One year ago, the James Webb Space Telescope released its first dazzling images of the distant universe. To celebrate the first anniversary of the telescope’s revolutionary observations, NASA released a new image Wednesday depicting the birth of stars in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
“Webb’s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar lifecycle with new clarity. Our own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another’s star’s story,” project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan said in a NASA press release.
The Webb spacecraft, the most powerful space telescope ever built, was designed and manufactured in Redondo Beach by Northrop Grumman. The corporation is one of the largest aerospace employers in Los Angeles County, with more than 10,000 employees across the region.
Robby Swoish, program manager for maintenance and operations for the telescope, told KNX News’ Margaret Carrerro that many of the people who have worked on the project over the past 20 years are still involved and proud to be part of the mission.
“It’s been a big part of my life for the past ten-plus years,” he said. “Seeing the first images come back, seeing us successfully execute the deployments on orbit, it made me very proud of the team and the company, just seeing that through our perseverance, we’re able to accomplish something so great.”
The Webb telescope is considered the scientific successor of the Hubble telescope, but it has a mirror six times larger than Hubble’s, plus enhanced infrared capabilities.
“The primary reason that it’s infrared is because the things that Webb was most interested in are what we call first light objects, so these are the very first stars and very first galaxies that were ever formed in the universe,” said Deputy Space Vehicle Director Amy Lo.
These first light objects, which originally emitted wavelengths that can be seen optically, have shifted into the infrared range due to the expansion of the universe.
Lo said working on Webb is one of the most important things she’s done in her life.
“It doesn’t really get bigger than something like the Webb telescope,” she said. “You just do what you can to make it the best thing that you, possibly, personally, can dedicate your life to.”
One year out from Webb’s first images, researchers are just beginning to get a feel for the telescope’s capabilities. Swish said he’s excited to see what Webb can do during the rest of its anticipated 20 years of deployment.
“We still don’t know exactly what it’s capable of,” Swoish said.”The science continues to build upon previous years … so we’ve already started to kind of push the envelope and change the concepts for how we’re going to use Webb.”
He pointed to the DART mission, where NASA was able to slam a spacecraft into a moving meteorite, with Webb capturing images of the impact.
Under a contract with NASA, Northrop Grumman will continue to help with Webb’s maintenance and operations through June 2027.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Related
Related
