The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest telescope in space, sent back its first set of images on Tuesday. JWST has so far exceeded the capabilities of the iconic Hubble, using state-of-the-art technologies to deliver the farthest, deepest and clearest view of the universe.
What did the JWST see in the ancient universe?
The JWST looked at clouds and haze as well as identifiers of water in WASP-96b, a massive exoplanet larger than Jupiter about 1,150 light-years away. Simultaneously, it witnessed the death of a star called the Southern Ring Nebula, about 2,500 light years away. It discovered mountains and valleys near the Carina Nebula 7,600 light-years away – a part of the universe that had never been seen. Next, at 290 million light-years, is Stephan’s Quintet – five close-range galaxies. Finally, its major discovery is SMACS-0723 – the first deep-field image captured by JWST of a cluster of galaxies 5.12 billion light-years away.
How does JWST see all this?
The JWST uses the 6.5-meter mirror – the largest telescope mirror ever built – to look deeper into the universe than ever before. Four spectrographs are used to record the astronomical infrared spectrum, as light moves from the visible to the infrared spectrum as it travels over millions of light years. A high frequency radio transmitter is used to transmit this data at 28 Mbps, which gives us about 57GB of data per day from 1.5 million km away. A machine learning algorithm called Morpheus then uses the LUX supercomputer to analyze this data, classify galaxies, and help researchers reach the farthest reaches of the universe.
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How different is it from the Hubble Space Telescope?
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, is the predecessor of JWST. JWST’s mirror is about three times larger than Hubble’s, giving it greater visibility. While Hubble can only see visible and ultraviolet light, JWST can see infrared. According to Webb’s deputy project scientist Jonathan Gardner, the JWST can “look past the Big Bang”.
Did India play a role in the JWST project?
No, but three Indian scientists are part of the JWST project. Lucknow-born Hashima Hassan is a deputy project scientist overseeing the project, which will analyze data from the telescope relay. Kalyani Sukhatme, who grew up in Mumbai, is the project manager of a spectrograph at JWST. Scientist Kartik Sheth in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Division of Astrophysics oversees projects that include understanding the formation, evolution and co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.
Can India also search for distant exoplanets?
India does not have a space telescope like Hubble or JWST. While the country has several on-the-ground telescopes to study galaxy formation and evolution, spotting exoplanets that orbit stars requires greater accuracy. Mayuk Pahari, assistant professor at IIT Hyderabad, said the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pune University is developing adaptive optics techniques that could help correct this limitation, and enable exoplanet research.
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