Physics Class XII

Project on

Space telescope

(Session 2023-24)

Name: S.Akshay

Class: XII-C

School: Alpha Wisdom Vidyashram

CONTENTS:
1) Introduction
2) Why space telescope?
3) Purpose of space telescope.
4) Concept of James Webb.
5) Protection from the sun’s rays.
6) Specialty in positioning of the JWST.
7) But why L2 point?
8) Description of the sun shield.
9) The massive mirror.
10) Why this much large mirror?
11) Explanation of some photos of JWST.
12) Comparison between Hubble and JWST.
13) Facts about the JWST
14) Some important terms
15) Conclusion
16) Bibliography
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very thankful to everyone who all supported me to

complete this project with success.I am overwhelmed in all
humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge my depth to all
those who have helped me to put these ideas.
Primarily I would like to thank God for completing this
project with great success.Then I would like to extend my
sincere and heartfelt gratitude to our Principal and Deputy
principal Mr.J.Henry David and Mr.Feroz Ratsing I am
equally grateful to our Physics teacher Ms.V.Sri Vidhya and
our Lab Assistant Ms.A. Stephney ponmathi who had been
the once to help me to complete this project and make full
proof success by providing moral support, instructions and
guidance. I would also take this opportunity to my Parents.
When ever I was in need they were behind me. Last but not
the least I would like to thank my friends and classmates who
have helped me a lot to put these ideas and make this project
unique.
INTRODUCTION:

James Webb space telescope was launched by the team work

of the National Aeronautics and Space Admiration (NASA),
European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency
(CSA).

WHY SPACE TELESCOPE?

First of all there are many differences of seeing the space

from the earth rather than from the space. Obstacles of
seeing the space from the earth are: (i)Light pollution

(ii)Cosmic radiation

(iv)Atmosphere

(v)Water vapour

(vi)Sound and vibration and many….

Also this is not the first space telescope.

Before this many other space telescopes were launched to
study the vast universe.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?

It can change our perspective of viewing our universe.

Can be very helpful in understanding our solar system.

To know the evolution of a galaxy.

To know about various Nebulas.

CONCEPT OF JAMES WEBB:

Its main motto is to capture the light from very far distances
(some billion light years). It captures the infrared, visible, UV
rays from the distant stars and exo-planets. As the entropy of
the space is increasing the wavelength of the light increases
and falls in the infrared region. This is the reason behind the
usage of the infrared sensors in the JWST. By analysing the
wavelength of the light received the chemical composition,
mass and temperature of the galaxies and planets are known.
PROTECTION FROM THE SUNS RAYS:

The infrared sensors used in this project are very sensitive to

the sun’s rays and hence must be protected from the heat. For
this reason a massive sun shield is used, which is big as a
tennis court. There is a cryocooler in the middle of the mirror
to cool the sensors.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

*This can capture visible light, UV light and near infrared

light.

*It is placed about 1.5 million KM from the earth.

*This project started as early as 1989. But due to some

reasons it was launched at December 2021.

*To obtain perfect images it uses 126 motors for image

stabilisation.
*The speciality of the infrared sensors are that it can capture
light from red dwarfs, brown dwarfs and exo-planets.

SPECIALITY IN IT’S POSITIONING:

*It is placed in the lagrange point, about 1.5 million KM away

from the earth.

*There are 5 lagrange points between the earth and the sun.

*These are the points in which the gravitational pull of two

bodies become relatively equal.
*The objects in this position are relatively stable and need less
fuel.

BUT WHY L2 POINT?

L1 is a point between the sun and earth which receives

enormous amount of sunlight.

But our James Webb does not require that much sunlight
hence placed in the L2 position.
The sensors are infrared, infrared is basically heat and the hear
from the sun saturates the sensors, which makes impossible to
capture distant light.

DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE SUN SHIELD:

The large sheet like structure present on the back of the mirror
are sun shields.

For proper working of the telescope the darker side of the

telescope must be at a temperature -233˚c. Without the sun
shield the temperature would rise up to 83˚c, which disables
the telescope.

The sun shield is made of a plastic like material called

Kapton, which is coated with aluminium to make it reflective.

