Right now’s the day: Almost a month after launch, the James Webb Area Telescope will arrive at its deep-space celestial vacation spot on Monday (Jan. 24).
Webb will probably be orbiting Earth-sun Lagrange Level 2 (L2), which is about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from our planet. Right here, the spacecraft can use a minimal of gasoline to orbit because of its alignment with the solar and Earth.
NASA won’t be broadcasting from mission management throughout the burn, because the company did for some earlier key milestones. Nevertheless, NASA plans to hold a number of follow-up occasions dwell in the present day after executing the essential burn at about 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT).
Associated: James Webb Area Telescope vs. Hubble: How will their pictures examine?
First the company will host a broadcast at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) dwell on the NASA Science Reside web site, in addition to YouTube, Fb, and Twitter, that includes scientists and engineers engaged on Webb.
Viewers can submit questions on social media utilizing the hashtag #UnfoldtheUniverse or by leaving a touch upon the Fb or YouTube stream. Two representatives will reply questions: Amber Straughn, deputy venture scientist for Webb communications at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Maryland, and Scarlin Hernandez, flight techniques engineer, Area Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Following the general public livestream will probably be a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) that can even be broadcast dwell on the company’s web site. This is who will probably be on the decision:
- Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope component supervisor, Goddard
- Amy Lo, Webb automobile engineering lead, Northrop Grumman
- Keith Parrish, Webb observatory commissioning supervisor, Goddard
- Jane Rigby, Webb operations venture scientist, Goddard
Webb has an bold mission to raised perceive the early days of our universe, to see at distant exoplanets and their ambiance, and to reply large-scale questions comparable to how shortly the universe is increasing.
The $10 billion telescope launched Dec. 25 following years of developmental delays, however since launch has executed its milestones on time and with little bother so far. The advanced deployment of its most important mirror, for instance, concluded with solely minor hitches earlier this month.
Observe Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
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