The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a clear image of the planet Uranus and its rings.
Key Points On James Webb Space Telescope
- Uranus is a ringed planet like Saturn, Jupiter and Neptun
- Discovered in 1781, Uranus was the first planet found using a telescope
- Four times the size of Earth, ‘Ice Giant’ planet Uranus has 27 moons
- Uranus is an especially interesting target for X-ray observations because of the unusual orientations of its spin axis and its magnetic field.
- Uranus rotates on its side, with a roughly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This leads to extreme seasons and long periods of sunlight and darkness.
- Uranus is among only two planets in our solar system that rotate clockwise along with Venus.
- The planet takes 84 earth years to orbit the Sun.
- Uranus has 13 rings, with 11 visible in the image. Some of the rings are very bright and close together, appearing as a larger ring.
- In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 made the first – and so far, the only – visit to Uranus.
What Is The James Webb Space Telescope?
- The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful infrared space telescope ever built.
- It is designed to complement and extend the discoveries of the previous Hubble Space Telescope
- It is valued at around $10 Billion USD.
- The telescope is the result of an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency which was launched in December 2021.
- It is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
Features Of James Webb Space Telescope
Objectives Of James Webb Space Telescope
- It will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own Solar System.
- The goals for the Webb can be grouped into four themes.
- The first is to look back around 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.
- Second, to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today’s grand spirals and understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.
- Third, to see where stars and planetary systems are being born.
- Fourth, to observe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (beyond our solar system), and perhaps find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.
Who is James Webb?
- The telescope is named after James E. Webb, the famous administrator of NASA from 1961-1968 under whose tenure the world saw the first lunar landing with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as Apollo 11 program.
- He also oversaw critical missions like the Mercury and Gemini under President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and has also worked with President Harry S. Truman.
Lagrange Points
- Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put.
- At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
- These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
- There are five Lagrange points from L1 to L5 for every given combination of two large orbital bodies.
- The first three Lagrange points L1, L2 and L3 were discovered by Leonhard Euler and L4 and L5 were discovered by Joseph-Louis.
- Of the five Lagrange points, three are unstable and two are stable.
- L1, L2 and L3 are unstable Lagrange points, and they lie along the line connecting the two large masses.
- L4 and L5 are stable Lagrange points and form they form the apex of two equilateral triangles that have large masses at their vertices.
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