[ASTRONOMIA] JWST: Ghosts and Mirrors

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1703/JWSTlightsout.jpg

image credit: Chris Gunn, NASA




ghosts aren't actually hovering over the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST]

but the lights are out as it stands with gold tinted mirror segments and support structures folded in Goddard Space Flight Center's Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility clean room

following vibration and acoustic testing, bright flashlights and ultraviolet lights are played over the stationary telescope looking for contamination, easier to spot in a darkened room

in the dimness the camera's long exposure creates the ghostly apparitions, blurring the moving lights and engineers

a scientific successor to Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope is optimized for the infrared exploration of the early Universe

its planned launch is in march 2021 from French Guiana on a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket




































in apod.nasa.gov/apod