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WFIRST Will See the Big Picture of the Universe

NASA Goddard

Опубликовано: 22 дек. 2017 г.

Спойлер

Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubble's wide-eyed cousin. While just as sensitive as Hubble's cameras, WFIRST's 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument will image a sky area 100 times larger. This means a single WFIRST image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures fr om Hubble.

The mission's wide field of view will allow it to generate a never-before-seen big picture of the universe, which will help astronomers explore some of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos, like why the expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating. Some scientists attribute the speed-up to dark energy, an unexplained pressure that makes up 68 percent of the total content of the cosmos.

The Wide Field Instrument will also allow WFIRST to measure the matter in hundreds of millions of distant galaxies through a phenomenon dictated by Einstein's relativity theory. Massive objects like galaxies curve space-time in a way that bends light passing near them, creating a distorted, magnified view of far-off galaxies behind them. WFIRST will paint a broad picture of how matter is structured throughout the universe, allowing scientists to put the governing physics of its assembly to the ultimate test.

WFIRST can use this same light-bending phenomenon to study planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets. In a process called microlensing, a foreground star in our galaxy acts as the lens. When its motion randomly aligns with a distant background star, the lens magnifies, brightens and distorts the background star. WFIRST's microlensing survey will monitor 100 million stars for hundreds of days and is expected to find about 2,500 planets, well targeted at rocky planets in and beyond the region wh ere liquid water may exist.

These results will make WFIRST an ideal companion to missions like NASA's Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which are designed to study larger planets orbiting closer to their host stars. Together, discoveries from these three missions will help complete the census of planets beyond our solar system. The combined data will also overlap in a critical area known as the habitable zone, the orbiting distance from a host star that would permit a planet's surface to harbor liquid water — and potentially life.

By pioneering an array of innovative technologies, WFIRST will serve as a multipurpose mission, formulating a big picture of the universe and helping us answer some of the most profound questions in astrophysics, such as how the universe evolved into what we see today, its ultimate fate and whether we are alone.

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-s-next-major-telescope-to-see-the-big-picture-of-the-universe

Dec. 22, 2017
NASA's Next Major Telescope to See the Big Picture of the Universe

NASA is beginning to design its next big astrophysics mission, a space telescope that will provide the largest picture of the universe ever seen with the same depth and clarity as the Hubble Space Telescope.
Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubble's wide-eyed cousin. While just as sensitive as Hubble's cameras, WFIRST's 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument will image a sky area 100 times larger. This means a single WFIRST image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures fr om Hubble.

Спойлер

Watch to learn more about the NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center


"A picture from Hubble is a nice poster on the wall, while a WFIRST image will cover the entire wall of your house," said David Spergel, co-chair of the WFIRST science working group and the Charles A. Young professor of astronomy at Princeton University in New Jersey.

The mission's wide field of view will allow it to generate never-before-seen big pictures of the universe, which will help astronomers explore some of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos, including why the expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating. One possible explanation for this speed-up is dark energy, an unexplained pressure that currently makes up 68 percent of the total content of the cosmos and may have been changing over the history of the universe. Another possibility is that this apparent cosmic acceleration points to the breakdown of Einstein's general theory of relativity across large swaths of the universe. WFIRST will have the power to test both of these ideas.

To learn more about dark energy, WFIRST will use its powerful 2.4-meter mirror and Wide Field Instrument to do two things: map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos and measure how the universe has expanded over time. In the process, the mission will study galaxies across cosmic time, from the present back to when the universe was only half a billion years old, or about 4 percent of its current age.

"To understand how the universe evolved from a hot, uniform gas into stars, planets, and people, we need to study the beginnings of that process by looking at the early days of the universe," said WFIRST Project Scientist Jeffrey Kruk at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "We've learned much from other wide-area surveys, but WFIRST's will be the most sensitive and give us our farthest look back in time."

WFIRST will do this through multiple observational strategies, including surveys of exploding stars called supernovae and galaxy clusters, and mapping out the distribution of galaxies in three dimensions. Measuring the brightness and distances of supernovae provided the first evidence for the presence of dark energy. WFIRST will extend these studies to greater distances to measure how dark energy's influence increased over time.

WFIRST will measure precise distances to galaxy clusters to map how they grew over time. The mission will also pinpoint the distances to millions of galaxies by measuring how their light becomes redder at greater distances, a phenomenon called redshift. The farther off a galaxy is, the redder its light appears when we see it. Mapping out the 3-D positions of galaxies will allow astronomers to measure how the distribution of galaxies has changed over time, providing another measure of how dark energy has affected the cosmos.

