Copernical Team
Webb telescope's first full color, scientific images coming in July
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Get ready for a summer blockbuster.
The James Webb Space Telescope will produce "spectacular color images" of the cosmos in mid-July—its first observations dedicated to its mission of scientific discovery, an astronomer overseeing the project said Monday.
The successor to Hubble has spent the last five months aligning its instruments in preparation for the big reveal, with scientists deliberately remaining coy about where the cameras will be pointed.
"We'd really like it to be a surprise," Klaus Pontoppidan, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore told reporters, adding that the secrecy was partly due to the first targets not yet being finalized.
NASA and its partners the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) formed a committee to create a ranked list of objects, which they now intend to work through.
What does micrometeoroid damage do to gossamer structures like Webb's sunshield?
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Tiny little bullets flood the solar system, each micrometeoroid a potential hazard. New research has found that the James Webb Space Telescope's thin sunshields, and future inflatable spacecraft, may be at risk.
A micrometeoroid is a tiny bit of space junk usually weighing less than a gram. Some of them are the leftover bits of the countless collisions that have occurred over the past 4.5 billion years of the history of the solar system. Most, however, come from the dust cloud that initially collapsed to form our solar system, and never got to be a part of a larger body.
MIRI and Spitzer comparison image
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Image:
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The James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way provided a dense star field to test Webb’s performance.
Here, a close-up of the MIRI image is compared to a past image
Last chance to register for ESA’s Living Planet Symposium
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ESA’s Living Planet Symposium is fast approaching. Taking place on 23–27 May in Bonn, Germany, the symposium gives you the opportunity to network with the most eminent scientists in the field of Earth science, learn more about Earth science and innovative concepts such as New Space and, if you’re lucky, rub elbows with a few ESA astronauts.
This is your last chance to register to one of the largest Earth observation conferences in the world!
MIRI’s sharper view hints at new possibilities for science
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Image:
Click here to download the images used in this gif.
The James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way provided a dense star field to test Webb’s performance.
Here, a close-up of the MIRI image is compared
How space is connecting cars
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Today’s connected cars are dynamic, updateable devices – and, because they can be updated, they are well equipped to become tomorrow’s cars. ESA is working with European carmakers to ensure that connected vehicles harness the full potential of space.
Experiments measure freezing point of extraterrestrial oceans to aid search for life
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Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley have conducted experiments that measured the physical limits for the existence of liquid water in icy extraterrestrial worlds. This blend of geoscience and engineering was done to aid in the search for extraterrestrial life and the upcoming robotic exploration of oceans on moons of other planets.
The r China prepares to launch Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft
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The combination of the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft and a Long March-7 Y5 carrier rocket has been transferred to the launching area of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Saturday.
The CMSA said the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft will be launched in the near future at an appropriate time.
The facilities and equipment at the launch site are in go AST SpaceMobile announces $75M committed equity facility
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AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network designed to be accessible directly by standard mobile phones, today announced it has entered into a common stock purchase agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital, LLC ("B. Riley").
The agreement governs a Committed Equity Facility that provides AST SpaceMobile with the rig Japanese radar constellation iQPS selects Virgin Orbit for 2023 launch
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Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB), a leading satellite launch provider, reports the signing of a launch services agreement with Japanese earth observation constellation operator Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. ("iQPS"). The satellite is expected to join Virgin Orbit's manifest for early 2023.
Selected for LauncherOne's proven ability to provide direct access to diverse orbits, Virgin 
