New NASA space telescope NASA's Largest Space Telescope Mirror Will See Deeper Into Space
Home Privacy Policy Ancient X Privacy Policy   Terms of Service Your Right to Use the Site and Its Contents   Ancient nuclear blasts and levitating stones The great ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, contains numerous legends about the powerful force of a mysterious weapon   Ancient nuclear blasts and levitating stones The great ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, contains numerous legends about the powerful force of a mysterious weapon   Italians find ancient Ur tablets Italian archeologists working in Iraq have found a trove of ancient stone tablets...   Massive New Pyramid Found Pyramid presents religious quandary for suburban Mexicans   NASA hacker finds UFO Cover Up He says he spent two years looking for photographic evidence of alien spacecraft and advanced power technology   Mexican monolith could change history A carved monolith unearthed in Mexico may show that the Olmec civilization...   Ancient footprints found in Mexico valley Believed to be between 10,000 and 15,000 years old   Stepping back (20,000 years) in time Ancient footprints at an Australian dry lake   Pyramids in China The "White Pyramid" discovered   Ancient Band of Holes Found in Peru Thousands of man-sized holes are carved into the barren rock near Pisco Valley, Peru on a plain called Cajamarquilla.   Ancient Astronomers of Chichen-Itza, Mexico The Maya were expert sky-watchers, careful observers of the motions of the celestial bodies.   Neanderthal DNA secrets unlocked A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some...   Alien Writings and Symbols Symbols were found in the Mediterranean and in Glozel, in France...   Sumer Civilization Found in Syria An excavation project has uncovered an ancient settlement wiped out 5,500 years ago   Out of this world solution to a Scottish standing stone THE NEWTON stone is a small, rather unassuming pillar in Aberdeenshire, Scotland   Secret Chamber in Pyramid Explored Sending a robot deep inside Egypt's largest Khufu pyramid   Meteorite yields life origin clue Details of the work by Nasa scientists are published in the journal Science   Invention of Writing - Sumer The first identifiable written language is Sumerian   Ancient Pyramid Discovered Built by the same ancient people who constructed the Teotihuacan complex   Planet-detector nears its launch The hunt for Earth-like planets is to be stepped-up as a new mission prepares for launch   Chichén Itzá - Ancient Mexico Mayan culture, late classic, 11-13th A.D.   Egypt's sunken treasures Treasure hunters have long scoured the Egyptian coast ...   Telescope Picks Up Universe's First Objects An Australian astrophysicist, Ray Norris, said the NASA team may have found "the holy grail" of astronomy.   What is NASA Looking For? The planet Mars is back in the news...   Incan civilization was a technological marvel When the Spanish conquistadors arrived...   War Comes to the "Landing Place" The Epic of Gilgamesh, a text found inscribed on clay tablets...   Ancient Walls of Sacsahuaman This fortress surpasses the seven wonders of the world   Scientists find Extraterrestrial genes in Human DNA Do civilizations of advanced human beings exist scattered in the Galaxy?   Extraterrestrial intervention on Human Society The origins of humankind and the emergence of civilization...   Pyramids NOT built in 2,500 B.C. 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The James Webb Space Telescope's mirror blanks have now been constructed. When polished and assembled, together they will form a mirror whose area is over seven times larger than the Hubble Telescope's mirror. Image right: The JWST telescope is composed of 18 hexagonal-shaped segments. Here, the manufacturing group gathers around one of the 18 segments ready to be shipped from Axsys Technologies which manufactured the mirror blanks. Credit: Axsys A telescope’s sensitivity, or how much detail it can see, is directly related to the size of the mirror area that collects light from the cosmos. A larger area collects more light to see deeper into space, just like a larger bucket collects more water in a rain shower than a small one. The larger mirror also means the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will have excellent resolution. That's why the telescope's mirror is made up of 18 mirror segments that form a total area of 25 square-meters (almost 30 square yards) when they all come together. The challenge was to make the mirrors lightweight for launch, but nearly distortion-free for excellent image quality. That challenge has been met by AXSYS Technologies., Inc., Cullman, Ala. "From the start, AXSYS Technologies has been a key player in the mirror technology development effort," said Kevin Russell, mirror development lead at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Ala. If the mirror were assembled completely and fully opened on the ground, there would be no way to fit it into a rocket. Therefore, the Webb Telescope's 18 mirror segments must be set into place when the telescope is in space. Engineers solved this problem by allowing the segmented mirror to fold, like the leaves of a drop-leaf table. Image Engineers at Axsys Technologies work with one of the mirrors of the JWST. Credit: Axsys Technologies Each of the 18 mirrors will have the ability to be moved individually, so that they can be aligned together to act as a single large mirror. Scientists and engineers can also correct for any imperfections after the telescope opens in space, or if any changes occur in the mirror during the life of the mission. Each segment is made of beryllium, one of the lightest of all metals known to man. Beryllium has been used in other space telescopes and has worked well at the super-frigid temperatures of space in which the telescope will operate. Each of the hexagonal-shaped mirror segments is 1.3 meters (4.26 feet) in diameter, and weighs approximately 20 kilograms or 46 pounds. The completed primary mirror will be over 2.5 times larger than the diameter of the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror, which is 2.4 meters in diameter, but will weigh roughly half as much. "The James Webb Space Telescope will collect light approximately 9 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope when one takes into account the details of the relative mirror sizes, shapes, and features in each design," said Eric Smith, JWST program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington. The increased sensitivity will allow scientists to see back to when the first galaxies formed just after the Big Bang. The larger telescope will have advantages for all aspects of astronomy and will revolutionize studies of how stars and planetary systems form and evolve. Image right: JWST will have a 6.6 meter (21.65 feet) diameter primary mirror, which would give it a significant larger collecting area than the mirrors available on the current generation of space telescopes. Hubble Space Telescope's mirror is a much smaller 2.4 meters (7.8 feet) in diameter. Click on image to enlarge. Credit: NASA The 18 mirrors have now been shipped to L-3 Communications SSG-Tinsley, Richmond, Calif. where they can be ground and polished. After the grinding and polishing, the mirror segments will be delivered to Ball Aerospace in small groups where they will be assembled. Once the mirrors are completed, they will go to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., for final assembly on the telescope. Upon successful launch in 2013, JWST will study the first stars and galaxies following the Big Bang.
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