Webb telescope reached its destination at L2 yesterday

Submitted by mgobleu on January 25th, 2022 at 9:29 AM

NASA’s new toy completed the final burn for braking to enter its “home” orbit for the remainder of its mission yesterday, with remarkable efficiency. Given the necessary fuel to occasionally correct course and lodge it back in its orbit, this is a HUGE accomplishment:

The extra fuel will prolong the lifetime of the telescope by years, well beyond its official 10-year target. 
“We doubled the mission life. The budget was for 10 years. With this new estimate, we’re about 20-plus years,” Durning said.

Now the task will be focusing the panels, which is expected to take 3 months. If all continues as planned, the first images could be downloaded this summer. 
 

(I’m on my phone; sorry if the formatting sucks)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/01/24/webb-space-telescope-final-destination/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_news__alert-hse--alert-national&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNTk2ZDMyMzBhZGU0ZTI0MTE5ZGU0ZTliIiwidGFnIjoid3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vc2NpZW5jZS8yMDIyLzAxLzI0L3dlYmItc3BhY2UtdGVsZXNjb3BlLWZpbmFsLWRlc3RpbmF0aW9uLz91dG1fc291cmNlPWFsZXJ0JnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXdwX25ld3NfYWxlcnRfcmV2ZXJlJmxvY2F0aW9uPWFsZXJ0JndwbWs9MSZ3cGlzcmM9YWxfbmV3c19fYWxlcnQtaHNlLS1hbGVydC1uYXRpb25hbCJ9.hhKxOauWAP6zq0DvANIK5UZ70T-ToWsA7_BV8Sc1nwQ
 

 

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AlbanyBlue

January 25th, 2022 at 2:09 PM ^

This project is amazingly cool.

RE: Church versus Big Bang. I see it this way. Current scientific theory says that the Universe started as a hyper-massive, hyper-dense singularity, right? Something had to create that. In the absence of a better explanation, I think it was created by God.

Believing in God helps me sleep better at night. That said, organized religion is a big no for me.

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1VaBlue1

January 25th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^

I have grown more averse to organized religion as I get older.  And since my Mom died last January, I've grown more comfortable in disbelieving God, and trusting science more.  We have boatloads of evidence for science (astronomy, evolution, etc), and not one miniscule, teenytiny shred of evidence for God.  Nonetheless, religion teaches us many useful things - how to treat others, how to be good people, moral codes...  All of which can (and have) been radicalized and used out of context, but the people doing that aren't really religious.  They're just using religion as a crutch for fame, wealth, and power.

Religion can be a voice for good.  Unfortunately, more and more it's used as nothing more than a tool to manipulate others.

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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 25th, 2022 at 3:10 PM ^

There's quite a bit of evidence for God.  There are sincere testimonials from millions of people, for starters.  Witness statements are evidence in criminal trials, so they ought to be considered perfectly allowable as evidence here.  There are multitudes of thought experiments and philosophies that conclude favorably for the existence of God.  There are certainly aspects of the Bible (New Testament, in particular) that have been confirmed as historical fact, as far as it's possible to do.

There is no actual proof and never will be.  The question is whether the available evidence is compelling enough to take the remaining leap of faith.

Joined: 07/02/2008

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