Editorial: Cosmos beckons

A new era in space exploration has just begun with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most sophisticated space laboratory ever built, successfully reaching its destination — a gravitational parking spot in an orbit around the Sun nearly 1.50 million miles from Earth. There are several fascinating scientific possibilities arising out of this extraordinarily complex […]

A new era in space exploration has just begun with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most sophisticated space laboratory ever built, successfully reaching its destination — a gravitational parking spot in an orbit around the Sun nearly 1.50 million miles from Earth. There are several fascinating scientific possibilities arising out of this extraordinarily complex endeavour. We are now one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe as the telescope will provide an unprecedented glimpse of infant galaxies in the early stages of the universe. The $7-billion space telescope, an international collaboration between NASA, European and Canadian space agencies, was launched after multiple delays on December 25 last year on an Ariane 5 rocket. For its entire mission, Webb will orbit at what is called the Lagrange point 2 (L2), a point in space that balances the gravitational pull of Earth and the Sun. Operating mainly in the infrared spectrum, the Webb telescope, which is several times more powerful than its predecessor Hubble, will peer through the clouds of gas and dust and observe objects at greater distances, thus farther back in time. The unique design and the sophistication of the Webb telescope make it ideal to search for signs of potentially life-supporting atmospheres around scores of newly documented exoplanets — celestial bodies orbiting distant stars. Widely seen as a tool to usher in a new revolution in astronomy, it is designed to capture ancient light emitted more than 13 billion years ago as the embryonic universe was still learning how to create stars and galaxies.

This will provide a revolutionary new view of the cosmic firmament. The objective is to look at the first glows after the big bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets. Engineers had to invent 10 new technologies along the way to make the telescope far more sensitive and powerful than Hubble. Its capabilities will enable the observatory to answer questions about our own solar system and investigate faint signals from the first galaxies formed billions of years ago. Webb’s observations could detect the presence of oxygen, methane and other molecules, seen as signatures of extraterrestrial life. Understanding the atmospheres and the formation conditions for planets could help scientists better predict if certain planets are habitable or not. The ground teams will soon start activating Webb’s various imaging and spectrographic instruments to be used in the three-month mirror alignment. This will be followed by two months spent calibrating the instruments themselves. It is expected to transmit its first images back in June or July, a much-awaited event that has created tremendous buzz among the scientific community. We now have a new window on the cosmos that is set to examine all of cosmic history — from the first stars to possible signs of life in the solar system.

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