NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is poised to launch and become the most powerful telescope in space. How will its photos compare to Hubble's?
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990. The observatory has expanded our view of the universe and has collected amazing images. We could see stars and galaxies that had never been seen before, as the universe became a detailed and colorful one.
The James Webb Space Telescope will do things a bit differently than usual. According to a NASA fact sheet, the telescope is designed to see objects 10 to 100 times fainter than what Hubble can see. How will Hubble's view compare to that of the other person?
According to the sheet, the images will be detailed and spectacular.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launch is live.
Hubble's replacement or successor is often referred to as "Wdt". Hubble's science instruments are still going strong despite a few problems, and the two big scope are set to observe together in space.
The Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 is where Hubble will travel out much farther, to a spot 930,000 miles from Earth.
Both Hubble and Webb are large space telescopes, but they see the universe differently.
"It will take amazing images; they will be better than what Hubble did," Klaus Pontoppidan, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said during a news conference in May. Pontoppidan said that the images of Webb will be fundamentally different because of their different wavelength.
Hubble observes light at the optical and ultraviolet wavelength, while Webb is designed to detect light that is not optical or ultraviolet.
Beauty in the sun.
By observing in the heat of the sun, he will be able to capture beautiful images.
"I think it will be great, but it's very difficult to predict what it will look like," Pontoppidan said, as this will be the first space telescope mission of its kind.
"It will look very different than Hubble," Pontoppidan said. The stars fade away, but the clouds go brighter and brighter.
As you get closer to the light part of the spectrum, some gas and dust features become a bit thin. That is not a bad thing.
"I think there was a concern that you don't want images that look like they're blurry," Pontoppidan said. The dust can light up in thermal light if you go further out into it. You get a glowing object.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has a mirror made of gold. Here's why.
There are differences in the heat.
Hubble can see light in a wavelength range from 200 nanometers to 2.4 microns, while the range of visible light is 700 to 400 nanometers, according to the fact sheet.
The red/orange portion of the visible light spectrum will still be seen even though it only observes IR light. The gold coating on its mirrors reflects yellow and red visible light that will be detected.
One of the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the Carina Nebula in visible light, while the other shows it in IR. The NASA/ESA/Hubble 20th Anniversary Team is pictured.
Hubble has the ability to observe some IR, so this type of observation is not a complete departure. The Hubble team released a stunning image of the Horsehead Nebula, which was captured to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of its launch.
The James Webb Space Telescope is being built.
This Hubble image was captured and released to celebrate the telescope's 23rd year in the sky. The Horsehead Nebula, also known as the Barnard 33, is a large body of dust and gas. The image was released on April 19th. The Hubble Heritage Team is a NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI team.
The power of light.
The world has seen stunning images from Hubble for decades. According to the fact sheet, "Webb's sharpness of vision will be the same as Hubble's." "Webb images will look the same as Hubble's do," the sheet reads. NASA said that the resolution would allow it to see the details of an object the size of a U.S. penny.
Despite this similarity, the larger mirror and cutting-edge detectors of the Hubble Telescope make it different from the smaller mirror of the Webb Telescope.
NASA explained that by observing in theIR, scientists will be able to see much farther out into the universe. The larger mirror gives it more surface area to collect light, which allows scientists to look back in time at the universe billions of years ago.
The first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe were designed to be seen by Webb. It can detect objects 10 billion times fainter than the faintest stars visible with no telescope, or 10 to 100 times fainter than what Hubble can observe.
Four scientific instruments are used to help it make observations. The Near-Infrared Camera ( ) and the Near-Infrared Spectrograph ( ) are included.
Pontoppidan said that with these tools, "we can do what we call imaging spectroscopy, where it can take an image, but it will take a spectrum and every part of the image as well." The spectrum of wavelength present in each tiny piece of the image is what is known as the image spectrum. Scientists can use this to figure out what elements or chemicals created that spectrum.
He pointed to studies that may look for ice as an example of how the suite of tools will allow it to do all sorts of other scientific work.
The European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency are involved in the project.
The launch of the Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana is still on track for December 24, 2021.
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