Webb Telescope Prepares to Ascend, With an Eye Toward Our Origins

[Zorro]

The biggest space telescope in history aims to answer astronomy’s oldest question: How did we get from the Big Bang to here?

There are only a few times in the history of a species when it gains the know-how, the audacity and the tools to greatly advance the interrogation of its origins. Humanity is at such a moment, astronomers say.

According to the tale that they have been telling themselves (and the rest of us) for the last few decades, the first stars flickered on when the universe was about 100 million years old.

They burned hard and died fast in spectacular supernova explosions, dispelling the gloomy fog of gas left over from the primordial fireworks known as the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. From those sparks came all that we care about in the universe — the long, ongoing chain of cosmic evolution that has produced everything from galaxies and planets to microbes and us.

But is that story right?

The tools to address that question and more are at hand. Sitting in a spaceport in French Guiana, wrapped like a butterfly in a chrysalis of technology, ambition, metal and wires, is the biggest, most powerful and, at $10 billion, most expensive telescope ever to be launched into space: the James Webb Space Telescope. Its job is to look boldly back in time at the first stars and galaxies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/20/science/webb-telescope-astronomy.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSlUZAybOVtkqqBaLwufCyrZ5mnL6ITOeTi5Piu0OH5KH_UDIdOxje943lXy9deN2DYUOFrZ03_MNeAtkURWpqZ-J354Icntr8NK9Gz1p1c-IAL5gqXq6NWLhbbclzeK25krWame8D7fNkiF0fHYTqptldVip23IJ1_2FRrYzgo8iqK9nUpNqRj4AZD2JvO3oC3h8OtaAbBLc7WomSr0TGGGTzZPHteV2IEgFAknGTXh__W8_9NpaXdoWN6v-JBUkE9Hs7-T6K3LETfJlR3M71uEK9g&smid=url-share

This is a truly remarkable telescope, and I'm hoping that the launch and deployment go smoothly.

I know the link may look ugly, but it shouldn't be behind the paywall.

[llashram]

1. hopefully

our signal will be heard and we can be saved from ourselves...

[sl8]

2. I'm getting excited.

Fingers crossed and high hopes.

[Bayard]

4. How exciting!

Of course, no matter what it finds, the fundies will never believe it.

[Duppers]

5. Exactly!

Don't seem to even believe in vaccinations.

[electric_blue68]

6. It's very exciting... 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

May all go well from count down, to launch, to reaching destination, to unfolding the mirror, first (infrared) light and beyond!

I'm from (some of you are, too) the days when they'd roll in the 6+ ft (B&W) TV stand in our class room to watch the Mercury series etc.

My best space thing was attending the Moon Astronauts ticket tape parade in NYC. What an effin' blast that was!
Later when John Glenn got the same for (then) being the oldest person to go into space!