The James Webb Space Telescope has fired its thrusters and reached its orbital destination around a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from our planet, NASA said Monday, a key milestone on its mission to study cosmic history.
At around 2:00 pm Eastern Time , the observatory fired its thrusters for 5 minutes in order to reach the so-called second Lagrange point, or L2, where it will have access to nearly half the sky at any given moment."We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the Universe.
For the giant parasol to offer effective protection, it needs the Sun, Earth, and Moon to all be in the same direction, with the cold side operating at - 370 degrees Fahrenheit ., was the third such maneuver since Webb was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25. The plan was intentional, because if Webb had gotten too much thrust from the rocket, it wouldn't be able to turn around to fly back to Earth, as that would expose its optics to the Sun, overheating and destroying them.It was therefore decided to slightly underburn the rocket firing and use the telescope's own thrusters to make up the difference.
Webb, which is expected to cost NASA nearly US$10 billion, is one of the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and its predecessor telescope, Hubble.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is in position 1 million miles awayNASA's James Webb Space Telescope has officially reached its destination about 1 million miles from Earth.
Read more »
James Webb Space Telescope arrives at new home in spaceChelsea “Foxanne” Gohd joined Space.com in 2018 and is now a Senior Writer, writing about everything from climate change to planetary science and human spaceflight in both articles and on-camera in videos. With a degree in Public Health and biological sciences, Chelsea has written and worked for institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Scientific American, Discover Magazine Blog, Astronomy Magazine and Live Science. When not writing, editing or filming something space-y, Chelsea 'Foxanne' Gohd is writing music and performing as Foxanne, even launching a song to space in 2021 with Inspiration4. You can follow her on Twitter chelsea_gohd and foxannemusic.
Read more »
The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at lastThe most powerful telescope ever launched still has a long to-do list before it can start doing science.
Read more »
NASA's James Webb telescope is about to arrive at an exceptional point in spaceThe telescope will arrive at Lagrange point 2 on Monday, where it will drift 930,000 miles away in Earth's shadow.
Read more »
The James Webb Space Telescope arrives at its final orbitThe James Webb Space Telescope has reached its final orbit, although observations will still have to wait.
Read more »