James Webb Space Telescope Will Star Exploring The Solar System Soon, Says NASA

Though Webb can detect the faint light of the earliest galaxies, the team will use the telescope to unravel some of the mysteries that abound in our solar system.

New Delhi: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is moving through the final phases of commissioning its science instruments. As the space observatory moves through space, it will constantly find distant stars and galaxies and point at them with extreme precision to acquire images and spectra. JWST, also called Webb, will soon start exploring the solar system, according to NASA. 

The telescope will observe the planets and their satellites, asteroids, and comets in the solar system. 

In order to obtain images and spectra of cosmic objects, Webb must lock on to them and track them with sufficient precision. Recently, the Webb team completed the first test to track a moving object, verifying that the telescope could conduct moving target science. 

In a statement released by NASA, Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations, said she is really excited about the telescope's upcoming first year of science operations, and that she leads a team of equally excited astronomers eager to begin downloading data. Though Webb can detect the faint light of the earliest galaxies, the team will use the telescope to unravel some of the mysteries that abound in our solar system.

Why Do We Need A Powerful Telescope Like Webb To Study The Nearby Solar System?

Planetary scientists use telescopes to complement in-situ missions, which are the missions sent to fly by, orbit, or land on objects. Hammel said that one example of this is how Hubble was used to find the post-Pluto target for the New Horizons mission, Arrokoth. Even when in situ missions are not planned, astronomers use telescopes. For instance, for distant ice giants Uranus and Neptune, or to make measurements of large populations of objects, such as hundreds of asteroids or Kuiper Belt Objects, scientists use telescopes because one can only send missions to just a few of these, Hammel said.

She added that the Webb team has already used an asteroid within the solar system to run engineering tests of the 'moving target' (MT) capability. The engineering team tested this capability on a small asteroid in the Main Belt, Hammel said. The asteroid is 6481 Tenzing, named after Tenzing Norgay, the famous Tibetan mountain guide who was one of the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 

Hammel said her role with Webb as an 'Interdisciplinary Scientist' means that her program uses all of the capabilities of this forefront telescope. She added that all of them are needed to truly understand the solar system and the universe. 

The scientist said that the programs will observe objects across the solar system, including the giant planets and Saturn's rings; explore many Kuiper Belt Objects; analyse the atmosphere of Mars; and execute detailed studies, among others. In its first year, seven per cent of Webb's time will be focused on objects within the solar system, Hammel said.

One exciting and challenging program the Webb team plans to do is observe ocean worlds. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided evidence that Jupiter's moon Europa has sporadic plumes of water-rich material. The NASA team plans to take high-resolution imagery of Europa to study its surface and search for plume activity and active geologic processes. If the researchers locate a plume, they will use Webb's spectroscopy to analyse the plume's composition, Hammel said.

She added that she has a soft spot in her heart for Uranus and Neptune, and that it was the lack of a mission to these very distant worlds that got her involved in Webb so many decades ago. She also said that the Uranus team hopes to definitively link the chemistry and dynamics of the upper atmosphere to the deeper atmosphere that the researchers have been studying with other facilities over many decades. 

Hammel further said she has spent the past 30 years using the biggest and best telescopes humanity has ever built to study the ice giants, and they will now add Webb to that list.

The scientists have been planning for Webb observations for over 20 years, and that has gone into overdrive now that the telescope is launched, deployed, and focused, Hammel said. The team's solar system data will be freely available to the broad planetary science community immediately to enable more science discoveries with Webb in future proposals, she added.

Expressing her gratitude to the thousands of people associated with Webb, Hammel said, "Thank you; ad astra."

Webb, the most powerful and complex space observatory ever built, blasted off into space on Christmas last year, after decades of wait. 

The JWST is a large, space-based, infrared observatory, and a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Development of the $10 billion telescope began in 1996. The infrared telescope is the largest space observatory ever built, and the first of its kind. It was 100 times more powerful than Hubble, and was folded origami-style to fit in the rocket atop which it was launched. Webb is all set to unfold the universe, and will usher in a new era of astronomy.

The JWST is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency. The telescope will be a giant leap forward in our desire to understand the universe and its origins. It will examine every phase of cosmic history, from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets, and the evolution of our own solar system.