. 24/7 Space News .
STELLAR CHEMISTRY
NASA's Webb Telescope Mirrors Utilize Innovative Space Shielding
by Thaddeus Cesari for GSFC News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2019

To fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket Webb will ride to space, some of its mirrors are designed to fold, and deploy to full size once in orbit. Shown here: Northrop Grumman technician Ricardo Pantoja performs a routine inspection of NASA Webb's innovative blanketing along the connection point of its deployable primary mirror segments.

To observe objects in the distant cosmos, and to do science that's never been done before, NASA's James Webb Space Telescopes' scientific instruments need to be cooled down to a temperature so cold, it would freeze the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere solid.

Intentionally chilling the telescope mirrors and instruments with innovative technologies and intelligent spacecraft design allows them to be far more sensitive to faint infrared light. Infrared can be described simply as heat, and if Webb's components are cool, they are far more capable at observing faint heat signatures from the distant universe.

Webb was designed with a revolutionary 5-layer tennis-court-size sunshield that blocks the primary sources of heat in order to achieve an incredibly frigid temperature of nearly minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 240 degrees Celsius). In addition to the sunshield, there are a multitude of other innovative features which enable the telescope to achieve its unmatched sensitivity for faint infrared signals.

One such feature is the protective barrier behind Webb's primary mirror called "Frill." This lightweight blanketing plays an important role on the observatory as it blocks unwanted light from reaching the telescope's sensitive infrared sensors.

"Due to its origami unfolding architecture, the Webb telescope does not have a cylindrical light baffle, like is seen with Hubble or even your home telescope which is used to block unwanted light.

Instead, Webb is a first of a kind "open" telescope that relies on the sunshield to block unwanted Sun, Earth and moonlight and relies on the Frill, shown here, to block light from stars and galaxies that are behind the telescope, that would hit the secondary mirror and get down into the science instruments that are extremely sensitive," said Lee Feinberg, Optical Telescope Element Manager, James Webb Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.


Related Links
Webb Telescope
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Quasar jets confuse orbital telescope
Moscow, Russia (SPX) Mar 14, 2019
Astrophysicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LPI RAS), and NASA have found an error in the coordinates of active galactic nuclei measured by the Gaia space telescope, and helped correct it. The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, also serve as an independent confirmation of the astrophysical model of these objects. "One of the key results of our work is a new and fairly unexpected way of indire ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Music for space

A decade-long quest to build an ecosystem in a room

NASA's OCO-3 Measures How Plants Grow and Glow

Spinoff Book Highlights NASA Technology Everywhere

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Russia Maintains High Quality of RD-180 Rocket Engines - ULA

Composite Overwrap 3D-Printed Rocket Thruster Endures Extreme Heat

Young entrepreneur aims to send 3D-printed rockets to space

NASA Achieves Rocket Engine Test Milestone Needed for Moon Missions

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
ExoMars carrier module prepares for final pre-launch testing

British instruments help reveal secrets of Mars atmosphere

Martian soil detox could lead to new medicines

NASA's MAVEN Uses Red Planet's Atmosphere to Change Orbit

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
China's commercial carrier rocket finishes engine test

China launches new data relay satellite

Super-powerful Long March 9 said to begin missions around 2030

China preparing for space station missions

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Preserving heritage data at ESA

Forging the future

Spacecraft Repo Operations

Amazon working on internet-serving satellite network

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
ESA oversees teaching of Europe's next top solderers

It's a one-way street for sound waves in this new technology

Microchip Technology uses Arm-based MCUs for cheap radhard processors

Arralis announces 10W GaN-SiC MMIC high power amplifier for K-Band comms

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Life Could Be Evolving Right Now on Nearest Exoplanets

Are brown dwarfs failed stars or super-planets?

Samara scientists research how building material for planets appears in the universe

NASA researchers catalogue all microbes and fungi on ISS

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Public Invited to Help Name Solar System's Largest Unnamed World

Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing

Scientists to Conduct Largest-Ever Hubble Survey of the Kuiper Belt

Jupiter's unknown journey revealed









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.