Expert Voices

What's the Point of the James Webb Space Telescope?

The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope with its sunshield and “unitized pallet structures” (which fold up around the telescope for launch) are seen partially deployed to an open configuration to enable telescope installation.
The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope with its sunshield and “unitized pallet structures” (which fold up around the telescope for launch) are seen partially deployed to an open configuration to enable telescope installation. (Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of "Your Place in the Universe." Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is (currently) scheduled to launch in March of 2021, after years of delays and billions of dollars spent over budget. While it's easy to argue that all that time and money has been wasted, this observatory will be the premiere and undisputed champion of infrared wavelengths, giving us unparalleled access to corners of the universe currently inaccessible. 

If we want to learn new things about everything from the first galaxies to the chance for life on other planets, the roughly $9.7 billion James Webb is our only hope.

Related: Building the James Webb Space Telescope (Gallery)

No chill

While the James Webb Space Telescope ("JWST" to those in the know) is heralded as the "successor" to NASA's storied Hubble Space Telescope, it kind of isn't. The Hubble is primarily an optical telescope, capturing wavelengths of light similar to the range that the human eye does, and extending past that a little bit into the infrared and ultraviolet (UV) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In essence, the Hubble is a giant orbiting space eyeball, delivering stunning pictures that you would see, if your optic nerves were similarly equipped.

But the JWST is different. It will be observing entirely in the infrared, barely scratching the deepest possible reds that a human can see. In other words, the JWST will be studying a universe that is largely invisible to human experience.

One of the major reasons that the JWST is designed to be an infrared scope is that infrared astronomy is, in general, really hard to do from the surface of the Earth. Light pollution is the bane of astronomers, who need their skies crystal-clear and perfectly dark to do their detailed observations and measurements.

And infrared light pollution comes from many different places. Basically, anything warm. Which is, basically, everything. Human bodies generate 100 watts of infrared radiation. The Earth itself is pretty warm, glowing strongly in infrared bands. Even the telescope itself, if it's at room temperature, is aglow in the infrared.

It's not that we can't do infrared astronomy from the ground, it's just that it's frustratingly hard.

Hence, space.

Far from home

The JWST will operate about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from the Earth, to get it safely far away from our warm, infrared-glowing planet. But even still, there's the sun to contend with. Ever sit outside on a nice summer day, feeling the warmth of our sun on your skin? Yeah, that's infrared radiation, pumped out by the bucketful. And even a million miles away from the Earth, the sun is still a little bit toasty.

To combat this, designers of infrared space telescopes have a couple options. The most common choice is to use an active cooling system, chilling down the telescope to the temperatures needed to properly observe infrared wavelengths. This is great, and utilized by previous infrared space telescopes, but it does limit their lifespans. No more coolant = no more astronomy.

So instead the JWST will deploy a giant, expensive space umbrella, 72 feet (22 meters) long and 36 feet (11 m) wide, made of five layers of extremely reflective material, each layer thinner than a human hair. This massive "sunshield" will keep the telescope itself in constant shade, somewhere south of minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 223 degrees Celsius), which is ideal for the infrared wavelengths it will be studying.

Although, just for fun, one of the instruments onboard will be chilled with an active cooling system to below minus 433 Fahrenheit (minus 258 C ), which will allow it to access some even longer infrared wavelengths.

Related: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Passes Vital Sun Shield Test

Behold the science

All in all, the JWST is massive. In fact, it's so big that it shouldn't be able to fit on a rocket. Besides the gargantuan sunshield, the primary mirror will be 21 feet (6.5 m) across, which is far wider than any rocket fairing currently in use. Duct-taping the mirror to the side of the rocket isn't exactly a workable solution, so instead the clever NASA engineers broke the mirror into 18 smaller hexagonal sections, which will be tucked and folded into the rocket (along with the folded-up sunshield and the rest of the telescope itself).

If everything goes right, just a few days after launch the JWST will head to its observing point, unfold, and start staring.

And what it will see will be — and I'm not using this word lightly — remarkable. One of its main targets will be the early universe, when our cosmos was just a few hundred million years old. The first stars and galaxies to appear on the cosmic scene blazed brightly in the visible spectrum, but over the course of the past 13 billion years the universe has expanded, stretching that light out of the visible range and down into the infrared — right in the sweet spot of the JWST's design parameters.

Since we have no images at all from the epoch of the first stars and galaxies (known colloquially as the "cosmic dawn") this will be our first-ever view into this important age in the history of the cosmos.

Closer to home, the JWST will study anything cool in the cosmos, from protoplanetary disks around newborn stars to molecular clouds, comets, Kuiper Belt objects and more.

And JWST will use a specialized device to block out light from some distant stars, enabling the observatory to snap pictures of any objects orbiting those stars — like exoplanets. Those planets will be glowing in the infrared, and the light from those planets will be modified by the chemicals and elements in their atmospheres, chemicals and elements which might be signs of life.

From ET hunter to cosmic-dawn revealer, the JWST will certainly be worth the wait. 