The Wide Field Instrument will also allow WFIRST to measure the matter in hundreds of millions of distant galaxies through a phenomenon dictated by Einstein's relativity theory. Massive objects like galaxies curve space-time in a way that bends light passing near them, creating a distorted, magnified view of far-off galaxies behind them. Using this magnifying glass effect, called weak gravitational lensing, WFIRST will paint a broad picture of how matter is structured throughout the universe, allowing scientists to put the governing physics of its assembly to the ultimate test.

WFIRST can use this same light-bending phenomenon to study planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets. In a process called microlensing, a foreground star in our galaxy acts as the lens. When its motion randomly aligns with a distant background star, the lens magnifies, brightens and distorts the background star. As the lensing star drifts along in its orbit around the galaxy and the the alignment shifts, so does the apparent brightness of the star. The precise pattern of these changes can reveal planets orbiting the lensing star because the planets themselves serve as miniature gravitational lenses. Such alignments must be precise and last only hours.

WFIRST's microlensing survey will monitor 100 million stars for hundreds of days and is expected to find about 2,500 planets, with significant numbers of rocky planets in and beyond the region wh ere liquid water may exist. This planet-detection method is sensitive enough to find planets smaller than Mars, and will reveal planets orbiting their host stars at distances ranging from closer than Venus to beyond Pluto.

These results will make WFIRST an ideal companion to missions like NASA's Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which are best suited to find larger planets orbiting closer to their host stars. Together, discoveries from these three missions will help complete the census of planets beyond our solar system, helping us learn how planets form and migrate into systems like our own. The combined data from these missions provide insight into planets in the critical area known as the habitable zone, the orbiting distance from a host star that would permit a planet's surface to harbor liquid water — and potentially life.

WFIRST will also feature a coronagraph technology demonstration instrument designed to directly image exoplanets by blocking out a star's light, allowing the much fainter planets to be observed. As NASA's first advanced coronagraph in space, it will be 1,000 times more capable than any previously flown. This is a key step toward future direct imaging missions that will study truly Earth-like planets discovered nearby. The instrument will be able to image gas giant planets orbiting mature Sun-like stars, allowing scientists to study them in ways that haven't been possible before. Scientists are hoping to use the coronagraph to determine important properties about these planets, such as their atmospheric composition.

WFIRST will serve as an important tool for the science community through its General Observer and archival data analysis programs. All WFIRST data will be publicly available immediately after processing and delivery to the archive. Also, by submitting proposals through the competitive program, scientists around the world will be able to use the observatory to study the cosmos in their own way, from the nearest exoplanets out to clusters of distant galaxies.

The mission will complement other missions expected to operate in the next decade, notably the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2019. Webb provides a detailed look at rare and interesting objects, while WFIRST will take a wide look at the universe. WFIRST will also complement new ground-based observatories such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) currently in development. By combining data from WFIRST and LSST, scientists will be able to view the universe in nine different wavelengths, data that will provide the most detailed wide-angle view of the universe to date.

By pioneering an array of innovative technologies, WFIRST will serve as a multipurpose mission, furnishing a big picture of the universe and helping us answer some of the most profound questions in astrophysics, such as how the universe evolved into what we see today, its ultimate fate and whether we are alone.

"By building this telescope we're enabling a wealth of science and the capability to address those kinds of questions," Spergel said. "It's deeply interesting not only to scientists, but anyone who looks up at the sky and wonders."

WFIRST is managed at Goddard, with participation by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC, also in Pasadena, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from research institutions across the United States.

For more information about NASA's WFIRST mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/wfirst

By Claire Saravia
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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Last Updated: Dec. 22, 2017
Editor: Lynn Jenner

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https://nasaviz.gsfc.nasa.gov/12785

Webb Crawler

Story by Eric Villard Released on December 11, 2017


By land, air and sea, when it's time to travel, Webb covers the gamut of transportation.

Спойлер

When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope needs to travel, it is carefully packed away in a specially designed container called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS). As the name implies, the container protects Webb during its journeys on ground, above ground, and over water. Webb's optical element and science instruments were packed inside STTARS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before they were flown to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for final cryogenic testing. From Houston, Webb will board an airplane once again to travel to Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, for integration with the spacecraft bus and sunshield. Once Webb is fully assembled, it will be packed into a larger, modified version of the STTARS container, called "Super STTARS," and travel by ship to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. The massive container weighs approximately 165,000 pounds (almost 75,000 kilograms) and dwarfs Webb in terms of mass — the telescope weighs approximately 14,000 pounds (6,350 kilograms) here on Earth. All of that bulk is needed to keep Webb's individual parts, and eventually the fully assembled telescope, safe during the journey to the launch pad. Watch the video to learn more.