The first layer is pink due to the 50 nm coating of silicon

which absorbs sunlight and immediately emits back the heat.

THE MASSIVE MIRROR:

This JWST has a massive 6.5 m wide big mirror, coated with
beryllium subsurface and above that a thin layer of gold is
coated. Beryllium can work well in cryogenic temperatures.
Gold is chosen for the reflective surface because it is a good
reflector of the infrared light. Another reason for gold is it’s
inert nature. The thickness of gold coating is just 0.1 micron
and for the whole coating 48.6 grams are used.

WHY THIS MUCH LARGE MIRROR?

This is because we are determined to observe stars which has

brightness of nanojansky (nJy).
Comparison: For example if we put a light of power of 5W in
the moon and if we observe it from the earth it would be 20
Jy. The JWST would capture a light 1/20th brightness of this
light. The telescope uses thrusters to stabilize itself. The fuel
for the thrusters are 191 litres of hydrazine and 95.5 litres of
di nitrogen tetra oxide.

EXPLANATION OF SOME PHOTOS OF

JWST:

1.Deep field SMACS 0723:

*This is about 4.60 cr light years away from our earth.

*Twinkling objects are the stars and the ones which are not
twinkling are galaxies.

*This is one of a sand particle in space.

*The galaxies are somewhat bent because the light from the
other galaxies behind is bent due to the space time curvature.

2.Southern ring Nebula:

*There is a dying star in the middle.

*No other telescope has taken this this much clearly as JWST.

*The brown coloured species are the dust clouds which are
formed during the dying of a star.

*The pattern in which the dust clouds are going away from the
Nebula is clearly visible.

*The blue colour in the middle is due to the ionised gasses.

*The dust clouds are formed due to high amount of energy

released when a star dies.

3.Stephen’s Quintent:
*There are four galaxies

*It is visible
that there are
interlocking
of two
galaxies in the
middle.

*This photo
gives us the
detailed composition of the black hole in the topmost galaxy.

*The amount of iron, silicon and sulphur is known.

*Even the velocities of the gases around the blackhole is

calculated.

4.Eagle Nebula (pillars of creation):

*This is 6500 to 7000 light years away.

*This is a part of the eagle nebula.

*Size of the nebula- length=70 Ly, breadth=55Ly.
*The red colour in
the end of the
pillar is the
birthplace of baby
stars.

*Red colour is due

to the hydrogen
molecules.

*One of the most

fascinating photos
of JWST.

COMPARISON BETWEEN HUBBLE AND JWST:

*The Hubble operates in the visible light region whereas the

JWST operates in the infrared region.

*Hubble orbits only about 540 KM from our earth but JWST
is about 1.5 million KM from our earth.

*Webb only works for 5-10 years from the launch date. But
the Hubble is serviceable by the humans.

*Hubble is much lighter than the JWST.

FACTS ABOUT JWST:

*This has consumed about 1/4th of NASA’s budget for

astronomical explorations.
*This is done with a budget of 74,000 cr.
*Launched in Ariane-5 rocket on 25th December 2021.
*Launched from European space port French Guiana.
*The stretch of the sunshield takes about seven days from the
launch date and this period is known as the “7 days of terror”.
*There are a 300 chances for the 74,000 cr project to fail.

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS:

*Inert- low reactivity

*Jy- It is a non SI unit of brightness

*1jy = 10-26 Wm-2

*Nebula- It is a place where a star is born.
This is also the place where a star is dead.

*Entropy- This is a measure of randomness.

*Cryogenic temperatures- Very low temperatures.

*Light year(Ly) is a measure of the distance in space.

*1Ly = 9.461 × 1012km.

JUST TO KNOW:

*While seeing the images of the James Webb we are said to

be travelling in the past. This is because the light from many
light years far have come to us today. This telescope has
captures a photon from about 13.1 billion light years.

HOW IT IS RELATED TO OUR SYLLABUS?

This project involves the topics related to the chapter “Ray

optics” and “Wave optics”. This is just an advanced version of
the space telescope discussed in the chapter. We’re are
involved with the terms related to electromagnetic waves.
We’re just applying the concepts studied for the
understanding of the insane engineering behind this massive
JWST.