Mathilde Fontez, editor-in-chief of the scientific magazine Epsiloon, talks to us today about the launch of this JWST telescope which was to take off on December 22 in the fairing of an Ariane 5 rocket. This has just been postponed to December 24, or perhaps to December 26 or 27. But in any case, in the days to come, it will fly away.
franceinfo: This telescope promises to revolutionize our entire vision of the Universe?
Mathilde Fontez: Yes, this is a time of great tension at the US Space Agency, NASA. And to the European Agency, ESA, which is also participating in this mission. And even in all the astronomical laboratories in the world.
What will happen next week, if all goes well, is the culmination of 25 years of work, for thousands of engineers, technicians, researchers. It’s a 10 billion dollar technology that will leave Earth in the fairing of an Ariane rocket. These are 14 countries involved, 40 million hours of work – NASA has counted. In short, the James Webb telescope, that’s its name, is one of the greatest science projects ever undertaken.
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Is this the biggest telescope ever to go into space?
Yes by far. It is even so big that it had to be bent to fit it into the fairing of the Ariane 5 rocket which will take it into orbit. It will unfold in space. Its mirror measures 6.50 meters.
The biggest space telescope to date is the famous Hubble, which has offered these incredible images of galaxies of all kinds. And it’s a little less than 2.50 meters. So that’s a huge leap in sensitivity, the ability to see distant stars and galaxies. In short, we will see 10 times better with the James Webb telescope than with Hubble. Even 100 times better for certain objects.
And this will allow a better understanding of the universe?
In particular, the first moments of the universe. How were the first galaxies born. How star clusters like ours got structured. We will be able to see very far with the James Webb telescope, and therefore go back in time.
Since light takes a long time to reach us: we will discover the galaxies as they were just tens of millions of years after the big bang. It seems a lot, but on the scale of the universe which is more than 13 billion years old, it is very early childhood.
This telescope will also be very precise. It will make it possible to perform spectroscopy, and therefore to study the composition of exoplanets, the planets which revolve around stars other than our own. To know if they have an atmosphere, if they could be habitable.
All that is if all goes well… What is the delay of the launch due to?
A communication problem between the telescope and the ground. It is a problem that is considered benign. There are redundant systems that can take over. But NASA is not willing to take any chances in the case of the James Webb telescope. The stake is too great. Everything must work perfectly.