Learn more by listening to the episode "Is the James Webb worth the wait?" on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to @SethDSanders, @hhyech, White I., and Veljo U. for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter.

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Paul Sutter
Space.com Contributor

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy, His research focuses on many diverse topics, from the emptiest regions of the universe to the earliest moments of the Big Bang to the hunt for the first stars. As an "Agent to the Stars," Paul has passionately engaged the public in science outreach for several years. He is the host of the popular "Ask a Spaceman!" podcast, author of "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space" and he frequently appears on TV — including on The Weather Channel, for which he serves as Official Space Specialist.

  • Satirical American
    Terrible headline.

    Right now on the front page of Google news sits the question, 'What is the point of the James Webb Space Telescope?'

    Hordes of headline skimmers on news aggregates will see that leading question, assume that there is no real value, and move on with that emotional memory tucked away forever more.

    It leads people to assume there is no real point. Not the best message.

    Sell the anticipation of major discovery
    Reply
  • rod
    Satirical American said:
    Terrible headline.

    Right now on the front page of Google news sits the question, 'What is the point of the James Webb Space Telescope?'

    Hordes of headline skimmers on news aggregates will see that leading question, assume that there is no real value, and move on with that emotional memory tucked away forever more.

    It leads people to assume there is no real point. Not the best message.

    Sell the anticipation of major discovery

    FYI, I enjoyed the report but can see why some/many may argue against the JWST. The cost apparently is 10 billion dollars :) The JWST will operate some 1.5 million km from Earth according to this report, what looks like Lagrangian points. JWST focusing on the infrared part of the spectrum may be able to do some very useful astronomy. I will wait and see for the returns on the investment :)
    Reply
  • Pim
    v6ihVeEoUdoView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=v6ihVeEoUdo
    This amazing video shows it all!
    Reply
  • rod
    Pim said:
    v6ihVeEoUdoView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=v6ihVeEoUdo
    This amazing video shows it all!

    Enjoyable 12 minute video, some PR stuff :) The JWST will be at the L2 point according to the video and look for early stars etc., forming in the early universe, perhaps 13.5 billion light-year distance. I use this cosmology calculator to look at z numbers and their conversions, COSMOLOGY CALCULATORS Number one and flat universe model, the z numbers JWST is looking for seem >=10.0. Presently I think there is very little documented in this redshift range, 11.0 or so is the largest reported this year.
    Reply
  • tomwys
    The Webb Telescope should be mothballed until two things happen:
    1: Get the bugs out of the Arianne launch vehicle - had we launched last January, Webb would have become a 9 Billion dollar meteor catcher.
    2: Develop a set of "Space Tugs" that can ferry atmospherics, fuel, materials, and people to the Moon and LEO, and more important, to L2 to service Webb when needed. Hubble needed 5 "servicing" missions & maybe a 6th too. The "Tugs" will never return to Earth - just LEO for re-supply, crew exchange, etc.

    By all means, focus on getting Webb set for L2, but DO NOT launch Webb without Tugs at the ready!!!
    Reply
  • rod
    tomwys said:
    The Webb Telescope should be mothballed until two things happen:
    1: Get the bugs out of the Arianne launch vehicle - had we launched last January, Webb would have become a 9 Billion dollar meteor catcher.
    2: Develop a set of "Space Tugs" that can ferry atmospherics, fuel, materials, and people to the Moon and LEO, and more important, to L2 to service Webb when needed. Hubble needed 5 "servicing" missions & maybe a 6th too. The "Tugs" will never return to Earth - just LEO for re-supply, crew exchange, etc.

    By all means, focus on getting Webb set for L2, but DO NOT launch Webb without Tugs at the ready!!!

    I was wondering about servicing JWST at L2 too. I remember when HST was opened up - there was a mirror problem and the space shuttle operating then need a repair mission. Open up JWST with a mirror problem - ouch, that is $10 billion error :)
    Reply
  • Macuster
    Friend who works on the JWST gives it a 15% chance of success...way too complex to be understood by any one engineer.

    Also, although not announced, will definitely be delayed again. All of the allotted glitch time has been used up. Another 6 months to 12 months will be added. Look at a late 2022 launch...earliest.
    Reply
  • TooClose2DC
    I hate that they limited the JWST to infrared and called a replacement to the Hubble. The Hubble is still producing amazing pictures and science. We need to build a Hubble 2.0 in cooperation with ESA and other agencies to provide the missing data from the JWST.
    Reply
  • SinanCem
    Macuster said:
    Friend who works on the JWST gives it a 15% chance of success...way too complex to be understood by any one engineer.

    Also, although not announced, will definitely be delayed again. All of the allotted glitch time has been used up. Another 6 months to 12 months will be added. Look at a late 2022 launch...earliest.

    10 billion $ for 15% success chance. That is rough. I refuse to believe NASA will fail at a project of this magnitude.
    Reply
  • Jeff L
    It’s only gonna last 10 years if it does work.
    Reply