THE NEW JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

We live in astounding times and the news of the new James Webb Space Telescope, a joint US, European Union and Canadian $10 billion project, is on track to send even more beautiful and mind-blowing pictures from space than the Hubble Space Telescope that launched in 1990. According to NASA, the new telescope will not necessarily replace Hubble—just be able to send back information from a different and more distant place. The earth is 150 million km from the sun, the moon orbits the earth at a distance of about 384.500 km, the Hubble orbits around earth at an altitude of 570 km above it. The James Webb will be sent to a fixed spot about 1.5 million km away. It will be able to peer through the infrared spectrum and see into the far distant recesses of our universe. The James Webb telescope has a prime mirror of 21 feet across and will be protected by a sunshield that is the size of 5 tennis courts. In order to get all into a smaller unit to be launched, the mirror folds into two pieces and the shield also folds in on itself. When it reaches its spot, it will unfurl the mirror and shield and take about 6 months to be programed and ready to release pictures to the public. NASA says that this telescope will be able to detect signs of life from stardust of earth-sized planets far, far away. Science can be amazing.

EARTH STEWARD ACTION: A science continues to advance, it is important to keep our respective when it comes to religion, science and care of creation. Please take time to read the Catechism of Creation (see resources)

SOURCES: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparrison/WebbVaHubble.html, https://.www.npr.org/2021/09/16/103660340/nasa-is-launching-a-new-telescope

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/up-content/upleads/sites/2/2021/03/cc-creationcatchism.pdf