After many postponements, the long-awaited moment has come for a scientific program involving hundreds of astronomers from around the world. The largest and most complex Space Telescope ever sent to the stars, the James Webb Space Telescope, has finally been launched from the Kourou base in French Guiana, where the ESA, the European Space Agency’s launch base, is located. The European Ariane 5 rocket launched from the “Ela-3” platform at 1.20 pm (Italian time) and launched itself into the partly cloudy sky above the Pacific Ocean. No Christmas holidays therefore, at the base of Space Europe, which launched the large NASA observatory dedicated to James Webb, who at the head of the American space agency bravely decided to start the program, which would then have brought astronauts on board in just eight years. Moon.
A new and never attempted solution after the so-called “parking” orbit around the Earth, the upper stage of Ariane 5 will turn on and send Webb a great distance from Earth, and unlike its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, instead sent in Earth orbit and designed to be repaired and repaired by astronaut missions. But from one and a half million kilometers, it will be a machine that will have to perform countless maneuvers in automatic mode, both with commands given from the ground, and thanks to a sophisticated computer system that will allow it to self-manage.
This is why the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most complex robotic machine ever sent into space, and it is a project that began almost 15 years ago with a total investment of 10 billion dollars: “Webb is an enormous technological challenge: in fact it will have to operate at 235 degrees below zero, one and a half million kilometers from Earth, and cannot be reached by astronauts for repairs like the Hubble three thousand times closer, in Earth orbit. Everything must be perfect »- Massimo Robberto, Italian astrophysicist of the mission’s scientific team, tells us from the center of the Hubble and Webb telescopes in Baltimore. After a long series of checks, Webb will begin its operational mission on June 26th.
The first phase of observations Not only the powerful Ariane 5, however, now close to retirement to make way for Ariane 6. Europe is also the protagonist in the rich scientific program of observations of the Webb, designed to reveal the many secrets about our Solar System, to peer into distant worlds around other stars and among the mysterious supporting structures of the origins of the Universe. A few weeks ago, the managers of the Webb Space Telescope mission had announced the selection under the “General Observer” programs for the first year of observing the telescope, known as Cycle 1; will provide the astronomical community around the world with the first broad opportunity to investigate scientific objectives via the Webb. The selected proposals address a wide variety of scientific areas and will help fulfill ESA’s global mission to advance studies of our understanding of the Universe. A few figures. Members of the astronomical community were assigned to several panels covering broad scientific topics. Of these, 52 were from ESA member states, and a total of 1172 proposals were received before the deadline. Scientists from 44 countries have applied for part of the 6,000 observation hours made available. Of the 266 observation proposals selected, 33% come from ESA member states, corresponding to 30% of the telescope time available on Webb during the first cycle. Furthermore, of the selected proposals, 41% will mainly use Webb’s NIRSpec tool and 28% will use MIRI, both made by Europe: “We celebrate the highly successful partnership between the European Space Agency and our colleagues from NASA and Canadian CSA. We look forward to the beautiful images and spectra and incredible discoveries that Webb will make in the first year of observing, ”said Günther Hasinger, ESA’s Scientific Director.
Leonardo for the star sensor and the NIRSpec apparatus for the exoplanets Europe and Italy are prominent protagonists for Webb. In Italy, Leonardo supplied the sophisticated star sensor for pointing the celestial objects to be observed. ESA has supplied two instruments of the Webb, of the 4 main ones that will operate on the space telescope. One is NIRSpec, a near-infrared spectrograph that will allow for extensive spectroscopic investigations of astronomical objects such as distant stars or galaxies. NIRSpec stands for Near-InfraRed SpectrographStatusNIRSpec and was delivered to NASA in September 2013; it has since been integrated into the payload module of the Webb Space Telescope. It was built for ESA by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defense and Space, and will provide low, medium and high resolution near infrared spectroscopic observations. It is a so-called “multi-object” spectrograph capable of observing more than 100 cosmic objects simultaneously over a 9-square-minute field of view. In its integral field spectroscopy mode, it will allow astronomers to study the detailed structure of extended objects, while its slit spectroscopy mode will be used to study the properties of exoplanets. NIRSpec will allow scientists to study objects embedded in layers of gas and dust, how galaxies formed and evolved, and to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets to determine if water is present.
MIRI, for the study of the formation of stars and galaxies The other apparatus is the MIRI, which stands for Mid-InfraRed Instrument, the first of the four main instruments of the Webb delivered to NASA, in May 2012. Made by ESA with a consortium of nationally funded European institutes, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), of the four instruments is the only one that covers the mid-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 28 , 3 microns. It will be critical to a better understanding of the dawn of star and galaxy formation, and will produce mid-infrared images and spectra with an unprecedented combination of sharpness and sensitivity. It will see the first generations of galaxies forming after the Big Bang, and will study the formation sites of new planets and the composition of the interstellar medium. It will also observe the light emitted, reflected or transmitted by exoplanets, the planets that orbit stars other than our Sun and which, thanks to Webb, will further enrich the catalog of those already discovered. Hoping to find some other land, who knows if inhabited.