practical way of bringing out detail that would otherwise be difficult to discern.

 

[sjastro]

In regard to this, it is my understanding that most of the "popular" Hubble photographs were heavily manipulated to enhance visual impact. This seems perfectly reasonable, not just as a way of producing "pretty pictures", but as a practical way of bringing out detail that would otherwise be difficult to discern.

Emission and planetary nebulae give off light at specific wavelengths.
For these objects a Hubble palette was developed where Hubble's narrow band filters were mapped to specific colour channels.
These produce "false colour" images but greatly enhanced the detail.
The Hubble Palette

 

[rockytopva]

"NASA Says Space Debris Will Definitely Slam Into the James Webb Space Telescope" - Nasa warns meteorite could hit James Webb Space Telescope weeks after launch

 

[Ophiolite]

"NASA Says Space Debris Will Definitely Slam Into the James Webb Space Telescope" - Nasa warns meteorite could hit James Webb Space Telescope weeks after launch

I am surprised that you would lower the tone of an otherwise infromative thread with this piece of click-bait drivel. The choice of words and their arrangment is deliberatly misleading and an affront to all the excellent material you have posted here. At least I now know that the US Sun is to be as vigrously avoided as its UK original.

 

[Subduction Zone]

I am surprised that you would lower the tone of an otherwise infromative thread with this piece of click-bait drivel. The choice of words and their arrangment is deliberatly misleading and an affront to all the excellent material you have posted here. At least I now know that the US Sun is to be as vigrously avoided as its UK original.

It is not that bad of an article if one reads past the clickbait title:

"NASA is expecting space debris to smash into its newly launched James Webb Space Telescope.

The US space agency isn't panicking yet though as it's actually accounted for impact scenarios."

In other words to people that are worried about material hitting the telescope:

"Relax, they already thought about that."

Now if they could only bring back page 3

 

[rockytopva]

I am surprised that you would lower the tone of an otherwise infromative thread with this piece of click-bait drivel. The choice of words and their arrangment is deliberatly misleading and an affront to all the excellent material you have posted here. At least I now know that the US Sun is to be as vigrously avoided as its UK original.

I would imagine that once in orbit the risk of space debris hitting the telescope will be greatly diminished. Lower tone? Agreed! We are in for, however, a long time of positioning, fine tuning, and calibration.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

I am surprised that you would lower the tone of an otherwise infromative thread with this piece of click-bait drivel. The choice of words and their arrangment is deliberatly misleading and an affront to all the excellent material you have posted here. At least I now know that the US Sun is to be as vigrously avoided as its UK original.

What NASA is talking about is micrometeoroid impacts...

 

[Subduction Zone]

What NASA is talking about is micrometeoroid impacts...

Which is about the only likely kind of meteoroid that is likely to strike it.

 

[sjastro]

What NASA is talking about is micrometeoroid impacts...

These micrometeoriods can turn up as micrometeorites found at home.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

These micrometeoriods can turn up as micrometeorites found at home.

Yes, I read some time ago about a guy who spends his time collecting them from roofs across the US.

 

[sjastro]

Yes, I read some time ago about a guy who spends his time collecting them from roofs across the US.

I found this ≈ 0.1 mm diameter object.

Can't tell what it is.
It is magnetic but doesn't look a micrometeorite due to its hemispherical rather than spherical shape.
On the other hand it is hard to explain as a man made object due to its size and being found in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Tanj]

I found this ≈ 0.1 mm diameter object.

Can't tell what it is.
It is magnetic but doesn't look a micrometeorite due to its hemispherical rather than spherical shape.
On the other hand it is hard to explain as a man made object due to its size and being found in the middle of nowhere.

I've been looking for that since I lost it years ago! Be a mate and mail it to me please.

 

[durangodawood]

I found this ≈ 0.1 mm diameter object.

Can't tell what it is.
It is magnetic but doesn't look a micrometeorite due to its hemispherical rather than spherical shape.
On the other hand it is hard to explain as a man made object due to its size and being found in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe it split upon impact?

Also how did you find an object that small?