1/18/2024 0 Comments James webb space telescope launch![]() We don’t have an environment like that here on Earth. It is hard to test how something this big will work in the microgravity and cold of space. The sunshield is a tennis court-sized thing, you can’t put that in the nose cone of a rocket, so it had to be super folded and unfolded like a Transformer. It was great, but we knew how much more there was to do.Ī few days later, the sunshield finished deployment, and that was the riskiest part. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and when the rocket launched, we all just held our breath and we didn’t cheer. I was awake before my kids –they were a little frustrated that I didn’t wake them up. I joined my collaborators for a virtual watch party for the 6:20am launch (CST). This Christmas was an extra special one for astronomers with the launch of JWST. Jon Trump, associate professor in the Department of Physics, is one of those excited astronomers, and he met with UConn Today to discuss what to expect from JWST in the months ahead. That’s nearly 1 million miles away, so it will be a few anxious months of anticipation for astronomers and the rest of us here on the pale blue dot. Now the telescope is en route to its final location, called L2 (Lagrange Point 2). That’s because Decembrought a highly anticipated gift, two decades in the making, with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). ![]() So far, 2022 may feel like a mixed bag – however, if you’re an astronomer this year has already been exciting.
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