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Why James Webb Space Telescope is so special - Science Feed

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In order to observe the universe, we need a telescope. But there is huge difference between a traditional telescope and a space telescope. A space telescope is able to observe things beyond imagination. In this article, we will explore about James Webb Space Telescope. 

James Webb Space Telescope is largest telescope in space right now. It is built in collaboration of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The purpose of James Webb Space Technology was to observe the formation of distant galaxies, exoplanets, discoveries related to formation of first stars etc. This telescope was launched on 25 December, 2021 where its destination was a solar orbit about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. 

This telescope is far different from our traditional telescope because it seeks out for near-infrared rays, orange and red light for observation. The telescope has 6.5 meter diameter gold coated beryllium primary mirror made of 18 separate hexagonal mirrors. It has gold coating for infrared reflectivity. There is an ISIM (Integrated Science Instrument Module) which provides power, cooling system, structural stability and computing resources to it.

Here is the list of important components in JWST:
NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera), NIRSpec (Near Infrared Spectrograph), MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph)

On the software side, it uses Nombas ScriptEase 5.00e which is modification of Javascript for the on-board scripts. Also, the flight software is written in C++.

The development of JWST was started in 2000 but with name of Next Generation Space Telescope which got changed later. The goal was to make the better version of Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope. 

The first full color images of were revealed in 11 July, 2022 called Webb's First Deep Field. 

There have been huge discoveries related distant objects that were thought to be non-existent. Very luminous galaxies were found estimated to be 235 to 280 million years after Big Bang. A large mosaic image of 690 individual frames of very early galaxies taken by JWST were released.

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