What good elbow room to expend the holidays than learn NASA technicians scamper around meet mirror segments on the James Webb Space Telescope ? With the 9th of 18 section installed last week , we ’re that much closer tohunting for signs of life on exotic worldsand makingour universe a little less solitary .
A third of the mirrors were installed by December 17 , 2015 , but now we ’re up to a full one-half ! Image credit : NASA / Chris Gunn
Telescope construction is no easy business . We ’ve followed along asparts were embark across the rural area , thesupport structurewastested , itssunshields were assembled , andits first mirror hung . Now we ’re proud of to celebrate that as of December 22nd , full nine of the eighteen primary mirror segments arepolished to perfectionand nestled snugly in position .
technician began installing the mirror segments on November 22 , 2015 . Image credit : NASA / Chris Gunn
The hexangular mirror segment are 4 feet , 3 inches ( 1.3 metre ) in diam , and fit together to form a single 21 animal foot , 4 inch ( 6.5 mirror ) primary mirror for the telescope . The singular construction allows the scope to tuck into a small-scale volume for launching then unfold in mechanical origami once in space . It also allow for a much large elemental mirror : when nail , theJames Webb Space Telescope will dwarf Hubble with its capacity to gather unaccented .
Hubble is but a wee speck of crank compared to the enormous James Webb . effigy credit : NASA
you’re able to watch structure from menage bypeeking in on the cleanroom webcam . The squad is currently on interruption , but mirror assemblage will continue in the fresh class . The telescope is currently scheduled to found in 2018 .
get through the author at[email protected]or stick to her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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