STTARS_Feature_high.mp4 - 24.6 MB, 1:08
Once packed into STTARS, Webb travels slowly over land before taking a flight aboard a massive military transport plane.
 

Despite the C-5 Galaxy's massive size, the STTARS container just barely squeezes under the top of the plane's cargo hold.
 

The spacious belly of the C-5 Galaxy was designed to carry U.S. military tanks. Webb gets the plane all to itself.
 

When traveling on land, Webb is carefully chauffeured by a semi-truck. The ride is slow - approximately 5 mph (8 kph).
 

A French cargo ship will ferry the fully assembled Webb telescope, inside STTARS, to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.

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В дополнение к #486 - вместо STTARS_Feature_high.mp4 ролик на ТыТрубе

How Do You Safely Transport a Space Telescope?

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Опубликовано: 12 дек. 2017 г.

Throughout the construction and assembly of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the telescope has moved between NASA centers and partner locations. When Webb moves, it is carefully packed inside a specially designed container called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road, and Sea (STTARS). As the name implies, the container protects Webb on the ground, above ground, and over water. This massive container weighs approximately 165,000 pounds (almost 75,000 kilograms) and dwarfs Webb in terms of mass — the telescope weighs approximately 14,000 pounds (6,350 kilograms) here on Earth. All of that bulk is needed to keep Webb's individual parts, and eventually the fully assembled telescope, safe during the journey to the launch pad.

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-webb-telescope-to-investigate-mysterious-brown-dwarfs

Jan. 4, 2018

NASA's Webb Telescope to Investigate Mysterious Brown Dwarfs

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Astronomers are hopeful that the powerful infrared capability of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will resolve a puzzle as fundamental as stargazing itself — what IS that dim light in the sky? Brown dwarfs muddy a clear distinction between stars and planets, throwing established understanding of those bodies, and theories of their formation, into question.

Спойлер

Stellar cluster NGC 1333 is home to a large number of brown dwarfs. Astronomers will use Webb's powerful infrared instruments to learn more about these dim cousins to the cluster's bright newborn stars.
Credits: NASA/CXC/JPL

Several research teams will use Webb to explore the mysterious nature of brown dwarfs, looking for insight into both star formation and exoplanet atmospheres, and the hazy territory in-between where the brown dwarf itself exists. Previous work with Hubble, Spitzer, and ALMA have shown that brown dwarfs can be up to 70 times more massive than gas giants like Jupiter, yet they do not have enough mass for their cores to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight. Though brown dwarfs were theorized in the 1960s and confirmed in 1995, there is not an accepted explanation of how they form: like a star, by the contraction of gas, or like a planet, by the accretion of material in a protoplanetary disk? Some have a companion relationship with a star, while others drift alone in space.

At the Université de Montréal, Étienne Artigau leads a team that will use Webb to study a specific brown dwarf, labeled SIMP0136. It is a low-mass, young, isolated brown dwarf — one of the closest to our Sun — all of which make it fascinating for study, as it has many features of a planet without being too close to the blinding light of a star. SIMP0136 was the object of a past scientific breakthrough by Artigau and his team, when they found evidence suggesting it has a cloudy atmosphere. He and his colleagues will use Webb's spectroscopic instruments to learn more about the chemical elements and compounds in those clouds.

"Very accurate spectroscopic measurements are challenging to obtain fr om the ground in the infrared due to variable absorption in our own atmosphere, hence the need for space-based infrared observation. Also, Webb allows us to probe features, such as water absorption, that are inaccessible from the ground at this level of precision," Artigau explains.


Artist's conception of a brown dwarf, featuring the cloudy atmosphere of a planet and the residual light of an almost-star.
Credits: NASA/ESA/JPL

These observations could lay groundwork for future exoplanet exploration with Webb, including which worlds could support life. Webb's infrared instruments will be capable of detecting the types of molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets by seeing which elements are absorbing light as the planet passes in front of its star, a scientific technique known as transit spectroscopy.

"The brown dwarf SIMP0136 has the same temperature as various planets that will be observed in transit spectroscopy with Webb, and clouds are known to affect this type of measurement; our observations will help us better understand cloud decks in brown dwarfs and planet atmospheres in general," Artigau says.

