The "clean room" where scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Center near Washington
Jonathan Gardner is a project scientist for the telescope. We asked him how the device can look back in time.
JONATHAN GARNER: “We can see back in time because light takes time to get from there to here. So, as we look further and further away, it takes longer and longer for the light to get from where it’s emitted to here and we can actually see backwards in time.
And if you look far enough, you start to approach the event scientists believe gave birth to everything.
JONATHAN GARNER: “We’re looking at the universe when it was much younger and we’re looking back most of the way to the Big Bang.”
The telescope has three highly sensitive infrared cameras. But perhaps its most interesting part is the six-point-five meter wide mirror. Made of light-weight beryllium, the mirror is covered in gold, and divided into eighteen linked parts.
This powerful scientific instrument will be available to scientists all over the world.
JONATHAN GARNER: “Any astronomer, at any university, in any country can write a proposal for what they want to do with the telescope.”
Jonathan Gardner says the Jim Webb Space Telescope will help scientists learn how the first galaxies formed and what they looked like. It may even show things scientists never predicted.
And that’s the VOA Special English Technology Report written by George Putic and Mario Ritter. Watch video about the James Webb Space Telescope at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25