Case Study Round 2

James Webb Space Telescope

Overview

On 25 December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope set sail to explore the
yet-unknown secrets of our universe. It ran on a complex trajectory, which finally
converged into a controlled, artificially equilibrated "orbit" about the unstable L2
Lagrangian point of the earth-sun interaction. This marked the beginning of an era of
new knowledge for humankind, whose full effect we are yet to appreciate.

The 21st century is the age of achieving milestones in human knowledge, as is evident
from what we have achieved in the first two decades. The JWST is only a beginning: yet
the amount of ingenuity that its making has consumed is beyond incomprehensible.
What makes this machine, so distant from human contact, work the way it does, and
how it stays where it is supposed to, in the complex many-body system shows how far
we have already come. In this final round of Case Study: Origin of the Universe, let us
delve into one of the most critical and exciting ventures of the human mind: one which in
the future may reveal to us our own past.
Instructions

This is the Round 2 Problem Statement of the Case Study. It contains 4 Questions
based on James Webb Space Telescope, each with a specific weightage, as mentioned
along with the questions. Some questions or sub-questions are based on datasets
found along with the questions. You are advised to refer to the dataset only for these
questions.

Questions

1. INSTRUMENTS AND TRAJECTORY: The James Webb Space Telescope is,

without a doubt, one of the landmark achievements of humankind in the 21st
century. And none of this amazing feat would be fully and justly appreciated
without a thorough analysis of its individual equipment. While the study of all its
brilliantly amalgamated parts is much beyond the scope of this minuscule
question statement, we look into one of the most important functions of the
instruments, which may somewhat go neglected when considered in the spirit of
the observational power of the telescope itself. (10 Marks)

A. Why is there a need to stay cold for JWST? How is this low temperature
achieved in JWST, and what are its effects?

B. Briefly explain how the satellite achieves orbital motion around unstable
positions of equilibrium like the L2. Why is the JWST put near the L2 point,
which is unstable, rather than L4 and L5, which are stable?

C. The JWST has a maximum (a) and minimum distance (b) from the L2,
and a fixed time period (t) to complete traversing its path about L2 once.
Under such circumstances, we can assign a “virtual mass” in the manner
of conventional two-body systems, to the L2, which is actually empty.
Derive an expression to find the mass of the L2. Calculate this value for
the actual data of the JWST.

D. Throughout the orbit, the JWST’s trajectory is expected to be perturbed by

various sources. Among these sources, one is significant owing to the
JWST’s very own design. Name such a source, and explain how it affects
the trajectory of the JWST.
2. IMAGES: JWST was built to observe a time in the universe's history that has not
yet been observed, not the universe's origins. We are particularly interested in
the first items that emerged as the cosmos began to cool following the Big Bang.

Several instruments on the JWST make it possible for us to observe the early
universe:

● The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is Webb's primary imager that will
cover the infrared wavelength range of 0.6 to 5 microns. NIRCam will
detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the formation process,
the population of stars in nearby galaxies, and young stars in the Milky
Way and Kuiper Belt objects.

● The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has both a camera and a spectrograph

that sees the light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic
spectrum, with wavelengths that are longer than our eyes see.MIRI covers
the wavelength range of 5 to 28 microns. Its sensitive detectors will allow it
to see the redshifted light of distant galaxies, newly forming stars, faintly
visible comets, and objects in the Kuiper Belt.
(10 Marks)

A. Analyze the given image of the Carina Nebula captured by JWST and
answer the following questions.
 a. How can you differentiate between a background galaxy and a star in
the image? Mention the parameters and state the reasons behind it.

b. The cosmic cliffs in the upper edge of the nebula's gas are of visually
distincts between high concentration nebular gas and low concentration
background (blue). What is its significance?

c. What is causing the formation of curtain edges under the bright stars on
the top of the dust cloud? What does this formation trigger?

d. What is causing the formation of steam-like features on the top of the

cosmic cliffs(Celestial Mountains)? What might be causing the
protostellar jets and outflows shown in gold? Explain briefly.

B. Analyze the given image and answer the questions following.

 a. The white portion in the middle of the image corresponds to which
celestial body? What effect is that celestial body causing, resulting in the
elongation of nearby galaxies?

b. The Hubble telescope also took the same picture of this galaxy cluster
with a slight difference in the diffraction spike of stars. Here the stars are
eight-pointed, while in the image captured by Hubble, the stars are
four-pointed. Give reasons why this anomaly is occurring.

C. Below given are two different images of Stephen’s Quintet. Study the
images and answer the questions following them.

a. What are the differences between the two images of Stephen's Quintet,
and why does this difference in resolution exist in the two images?

b. In the MIRI image of Stephan's quintet, what is causing the sharp, bright
spot? [which one is MIRI? left/right mention]

c. In the left image, out of the four galaxies, one of them is far closer to us
than the others. How will you identify which galaxy is closer using this
image?
3. SPECTROSCOPY: An Interstellar analysis is incomplete without talking about
spectroscopy. Since time unknown, every observation and subsequent theory
forming has begun with the process of collecting light from the concerned source.
It is thus surprising and intimidating in equal parts to comprehend the presence
of generations of information in a simple sample of photons, and is even more so
in the case of JWST's NIRspec. But to understand the NIRspec, we have to first
understand spectroscopy itself in better detail. (10 Marks)

A. Optical spectroscopy uses prisms and telescopes. The resolution of a

prism depends upon its size, but it is infeasible to make prisms of very
large size. How is this problem solved? Also, what are the limitations of
this new technique, and how are these limitations overcome?

B. The NIRspec is the JWST's instrument involved in Infrared spectroscopy.

Explain how it achieves the efficiency not present in a single mirror
system. What is the significance of Infrared spectroscopy in the study of
the origins of our universe? Why is it preferred over other forms of
spectrography in the JWST?

C. The doc contains the graph of the mass spectrum, infra-red spectrum,
13C-nmr, and H-nmr. Based on the analysis of those graphs, answer the
questions given in the doc, and draw the structure of the compound whose
spectroscopy graphs are shown in the doc.
4. TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM: The following document contains data relating
the amount of light blocked by an exoplanet atmosphere against the wavelength
measured, made (hypothetically) using the NIRISS mounted on the JWST.
Transmission spectrums like these are used to predict the atmospheric
composition and other characteristics, such as the planet's temperature. Analyze
the below-given dataset using any tools, and answer the following questions:

(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IgSksfkRKv8RHUw1lkIFlhq9DsEL-G
k9G7pRefYpVrY/edit) (10 Marks)

A. What Compound X is predicted to be present in the atmosphere by the

presence of abrupt maximas in the plot? The height of compound X, which
is less than expected based on previous observations, is evidence for
what?

B. What feature of the plot helps us to confirm the presence of haze?

C. What changes do you see in the graph if the temperature of the planet’s
atmosphere is changed? Based on graph patterns, how can you predict
whether the planet is habitable or not, assuming that essential compounds
for life to sustain include Oxygen, Water, and Nitrogen? (Assume that if
the amount of light blocked is greater than 14230, then there is a
significant amount of that compound present)

End of Problem Statement

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