Top 5 Kick-Ass Things About the Webb Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble's throne. In order to pick up extremely faint infra-red signals from extremely distant stars and galaxies, the JWST has to be extremely cold. Any noise from the IR radiation of the Sun or Earth would make it impossible to see as far into the past as scientists want to.
Thus, the JWST has to be a million miles from the earth, protected by a six-layer heat shield as big as a tennis court. This will allow the Webb Telescope to peer into the deepest reaches of space, through clouds of dust into stellar nurseries and back in time 13.4 billion years.
Not only will we get the most detailed views of our universe ever, but the JWST will provide insights into how solar systems, galaxies, stars and even the Universe were formed.
Comment
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Comment by Taylor Fitzgerald on February 5, 2011 at 12:59pm -
aww. I'm sad that Hank changed the name of this video
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Comment by Daniel on February 3, 2011 at 7:16am -
Maybe it'll discover new planets, of which one will be called "Nerdfighteria". Then an elevator or portal is built between earth and Nerdfighteria. Yes, I've got a large fantasy :)
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Comment by Danielle Hanifin on February 2, 2011 at 7:12pm -
This is pretty amazing when you think about it... which Hank obviously did. But seriously... HOW COOL?
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Comment by linda avron on February 2, 2011 at 6:25pm -
Nerd Wood. FTW
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