The search for low-mass, isolated brown dwarfs was one of the early science goals put forward for the Webb telescope in the 1990s, says astronomer Aleks Scholz of the University of St. Andrews. Brown dwarfs have a lower mass than stars and do not "shine" but merely emit the dim afterglow of their birth, and so they are best seen in infrared light, which is why Webb will be such a valuable tool in this research.

Scholz, who also leads the Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters (SONYC) project, will use Webb's Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) to study NGC 1333 in the constellation of Perseus. NGC 1333 is a stellar nursery that has also been found to harbor an unusually high number of brown dwarfs, some of them at the very low end of the mass range for such objects – in other words, not much heavier than Jupiter.

"In more than a decade of searching, our team has found it is very difficult to locate brown dwarfs that are less than five Jupiter-masses - the mass wh ere star and planet formation overlap. That is a job for the Webb telescope," Scholz says. "It has been a long wait for Webb, but we are very excited to get an opportunity to break new ground and potentially discover an entirely new type of planets, unbound, roaming the Galaxy like stars."

Both of the projects led by Scholz and Artigau are making use of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTOs), observing time on the telescope that is granted to astronomers who have worked for years to prepare Webb's scientific operations.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the scientific complement to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, will be the premier space observatory of the next decade. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

For more information about the Webb telescope, visit www.nasa.gov/webb or www.webbtelescope.org

By Leah Ramsay
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

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Last Updated: Jan. 4, 2018
Editor: Lynn Jenner

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NASA‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA 17 янв.

Our @NASAWebb Telescope's 6.5-meter primary mirror is coated in gold to help it see some of the very 1st luminous objects in the universe. Fun fact: it only took a golf ball-sized amount of gold to paint the entire mirror! More interesting facts: https://nasa.tumblr.com/post/169812148069/the-beauty-of-webb-telescopes-mirrors ...

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12775

The Beauty of Webb's Mirrors
Story by Eric Villard Released on January 22, 2018

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's gold-plated, beryllium mirrors are beautiful feats of engineering. From the 18 hexagonal primary mirror segments, to the perfectly circular secondary mirror, to the slightly trapezoidal tertiary mirror, each reflector went through a rigorous refinement process before it was ready to mount on the telescope. This critical formation process had to be flawless. Webb will use the mirrors to peer far back in time to capture the first luminous objects and the creation of the first stars and galaxies. Watch the video to see how Webb's mirrors were made.


The Webb telescope's mirrors are beautiful, but they are also amazing feats of engineering.


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Birthed from beryllium powder, Webb's mirrors were finely crafted to create the telescope's beautiful, golden optical element.


Webb telescope's mirrors are coated with a very thin layer of gold to improve their ability to reflect infrared light.


Webb's secondary mirror captures light from the 18 primary mirror segments and relays those images to the telescope's tertiary mirror.


Webb's tertiary mirror captures light from the secondary mirror and relays it to the fine-steering mirror and science instruments.


The beauty of Webb's primary mirror is apparent as it rotates past a cleanroom observation window at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

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NASA Webb Telescope‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAWebb 25 янв.

#Webb's mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) has both a camera and a spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Watch this video to find out more about @NASAWebb's multifaceted MIRI! #JWST

Video (2:09)

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"Первый свет" на новом телескопе Exoplanets in Transits and their Atmospheres (ExTrA) в ESO's La Silla Observatory. Как видно из названия, заточен на поиск экзопланет. Более конкретно - у красных карликов. Инструменты на удивления компактные - три телескопа по 60 см.

The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. Credit: ESO/Emmanuela Rimbaud

Подробности тут: https://www.universetoday.com/138373/new-earth-sized-planet-hunting-telescope-extra-now-online/
и тут:

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NASA Webb Telescope‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAWebb 2 февр.

#Webb won't see its shadow like Punxsutawney Phil, but its optics will be in the shade of its sunshield. Webb's optics need frigid temperatures to function correctly, and the sunshield ensures they'll stay below 50 K (-388 F/-233 C). https://jwst.nasa.gov/sunshield.html  #GroundhogDay #JWST

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Arrives at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in California

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Опубликовано: 5 февр. 2018 г.

The optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, on Friday, Feb. 2. It was previously at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it successfully completed cryogenic testing.

