NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has arrived in French Guiana and is preparing to launch on December 18. Researchers from the University of Arizona will lead the instruments on the two ships.

The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory will now be transported to its launch site, the European Space Port in Kuru, and two months of operational preparations will begin before launch. At the launch site, the telescope will be folded and stored in the nose cone on the top of the Ariane 5 rocket, designed to protect the space observatory from the impact of the air impact and the sharp drop in temperature that the rocket lifts off and throws the earth behind. A few minutes.

UArizona's husband and wife researchers Marcia and George Rieke held leadership positions in the James Webb Space Telescope and worked hard for this moment for two decades. However, due to the remote location of the launch site and extremely limited access to the launch site, even the Rick couple had to participate in the launch virtual with their research team in Arizona.

Regent astronomy professor Marcia Rieke (Marcia Rieke) said that although it is often referred to as the "successor" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope-or astronomers like to call it Webb ——It is a brand new and different beast at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.

"The Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes completely changed our understanding of the universe," she said. "But with Webb, we will be able to get closer to the Big Bang galaxy than ever before."

Marcia Rieke is the lead researcher of the near-infrared camera or NIRCam, which is located at the core of the Webb telescope. She led the development of the instrument, which was designed to achieve the original purpose of the telescope: to discover what astronomers call "first light" galaxies when they formed in the early universe.

"We can currently see the galaxy returning 50 to 600 million years after the Big Bang, or nearly 13 billion years ago," said Marcia Rick. "Although the universe was still very young at the time, what we saw still looked familiar-many stars had formed, supermassive black holes, quasars, etc.

"However, logic suggests that at some point in the first few hundred million years, these seemingly familiar objects must have come from somewhere and evolved," she explained. "After all, galaxies will not emerge from nothing overnight."

Her team will work with the Weber Spectrometer team to gain an in-depth understanding of this formation stage of the current universe that we are familiar with. As the universe is expanding, the light from the earliest galaxies is stretched or "redshifted" from visible light to longer-wavelength infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. NIRCam will be able to visualize infrared light, which makes the instrument essential for examining the early stages of star and galaxy formation and studying the shape and color of distant galaxies. 

George Rieke is also the Regent Professor of Astronomy and the scientific team leader for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which was built by a consortium of European scientists and engineers and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. MIRI was added to Webb to extend the range of the telescope to the farther infrared spectrum and enable many additional studies. Two other instruments provided by the European and Canadian Space Agency complete Weber's science package.

The two core instruments of the University of Arizona’s leadership of Weber are the matter of the Ricks family, but this also reflects the university’s 60 years of leadership in the field of infrared astronomy. The university's strength in this field allows it to successfully compete for the observation time of the new telescope. The total time allocated by NASA to the two UArizona instrument teams and other UArizona astronomers accounted for 13% of the total observation time granted, giving UArizona more time than any other astronomical center in the world.

"The university's contribution to the design and development of advanced instruments on JWST is a testament to our bold and creative approach to astronomy," said Elizabeth "Betsy" Cantwell, Arizona State Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation. "This telescope has the potential to answer some truly wonderful and fundamental questions about the characteristics of distant planets and the origin of the universe itself; I believe it will change our understanding of the universe, and I am proud of the role of the University of Arizona researchers in that feat. ."

Weber was revolutionary for astronomy because it was cold and big.

"Going into space is essential for infrared astronomy," said George Rick. He explained that although ground-based telescopes can be used to observe in infrared, this work is plagued by thermal "noise" from the instrument itself and the atmosphere.

"Astronomical sources must be detected in this overwhelming and highly variable foreground, so it's a bit like trying to find a match in a blast furnace," he said.

He explained that ground-based telescopes cannot be cooled enough to eliminate heat dissipation because water will condense on them and blind them. However, in the vacuum of space, this is not a problem, allowing the Webb telescope to release heat until the temperature reaches minus 234 degrees Celsius, or minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit. A sun visor the size of a tennis court can protect the telescope from the heat emitted by the sun, the earth and the moon. 

Previous infrared space telescopes, such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, also worked in this way, but compared to Weber, Spitzer is very small-only 34 inches in diameter, while Weber's diameter is 21 feet. Weber's huge size not only improves its sensitivity, but also makes the image captured by the telescope clearer. However, 21 feet is too big for any rocket cone. Therefore, Weber will be folded as thin as possible, similar to a closed umbrella.

The Ariane 5 rocket that will send Webb into space is more than 150 feet above the ground, overlooking the gloomy and shallow waters of a wide bay on the Atlantic coast, and weighs 780 tons. Its two boosters are more than 100 feet high and each contain 238 metric tons of solid propellant. Once in space, Weber will unfold, its instruments will be thoroughly checked and calibrated, and the mirrors will be adjusted to optical perfection. This happened during a six-month period, after which the telescope was one million miles from the earth, four times farther than the moon. This particular point in space will allow Weber to easily orbit the sun with the earth, allowing the telescope to transmit large amounts of data via radio back to the earth.

Ricks said that the global astronomy community will watch Webber's journey nervously at every stage.

George Rick said: "If someone asks us astronomers what we want to do with Webb, we will hear a chorus of excitement and enthusiasm."

Riekes is a veteran of infrared astronomy, and Webb is not their first space telescope mission. Marcia Rieke served as UArizona Professor Rodger Thompson's associate principal investigator in 1997, responsible for research on the NICMOS instrument installed in the Hubble Space Telescope. George Rieke led the development of a multi-band imaging photometer, a far-infrared instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope launched by NASA in 2003.

"Weber has brought us more benefits than Spitzer, the most powerful space infrared telescope to date. Its sensitivity has increased by nearly 100 times, its angular resolution elements have been increased by nearly 100 times, and it uses modern infrared detector arrays. Its sensitivity has been increased by nearly 100 times. Expressed in the number of pixels," George Rick said.

Marcia Rieke added: “It may be unimaginable for astronomers to take full advantage of this progress, but for our local astronomers, it’s not the case. The potential for a huge leap forward in terms of scientific problems and the emergence of the first galaxies in the universe, the growth of young stars, and the characteristics of exoplanets similar to our solar system."

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins said that George and Marcia Rick embodied the determination of the University of Arizona.

"When infrared astronomy was widely regarded as too difficult, they insisted on promoting this technology," Robbins said. "Driven by their foreseeable discoveries, they continue to respond to challenges. In the process, they helped establish infrared astronomy here in Tucson, one of the most fruitful subdisciplines of astronomy."

The James Webb Space Telescope is an international partner of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, and is provided by 26 research organizations, three space agencies, and 11 countries/regions. Partners include Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, EADS-Astrium and Raytheon.

Bill Oaks, the Webb project manager of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said about the achievement of launching the largest and most advanced telescope ever: “After completing the final steps of the James Webb Space Telescope test program, I can When I look at that beautiful golden (telescope) mirror, I can't help but see the reflections of thousands of people who gave their lives to Weber."

The University of Arizona Flandre Science Center and Planetarium will host the James Webb Space Telescope Day on Saturday, October 16 from 10 am to 9 pm 

Many events, including exhibitions, lectures and telescope viewing, will celebrate the upcoming launch of Webb. Detailed information and timetables are provided on the Flandrau website. 

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