NASA wants to train the James Webb Space Telescope on giants before looking for habitable worlds – BGR

When NASA finally sends its James Webb space telescope, a mega-mighty, it will be the end of a long and troubled road, but it will also be the beginning of an extremely exciting time for astronomers . The main role of the telescope will be to detect the exoplanets and learn more about them, which can even detect planets that could be used by humans after the Earth.

But NASA explains in a new blog how to learn to use the telescope correctly. The power will not be a night affair, and he is going to need some workout before he can really flex his muscles. To help scientists understand how this powerful instrument works, they will first point to larger targets, such as gigantic gas exoplanets.

"We have two main objectives," Jacob Bean, co-principal investigator exoplanets, explains. "The first is to get Webb's exoplanet datasets transferred to the astronomical community as soon as possible, and the second is to do some great science so that astronomers and the public can see how well this observatory is doing." powerful. "

It all sounds beautiful, but NASA must first put the thing in space. For a project that wastes money like crazy, it is actually a lot harder than it could be. The James Webb Space Telescope is a long and long time ahead. You may have read recently how NASA was forced to repel the launch of the telescope until 2021, but it is really only the tip of a very big iceberg.

When the work started on the telescope in 1997 (!), The initial launch was planned for 2007. Since then, the telescope has experienced no less than 14 major delays, and an increase in the costs of a budget initial $ 500 million to nearly $ 10 billion. Northrop Grumman, the contractor who was hired to build the telescope, has proven this, and an independent study found that countless stupid human errors like lost fasteners and incorrect cleaning agents cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The telescope will be finally finished (we hope) and once it has been, there will be no new things to teach us about it. space and the neighboring planets. NASA promises that it will be worth the wait, and these are big words when it comes to a nearly $ 10 billion project that is already over ten years behind schedule . We will have to wait and see.