In preparation for leaving Johnson, OTIS was placed inside a specially designed shipping container called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS). The container was then loaded onto a U.S. military C-5 Charlie aircraft at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, just outside of Johnson. From there, OTIS took an overnight flight to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Upon its arrival, OTIS was driven from LAX to Northrop Grumman's Space Park facility. OTIS and the spacecraft element, which is Webb's combined sunshield and spacecraft bus, now both call Northrop home.

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/combined-optics-science-instruments-of-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-arrive-in

Feb. 5, 2018
RELEASE 18-007

Combined Optics, Science Instruments of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Arrive in California


The Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS), a specially designed shipping container that held the optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, is unloaded fr om a U.S. military C-5 Charlie aircraft at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Feb. 2, 2018.
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn

The two halves of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope now reside at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, where they will come together to form the complete observatory.

Спойлер

Webb's optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) arrived at Northrop Grumman Feb. 2, fr om NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, wh ere it successfully completed cryogenic testing.

"This is a major milestone," said Eric Smith, director of the James Webb Space Telescope Program at NASA. "The Webb observatory, which is the work of thousands of scientists and engineers across the globe, will be carefully tested to ensure it is ready to launch and enable scientists to seek the first luminous objects in the universe and search for signs of habitable planets."

In preparation for leaving Johnson, OTIS was placed inside a specially designed shipping container called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea (STTARS). The container then was loaded onto a U.S. military C-5 Charlie aircraft at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, just outside of Johnson. From there, OTIS took a flight to Los Angeles International Airport. After arrival, OTIS was driven from the airport to Northrop Grumman's Space Park facility.

"It's exciting to have both halves of the Webb observatory – OTIS and the integrated spacecraft element – here at our campus," said Scott Willoughby, vice president and program manager for Webb at Northrop Grumman. "The team will begin the final stages of integration of the world's largest space telescope."

During this summer, OTIS will combined with the spacecraft element to form the complete Webb observatory. Once the telescope is fully integrated, the entire observatory will undergo more tests during what is called observatory-level testing. Webb is scheduled to launch from Kourou, French Guiana, in 2019.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier infrared space observatory of the next decade. Webb will help humanity solve the mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=TnzrXNLCPqU
(video 2:06)
The optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, on Friday, Feb. 2. It was previously at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, wh ere it successfully completed cryogenic testing.
Credits: NASA

For more information about the Webb observatory, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/webb

-end-

Felicia Chou / Natasha Pinol
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0257 / 202-358-0930
felicia.chou@nasa.gov / natasha.r.pinol@nasa.gov

Laura Betz
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-9030
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Jessica Brown
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, Calif.
310-812-5546
jessica.brown2@ngc.com

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Last Updated: Feb. 6, 2018
Editor: Karen Northon

[zandr]

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4939695

Зеркала и другие элементы телескопа James Webb доставлены в Калифорнию для сборки
НЬЮ-ЙОРК, 8 февраля. /ТАСС/. В создании нового американского космического телескопа James Webb, который станет самым большим оптическим аппаратом, когда-либо выводившимся на орбиту, сделан еще один важный шаг. Как сообщил на своем сайте еженедельник Space News, его гигантские зеркала и различные приборы доставлены на предприятие компании Northrop Grumman в Редондо-Бич (штат Калифорния). Там идет сооружение двигательного модуля телескопа и его солнцезащитного экрана размером с теннисный корт.
Для перевозки оптической системы и Интегрированного научно-инструментального модуля, который ученые называют "сердцем телескопа", потребовался военно-транспортный самолет повышенной грузоподъемности С-5 Galaxy. ВВС США предоставили его по просьбе NASA, чтобы доставить аппарат на Западное побережье США из Космического центра имени Джонсона в Хьюстоне (штат Техас). Там James Webb в течение 100 дней проходил испытания в криогенной камере при минус 233 градусах Цельсия. На орбите ему предстоит работать при сверхнизкой температуре.
"Теперь наша команда начнет последний этап интеграции самого большого в мире телескопа", - заявил руководитель этого проекта в Northrop Grumman Скотт Уиллоби. Когда вся конструкция будет собрана, ее отправят на морском судне из Калифорнии во Французскую Гвиану. Запуск телескопа с расположенного там космодрома Куру планируется осуществить в марте - июне 2019 года. Более точные сроки космическое ведомство США пока не определило. Для вывода аппарата на орбиту будет использована европейская ракета-носитель "Ариан-5".

