NASA Finally Reveals NEW Telescope After James Webb That Changes Everything!

A few weeks ago, the whole world held their breath as the groundbreaking James Webb
Space Telescope, JWST, finally launched from French Guiana. Everything had to be
perfect, or the biggest telescope ever made by humans would fail at the cost of billions
of dollars and decades of sweat! Fortunately, the launch went well! However, the nail-
biting has not ended because the JWST will still carry out potentially risky maneuvers
that could spell disaster for the space telescope! This risk, however, is not stopping the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency from working on the next
massive space telescopes that will shape astronomy in the next decade! Join us as we
dive into how NASA finally reveals four new massive space telescopes after the James
Webb Space Telescope!
Building and launching space telescopes is not a small feat! Take, for example, the
recently launched James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST was scheduled to launch
in 2007 at a budget of $1 billion, with work starting in 1996. However, with many
technical difficulties surfacing, the budget ballooned, and the final cost now sits close to
$10 billion!
Yet, all that billions of dollars could have gone to waste if the telescope was subject to
too much vibration during takeoff! The space telescope had to be designed to fold to fit
into the fairing of the launch rocket and then unfurl on its way to its final destination!
That is one thing about designing these giant space telescopes! You have to develop
with the available launch vehicle in mind because your telescope has to fit on the
rocket! The folding approach adopted by the JWST designers was necessary but also
very risky because the components of the 6.5-meter wide telescope had to be precisely
positioned! You can't even send an astronaut to the JWST for any repair like you could
do with the legendary Hubble Telescope, so you have just a chance to get everything
right!
Another potential source of disaster is the sun shades. They are necessary to keep the
JWST cold enough for the infrared it depends on to function without interference. These
shades are in five layers, made from special materials, and each has to be precisely
positioned for the telescope to work! With all these complexities, the JWST is not
expected to last more than ten years when the fuel on board would have run out!
However, the JWST is mighty! In fact, it is between 10 and 100 times more sensitive
than the Hubble! According to NASA, the JWST can pick up infrared emissions from a
bumblebee flying on the moon!
But why do we put space telescopes in space? Is it really worth it? We put telescopes in
orbit around the Earth or farther out into space to get a clearer view of the Universe.
These telescopes are of different types. Some are used to study a unique object like the
Sun. Others are used to study the different kinds of light given off by objects in space.
You could have X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes that explore the hottest and most
explosive objects in space. You could use Infrared telescopes like the JWST, to study
the places where stars are born and can look into the centers of galaxies.
Also, optical telescopes study the visible light from space, and ultraviolet telescopes
study scorching stars. We could have positioned these telescopes on Earth and
minimized risks and costs, but many of these types of light given off by these celestial
bodies are blocked by our atmosphere!
This is why, despite that the fate of the JWST is not known yet, and the first pictures
from it could be months away, NASA is already looking at the successors to the
telescopes! The space agency has revealed four different telescopes that will launch in
the 2030s and beyond! Like the JWST, they bring more capabilities to scientists that
study the Universe!
The first space telescope is the HabEx or Habitable Exoplanet Observatory! What is the
purpose of HabEx? HabEx is a concept for a mission to image planetary systems
around Sun-like stars directly. HabEx will be sensitive to all types of planets, but its
primary goal is to image Earth-like exoplanets and characterize their atmospheric
content directly. This is the first time we are attempting this. Using the spectra
measurement of these planets, HabEx will search for signatures of habitability such as
water and be sensitive to gases in the atmosphere possibility indicative of biological
activity, such as oxygen or ozone. So, yes, HabEx will search for evidence of life in
outer space.
However, when HabEx is not imaging exoplanets, it will enable a broad range of general