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James Webb’s images show countless extremely distant galaxies, each made up of billions of stars. Contrary to what one might think, it is precisely the barely visible points of light that are of primary interest to astronomers. Some of these galaxies are so distant that we can go back as far as 250 million years after the Big Bang.
baby period of the universe
“The light from such a galaxy took a long time to travel this huge distance to Earth. So you see the light that started a long time ago – billions of years ago. That means you look back in time and in such a photo you can see what those galaxies looked like very shortly after the Big Bang.”
“250 million years” might still sound like a lot, but that’s the baby’s infancy, says Schilling. “It’s like I’ve only seen pictures of you from your childhood and teenage years and all of a sudden I get a picture an hour after you were born.” Spectacular, Schilling calls it.
uninhabited island
Astronomers are excited about the data provided by the James Webb Telescope. One scientific publication after another is now being published. “It’s like arriving on a desert island with a group of people. You don’t know where to start your search yet, but you know you won’t be finished in the coming months. Nobody really expected to this so far in advance.”
Life on Earth Will Not Change by James Webb. “I sometimes compare interest in galaxies – the origin of the universe – with people’s interest in their own family tree. It is of no practical use to know who your distant ancestor is, but it gives a kind of satisfaction to know where you are. “. This telescope allows us to see what started it all, the Big Bang.”
We won’t see the big bang itself, says Schilling. “The telescope isn’t looking with the right ‘type of radiation’ for it. To detect the energy of the Big Bang, you need a radio telescope. It’s happened before. Who knows, we might one day combine it all into a ‘story of ‘coherent’ origin.”
James Webb
The James Webb (named after a now deceased NASA director) was developed by the United States, Europe and Canada. The space telescope was launched on Christmas Day. It is the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which is coming to an end. At the end of January, after about a month of flight, the James Webb arrived at its place of work 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. After arrival, all systems were tested and the instruments on board were cooled, one of them to a temperature of 266 degrees below zero. The mirrors are also adjusted. They gather the light that comes from the universe and send it to the measuring instruments.
The James Webb has eighteen hexagonal mirrors that sit together, but can move independently of each other to focus. The mirror is made of beryllium, covered with a tiny layer of gold 100 nanometers thick. It’s a thousand times thinner than a human hair or a sheet of paper. Beryllium is light, strong and can withstand extreme cold. The gold allows the mirror to see infrared light better.
