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Download E 3.1 Notes addition The James Webb and MOST Telescope
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The James Webb Space Telescope The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched into space at the beginning of the next decade. It will be placed into an orbit 1.5 million kilometres above Earth in such a way that it will be in constant alignment over the dark (nighttime) side of the planet. This distance is far enough that the satellite will not be affected by space debris and its orbiting position will protect it from light reflected by the Earth. However, it is too far to be repaired and maintained by astronauts, so its life span will only be 5 to 10 years. The observatory bears the name of James Edwin Webb, director of NASA from 1961 to 1968. It is the product of a collaborative effort between the United States, Canada and Europe. John Hutchings, an astronomer with the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, is Canada’s Project Scientist. At 6.5 metres in diameter, the mirror of the telescope will have a surface seven times greater than that of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope (2.4-metre mirror). The mirror will consist of 18 small hexagonal mirrors that will deploy and fit together once the telescope is in orbit. The entire observatory will weigh 6,600 kilograms. The telescope will operate at wavelengths between 28 thousandths to 6 millionths of a centimetre: that is, from the mid-range of the infrared to almost the beginning of visible red light (Hubble, in contrast, observes at ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared wavelengths). This range of wavelengths will make it possible to detect extrasolar planets, to conduct detailed studies into the formation of planets and stars, and to study the oldest galaxies lying at the edges of the Universe. Canada is committed to providing a fine guidance sensor and a near-infrared camera. The fine guidance sensor will allow the space observatory to be aimed at its targets with a high degree of precision. Canadian researchers are also part of the American and European teams in charge of designing other instruments for the space telescope. The MOST Space Telescope The first space telescope entirely of Canadian designed and construction The MOST Space Telescope (which stands for Microvariability and Oscillation of Stars) was launched into space in 2003. It is the first Canadian scientific satellite in orbit in 33 years, and it is the first space telescope to be entirely designed and built in Canada. MOST is a small telescope dedicated entirely to asteroseismology, which is the study of star vibrations (pulsations). There is a great interest for studying stellar vibrations because they allow scientists to obtain information about the internal structure of a star, and thus about its size, mass and composition. The projected was initiated in 1996 by a group of researchers: Slavek Rucinski of Ontario’s Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology, Jaymie Matthews of the University of British Colombia, Tony Moffat of the University of Montreal, and Kieran Carroll of Dynacon Enterprises. In 1997, the Canadian Space Agency agreed to finance the project and Jaymie Matthews was named Principal Investigator and Mission Scientist. About the size and shape of a large suitcase, the satellite weighs only 54 kilograms and is equipped with an ultra high precision telescope that measures only 15 centimetres in diameter. Despite its diminutive size, it is ten times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope in detecting the minuscule variations in a star’s luminosity caused by vibrations that shake its surface. The telescope will complete one orbit around the Earth every 101 minutes by passing over each of Earth’s poles. It will spend 60 days on each star studied. Its predicted life expectancy is 5 to 10 years. The first major discovery made by the telescope occurred as soon as it became operational. The discovery was that Procyon, one of the most studied stars, shows no pulsations at all, which contradicts 20 years of ideas and observations, and forced astronomers to rethink their models for stars. In 2005, MOST was responsible for another surprising discovery: it observed a giant planet that orbits so close to its host star that the star was forced to synchronize its rotation with that of the planet. Normally, it is the other way around: a planet synchronizes its orbit with that of its host star.