Image: YouTube/@James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is in the final stage of preparations for launch, only a few days away from unlocking new secrets in our universe. Known as the most powerful telescope ever, Weber will be escorted to space on the Ariane 5 rocket on December 22. Scientists face the challenge of carrying out transportation without causing any risk to the observatory's instruments.
Although it contains a bunch of extremely important instruments, its most recognizable, eye-catching, and attractive instrument is the 21-foot primary mirror, made of 18 small gilded hexagonal mirrors. Only when you want to know why gold is extracted from other rich elements, we will tell you why NASA chose gold for the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope.
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This may sound poetic, but it does have the most practical explanation. Before understanding the logic of using gold-plated mirrors, it is necessary to understand the working principle of the Webb telescope. A telescope is basically an instrument that is extremely sensitive to infrared light emitted from the farthest corner of our universe. When a light beam travels for billions of years and billions of light years, when its wavelength is stretched, the light beam becomes infrared. The Webb telescope will collect these infrared wavelengths, decompose their characteristics, and extract all the information stored in them about their origin and the environment they have traveled through over the years.
As for the use of gold, NASA explained that plating it on a mirror will ensure the highest reflection of infrared rays on Weber’s instruments. It is worth mentioning that the coating is micro-level, about five gold men's wedding rings are distributed on 18 small hexagonal mirrors. According to NASA, our daily mirrors usually contain silver or aluminum, but they are not suitable for use due to their poor reflection properties. Compared with gold, silver reflects 95% of infrared light, while aluminum reflects only 85%, while gold reflects 99% of all infrared light it encounters.
Another reason for using precious elements on the mirror is that it is very inactive. In addition to reflecting less infrared rays, silver and aluminum are also easy to change color. They are not as durable as gold, which is extremely insensitive to elements in space. The telescope will be launched from the European Spaceport in French Guiana, and will be installed at the second Lagrangian point or L2 1.5 million kilometers away from our planet, and will collect data to reveal the time when the universe emerged from the Big Bang. Look like.