* Astronomy

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RE: James Webb Space Telescope

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Engineers to Practice on Webb Telescope Simulator
The huge assembly standing in Northrop Grumman Corporation's high bay looks a lot like NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, but it's a full-scale simulator of the space telescope's key elements.
Engineers are using the simulator, consisting of the telescope's primary backplane assembly and the sunshield's integrated validation article, to develop the Webb Telescope's hardware design. In addition, technicians are using it to gain experience handling large elements in advance of working with the actual hardware that will fly in space.

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A recent event hosted by Leicester Conferences at the University of Leicester saw scientists gather to discuss a monumental new space telescope scheduled for launch in 2013.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the successor the world famous Hubble telescope and will be almost three times its size. JWST has been designed to work the best at infrared wavelengths. This will allow it to study the very distant universe, looking for the first stars and galaxies that ever emerged. JWST will be the premier astrophysics observatory of the next decade.

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The most distant cosmic explosion ever recorded would have made a fascinating target for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), according to scientists now building the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The cataclysmic detonation reported this week is the most far-flung object in the Universe yet seen.

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The first mirror segment that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation, has completed its first series of cryogenic temperature tests in the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.

"We're excited that we can support the James Webb Space Telescope with our world class cryogenic and x-ray telescope test facility. The test performed here are crucial to the success of the program since they'll ensure the mirrors and components will be able to withstand the extreme cold temperatures of space" - Helen Cole, project manager for the Webb Telescope activities at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Alabama.

The mirror segment is the first of 18 flight mirror segments that will be joined to make a giant, 6.5-meter diameter hexagonal mirror. The segments will be subject to temperatures of -414 degrees Fahrenheit in a 7,600 cubic-foot helium-cooled vacuum chamber at NASA Marshall.

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Stargazing is as old as the human race, but the practice of astronomy changed forever when Galileo, in 1609, became the first to turn a telescope toward the heavens.
Although his instrument was extremely primitive, he was still able to discern that four satellites orbit Jupiter and that, like the moon, Venus experiences phases. These and other observations helped to verify the Copernican view of the solar system - with the sun at its centre.
That work landed Galileo in hot water with the Vatican, hell-bent on upholding the ancient belief that all celestial bodies revolve around the Earth. But today all is forgiven as special events across Canada and around the world kick off the 400th anniversary of Galileo's monumental achievement in what the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the UN General Assembly have declared as the International Year of Astronomy.
Meanwhile, scientists and technicians are busy creating a telescope that Galileo could have never envisioned even in his wildest dreams - one so powerful that it can see almost to the dawn of the time.

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It won't be long before the world will see the universe through Utah's "eyes."
Utah-mined beryllium is being used to create a 21-foot-diameter mirror in the James Webb Space Telescope that astronomers will use to study the development of the universe. The telescope is scheduled for launch into space in 2013.

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Marshall chills segment for Webb telescope to 414 degrees below zero
The coldest place in North Alabama right now isn't on a mountaintop in Mentone or on Monte Sano.
It's Marshall Space Flight Center's X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, where a mirror for NASA's next major space telescope is being chilled to 414 degrees below zero.

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The first of 18 mirror segments that will fly on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived this week at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

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U.S. scientists say they've created a sunshield for the James Webb Space Telescope that can withstand severe cold and heat, radiation and meteorite impacts.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists, along with Northrop-Grumman Corp. engineers, said the space telescope needs such a sunshield to block heat from the sun so its cameras and instruments can operate properly 1 million miles from the Earth when it launches in 2013.
Blocking light and heat from the sun will keep the observatory operating at cryogenic temperatures, NASA said, enabling its infrared sensors to see distant galaxies, early stars and planetary systems.

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