Do people like threads here? I guess we'll find out!
Between meetings today I thought I'd talk about #NASA #JWST and all the exciting #science we can expect from it starting in a few months!
(Yes, I made this travel mug ❤️)
#SciComm #Exoplanets #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Telescope #MastodonNewbie
Between meetings today I thought I'd talk about #NASA #JWST and all the exciting #science we can expect from it starting in a few months!
(Yes, I made this travel mug ❤️)
#SciComm #Exoplanets #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Telescope #MastodonNewbie
Erin M. May, PhD
in reply to Erin M. May, PhD • • •https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-needs-to-rename-the-james-webb-space-telescope/
The James Webb Space Telescope Needs to Be Renamed
Scientific AmericanErin M. May, PhD
in reply to Erin M. May, PhD • • •(Yes, this diagram of me standing next to the Hubble and JWST mirrors is to scale!)
Erin M. May, PhD
in reply to Erin M. May, PhD • • •The scariest part was the sunshield tensioning! The sunshield is the pink/grey part and is used to keep the mirrors and instruments nice and cold so we can see the very faint heat from the early universe!
#Science #SciComm
Erin M. May, PhD
in reply to Erin M. May, PhD • • •The mirrors are actually made of Beryllium, which is a very strong and lightweight metal, and are coated in a very thin layer of gold. The total amount of gold on #JWST is only about the size of a marble!
Why gold? Gold is VERY efficient at reflecting infrared light! JWST is designed to search for this heat in the early universe
Erin M. May, PhD
in reply to Erin M. May, PhD • • •JWST is orbiting a point in space called L2, a gravitationally stable point nearly a million miles beyond Earth.
In this gif, the sun is at the center, Earth is the large blue dot, and you can see JWST orbiting an empty point in space beyond Earth. This is not to scale!