Beyond Real Time: It lifts the veil

NASA tests the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors in a cryogenic room.

Credit: NASA / MSFC / David Higginbotham

Sometimes, a picture depicting an example of big science comes along to astonish us rubes and this pix is one of them. The Webb, if she makes it, will change man's view of the universe forever.

Astronomers like Christine Chen are thrilled about the looming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The $10 billion instrument, half the size of a 737 airplane and replete with gold-coated mirrors, will orbit 1 million miles from Earth and peer into places humanity hasn't seen before. This includes some of the first stars ever born, the most distant galaxies, and curious planets in the cosmos.

"It's really cool," marveled Chen, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, an organization that will run the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST.

Yes it is.

The size comparison between JWST's mirror and Hubble's mirror. Credit: NASA

Hubble largely views light that humans can see (aka "visible light"). But there are many types of light that our eyes can't see. JWST is specialized to observe one of these, called "infrared," which allows astronomers to see vastly more stars and planets.

How so?

The universe is filled with thick, smoke-like clouds of dust and gas. "That obscures things," explained Jason Steffen, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who researches planets outside our solar system (aka exoplanets).

But infrared light can slip through thick clouds of dust. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves don't get scattered as much (and obscured) by particles in the universe. Longer wavelengths, whose peaks and valleys are spread far apart, are less likely to collide with particles in space.

The image comparison below, taken by Hubble, shows how infrared light slips through cosmic dust. That's the Carina Nebula, a dazzling cloud of dust and gas. Hubble's infrared view reveals the many stars hidden behind the dust.

"It lifts the veil," said Creighton.