Спойлер

Первоначально предполагалось, что James Webb придет на смену знаменитому телескопу Hubble еще в 2015 году, однако реализация программы, оцениваемой почти в $9 млрд, сильно отстала от графика. По словам специалистов, задержки были вызваны сложностями в разработке некоторых деталей и элементов конструкции, в том числе механизма развертывания солнцезащитного экрана. Вместе с NASA в создании телескопа принимают участие Европейское космическое агентство и Космическое агентство Канады.
Сооружение его главного зеркала диаметром 6,5 метра, доставленного в Редондо-Бич, проходило в Центре космических полетов имени Годдарда в Гринбелте (штат Мэриленд). Зеркальная решетка состоит из 18 сегментов, каждый из которых имеет форму равностороннего шестиугольника и весит около 40 кг. Для их производства был выбран бериллий - материал, устойчивый к сверхнизким температурам. Изготовила их по заказу NASA компания Ball Aerospace & Technologies, занимающаяся производством военных оптических приборов, а собрала в единую конструкцию компания Harris, также активно работающая в оборонной области.
Помимо испытаний в Хьюстоне аппарат прошел серию механических проверок в Центре имени Годдарда, которые показали, что он сможет выдержать запуск с помощью тяжелой ракеты-носителя. Его предполагается вывести на орбиту на расстояние около 1,5 млн км от нашей планеты во вторую точку Лагранжа в системе Солнце-Земля, которая считается идеальной для расположения космических телескопов. Срок эксплуатации обсерватории должен составить не менее 10 лет.
Телескоп назван в честь бывшего директора космического ведомства США Джеймса Уэбба (1906-1992), руководившего программой "Аполлон", которая позволила человеку побывать на Луне. Специалисты NASA рассчитывают, что аппарат, работающий в инфракрасном диапазоне, поможет им получить важные сведения о формировании галактик, звезд и планет, в том числе объектов в нашей Солнечной системе. По словам экспертов, его основная задача - "обнаружение света от самых ранних звезд и галактик, возникших после Большого взрыва".

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Engineering Miracles for Scientific Discoveries with the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA Video

Published on 8 Feb 2018

In this lecture, Nobel Prize winner John Mather, senior astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and project manager for the James Webb Space Telescope, outlines how the team conceived the design, why they're building it the way they are, and how they are testing it to make sure it will work. He also speculates on what JWST might reveal. Considering that it could detect the light and heat of a bumblebee hovering at the distance of the Moon, we can expect to be amazed.

(58:52)

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Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust 24m ago

The administration's budget proposal seeks to cancel the WFIRST astrophysics mission. "[D]eveloping another large space telescope immediately after completing the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is not a priority for the Administration." http://bit.ly/2ECJ0My 

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Stephen Clark‏ @StephenClark1 17m ago

In its FY19 budget request, the White House seeks to cancel WFIRST, NASA's next flagship astronomy mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/msar-fy2019.pdf ...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/msar-fy2019.pdf, 1.0 MB,
 202 стр

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David Spergel‏ @DavidSpergel 25m ago

WFIRST Is the top priority of the US decadal survey and has been endorsed in its current form by two NAS reviews and has just been modified to fit within recommendations of independent review. Abandoning WFIRST is abandoning US leadership in dark energy and exoplanets.

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http://spacenews.com/nasa-budget-proposal-seeks-to-cancel-wfirst/

NASA budget proposal seeks to cancel WFIRST
by Jeff Foust — February 12, 2018


The White House's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal would cancel WFIRST, the next flagship astronomy mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is offering $19.6 billion for NASA in its fiscal year 2019 request, while seeking to cancel a flagship astronomy mission and end NASA funding of the International Space Station in 2025.

A key cut included in the proposal, released Feb. 12, is cancelling the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), the agency's next flagship astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA had been in the midst of revising the mission's design to lower its costs from an estimated $3.9 billion to $3.2 billion.

"Development of the WFIRST space telescope would have required a significant funding increase in 2019 and future years, with a total cost of more than $3 billion," the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stated in a document outlining planned cuts across the overall federal budget proposal. "Given competing priorities at NASA, and budget constraints, developing another large space telescope immediately after completing the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is not a priority for the Administration."

OMB said it would it would instead redirect funding from WFIRST, which received $105 million in fiscal year 2017, "to other priorities of the science community, including completed astrophysics missions and research." The document didn't state how much of that planned funding would be redirected, but stated that funding for JWST, scheduled for launch next year, would be maintained.
...

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Это прожект в самой начальной фазе. 
И есть стойкая уверенность по опыту JWST, что он может затянуться на десятки лет и вызвать перерасход средств в разы