{"id":22025,"date":"2021-12-25T21:39:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T15:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=22025"},"modified":"2021-12-25T21:39:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T15:54:44","slug":"james-webb-liftoff-to-unlock-secrets-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/james-webb-liftoff-to-unlock-secrets-of-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"James Webb liftoff to unlock secrets of the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>\u00a0lifted off on an\u00a0Ariane 5 rocket<\/a>\u00a0from Europe\u2019s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 13:20 CET on 25 December on its exciting mission to unlock the secrets of the Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following launch and separation from the rocket, Webb\u2019s mission operations center in Baltimore, USA confirmed Webb deployed its solar array and is in good condition, marking the launch a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coming month, Webb, an international partnership between NASA, \u00a0European Space Agency(ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), will travel to its destination:\u00a0the second Lagrange point (L2)<\/a>,\u00a0where it will study the Universe in infrared<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLaunching Webb is a huge celebration of the international collaboration that made this next-generation mission possible. I want to thank everyone involved with the design, construction, and launch of this ambitious telescope, for making this day a reality. We are close to receiving Webb\u2019s new view of the Universe and the exciting scientific discoveries that it will make,\u201d says Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director-General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Credit: ESA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe James Webb Space Telescope represents the ambition that NASA and our partners maintain to propel us forward into the future,\u201d says NASA administrator Bill Nelson. \u201cThe promise of Webb is not what we know we will discover; it\u2019s what we don\u2019t yet understand or can\u2019t yet fathom about our Universe. I can\u2019t wait to see what it uncovers!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCSA is proud to have contributed critical instruments to this large\u2011scale international partnership as part of a global effort to spur the next great scientific leap. Canadian astronomers are excited to use Webb\u2019s data and benefit from the tremendous science opportunities offered by this one-of-a-kind observatory,\u201d says CSA President Lisa Campbell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Webb observatory had to be carefully folded into the specially adapted Ariane 5 fairing for launch<\/a>, which jettisoned away about three minutes after liftoff. Ariane 5 then began a special roll manoeuvre to protect Webb from the Sun\u2019s radiation. After 27 minutes the telescope was released and the upper stage boosted away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am very happy and proud that the versatility and reliability of Ariane 5 have enabled the launch of such a ground-breaking mission. This is a tribute to the skill and dedication of all the teams involved,\u201d says Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA Director of Space Transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in space and on its way to L2, Webb will undergo a\u00a0complex unfolding sequence<\/a>. In the months after, the instruments will be turned on and their capabilities tested. After half a year in space, Webb will start its routine science observations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Webb will see farther into our origins: from the Universe’s first galaxies to the birth of stars and planets, to exoplanets with the potential for life, and our own Solar System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea for Webb started with the dream of astronomers to observe the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe, but the telescope will be able to do so much more than everyone had hoped for,\u201d says G\u00fcnther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESA contributed to two of the four scientific instruments onboard Webb: NIRSpec and MIRI. \u201cIt is down to the excellence of the European industry and scientific community that the development of these complex instruments was made possible,\u201d G\u00fcnther adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are now looking forward to the beautiful images and spectra that Webb will obtain. The European astronomical community is excited to see the results of the 33% available observing time they competitively won for Webb’s first year,\u201d says Antonella Nota, ESA Webb Project Scientist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The James Webb Space Telescope\u00a0lifted off on an\u00a0Ariane 5 rocket\u00a0from Europe\u2019s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 13:20 CET on 25 December on its exciting mission to unlock the secrets of the Universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-566x400.jpg",566,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-675x477.jpg",675,477,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",707,500,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",600,424,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",600,424,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-707x490.jpg",707,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",640,453,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",96,68,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/james-webb-space-telescope.jpg",150,106,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}