Unlocking The Mysteries
Of The Past With JWST
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the most ambitious astronomical projects ever undertaken by humanity. With its highly advanced technology and unprecedented capabilities, the JWST promises to revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos and unlock the mysteries of the universe’s past.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. It can see objects that are too dim or too distant for other telescopes to see. JWST can also see through dust and gas, which allows it to see objects that are hidden from view by our own Milky Way galaxy.
The James Webb Space Telescope has a number of advanced technologies like gold coated mirrors for more reflectivity, a state of the art heat-shield and four IR scientific instruments. These technologies took 20 years to develop and made the JWST project very expensive, at a total estimated cost of around $10 billion.
The JWST’s first major achievement was capturing the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the universe ever recorded. This image shows the first galaxies that were formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. This is the most distant view of the universe ever made.
JWST can look into the past because it can see in infrared light. Infrared light has a longer wavelength than visible light, which means that it can travel through dust and gas that would otherwise block our view of the universe. This allows JWST to see objects that are very far away, such as the first stars and galaxies that formed.
The light from these objects has been travelling for billions of years to reach us, so when we see them through JWST, we are actually seeing them as they were billions of years ago. This is why JWST is often called a “time machine”.