Piner High School STEAM Certificate L1

Before the Launch of the James Webb Space Telescope

Karen Sun

Presentation Topic: Before the Launch of the James Webb Space Telescope
Presenters: Hosted by Kurt Kruger, presentation by Kurt Kruger
Date: Thursday, November 18, 2021

Presentation Summary

Nasa’s largest and most powerful space science telescope will be launched on December

25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope, named after the second appointed administrator of

NASA, James Webb, is something entirely new. Designed to look years into the history of space,

Webb is expected to observe planets, comets, satellites, asteroids, and much more. The James

Webb Space Telescope is about the size of a tennis court and is built of 18 hexagonal mirror

segments made of beryllium; which makes a 6 ½ meter mirror segment on the telescope. There

are many reasons why beryllium was chosen but the most important two are, its ability to hold its

shape across different temperatures and because of how strong it is for its weight. The James

Webb Space Telescope is completely different and a lot bigger than The Hubble Space Telescope

which has a 2 ½ meter mirror and is about the size of a school bus. The Hubble has increased

people’s view of the universe but it was not built to last forever so, The James Webb Space

Telescope is under much pressure to be successful. Once Webb is launched, it is estimated that it

could take up to 120 days for the alignment of the mirrors to be complete, and there is no telling

how successful it will be until it’s fully set. Bigger than the Hubble mirrors, the James Webb

mirrors are designed to be able to withstand and remain around very cold temperatures near -220

degrees C and -364 degrees F. In order to see billions of years back into galaxies, astronomers

have to observe the infrared light given off by the galaxies and stars. Because warm objects give

off infrared light, if James Webb wasn’t as cold as it is, the light from faraway galaxies would be
lost in the glow of the mirror. So to prevent Webb from heating up, it will be sent far away from

Earth and deep into space along with sun shields.

Reflection

I thought this presentation by Mr. Kruger was very engaging and interesting. I don’t

know much about astronomy or space but I’ve become much more interested in this subject after

learning about the James Webb Space Telescope and even did some of my own research on it.

Seeing the pictures the Hubble Space Telescope took already impressed me so much and now

that there is a bigger and better telescope being launched, I’m very excited to see what it

captures. The thing that hooked me the most, when learning about the James Webb Space

Telescope was the size, imagining a telescope the size of a tennis court and a 3 story building

going into space was definitely unbelievable to me for a bit. There were a lot of questions raised,

especially about how they would launch that big of a telescope into space. But later on in the

presentation, I did learn that it will be folded into a rocket at launch, and then in space, it is

designed to unfold and take its final form. The presentation was actually so interesting because

prior to learning about it from Mr. Kruger, I hadn’t heard about it before, and now thinking about

it, it’s kind of shocking since it was such a big thing. I missed it throughout the news and all of

my social media. After learning more about it, I started to hear about it a lot, and even my

teachers mentioned it. I’m currently paying a lot of attention to the James Webb Space Telescope

and I’m very hopeful and excited to see how it all unfolds.

Related Article Summary

Author: Erik Gregersen
Last Updated: March 17, 2022
Title: James Webb Space Telescope
Article: Britannica: James Webb Space Telescope
 James Webb Space Telescope, written by Erik Gregersen for Britannica, summarizes what

the telescope was made to do and how it came to be. The James Webb Space Telescope is

designed to be the better, newer, and more successful version of the Hubble Space Telescope. It

is 7x larger than The Hubble and will orbit the sun about 1.5 million km from Earth. Because of

its size, Webb cannot be launched in its final and deployed form, so, parts of it will be folded and

launched and later will unfold in space. Webb was launched on December 25, 2021, from

Kourou, French Guiana. It is designed to observe and explore the first galaxies and stars; in order

to see that, it has to detect light from infrared wavelengths. Due to having to detect light from

infrared wavelengths, Webb must be protected from thermal radiation. So, a huge sun shield that

is about 150 square meters was made to protect the telescope. The sun shield along with the 6.5

feet wide mirror, will be folded and launched into space. To this day, the only other advanced

infrared space telescope was the Spitzer Space Telescope which ended its 17-year-long journey

in 2020. The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to succeed Spitzer in many areas and

there is a lot of suspense due to the fact that any small convenience could send the years of work

journey for Webb, down the drain.