NASA To Launch Telescope Stronger Than Hubble That Can See Back In Time

https://thefederalist.com ^ | DECEMBER 22, 2021 | BY: STEPHEN C. MEYER

[Red Badger]

During the winter holidays, Jews celebrate a miraculous, unquenchable light and Christians celebrate the incarnation of God revealed by the light of a star. It’s fitting, therefore, that on December 22 NASA will launch a new satellite capable of seeing the first starlight from just after the Big Bang—a light, and an event, that tell us about the creation of the universe and, in their own ways, reveal God to the world.

NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope will be carried into space this week from French Guiana on the back of an Ariane 5 rocket. The $10 billion, 21-foot telescope features a massive umbrella-like sun shield. It also boasts 15 times the range of motion and six times the light-gathering capability of the Hubble Space Telescope—NASA’s next best instrument for peering deep into space and far back in time.

From the first astronomical investigations about the early history of the universe, light, and other forms of radiant energy, have yielded the most important clues about cosmic origins. During the 1920s, astronomers discovered that the wavelengths of light coming from distant galaxies were stretched out, or “red-shifted,” as if the galaxies were moving away from us. Just as sound coming from a train whistle drops in pitch as the result of the sound waves being stretched out as the train recedes, light coming from a distant galaxy changes color (becomes more red) as light waves are elongated as galaxies move away from Earth.

Soon after the discovery of the red shift, Belgian priest-physicist Georges Lemaître and Caltech astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that galaxies farther away from Earth were receding faster than those close at hand. That suggested a spherical expansion of the universe in all directions of space like a balloon inflating from a singular explosive beginning—from a “Big Bang.”

Then in 1965, physicists discovered a different kind of light they thought provided further evidence of the Big Bang. While working at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson inadvertently discovered an extremely low-energy radiation on their highly sensitive, large antennas. This radiant energy, now known as the Cosmic Background Radiation, is postulated to be a remnant of the earliest moments after the Big Bang when the universe was immensely hot and densely compacted.

The light that NASA’s new telescope seeks to detect comes, not from those very earliest moments after the beginning, but from the first stars and galaxies that formed an estimated several hundred thousand years later. Detecting that light will nevertheless provide further confirmation of an expanding universe.

Since the new telescope can detect infrared light—invisible light with extremely long wave-lengths—it can establish whether the most distant galaxies exhibit the amount of red shift that astronomers expect given the Big Bang. As space plasma physicist and long-time NASA contractor Rob Sheldon has explained, “The light coming from these ancient, extremely distant galaxies, should be ‘ultra red-shifted’ into the infra-red range that the Webb telescope is designed to detect.”

This additional evidence of an expanding universe would further deepen the mystery associated with the Big Bang and add weight to a growing science-based “God hypothesis.” If the physical universe of matter, energy, space, and time had a beginning—as observational astronomy and theoretical physics increasingly suggest—it becomes extremely difficult to conceive of any physical or materialistic cause for the origin of the universe. After all, it was matter and energy that first came into existence at the Big Bang. Before that, no matter or energy—no physics—would have yet existed that could have caused the universe to begin.

Instead, whatever caused the universe to originate must not have been material and must exist beyond space and time. It must further have been capable of initiating a great change of state, from nothing to everything that exists. Such considerations have led other scientists—former Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Gerald Schroeder and the late Caltech astrophysicist Allan Sandage, for example—to posit an external creator as the best explanation for the origin of the universe as revealed by modern cosmology.

Oddly, the detection of light from extremely old and distant galaxies could also further corroborate the specifically biblical account of the origin of the universe. After all, the first words of the Bible not only affirm a “beginning,” but also that the first light came soon thereafter.

As Tulane University cosmologist Frank Tipler has noted, “Genesis tells us that there was a beginning and that after the beginning, light was the first created thing—exactly what modern astrophysics confirms.” Arno Penzias has similarly noted, “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the first five books of Moses. . . .and the Bible as a whole.”

In our secular age, skeptics find the miracles of the Hannukah and Christmas stories hard to believe. But mounting scientific evidence for the first miracle—the creation of the universe itself—might now render these familiar stories a bit more credible. At least, it would for those with eyes to see the light.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

Everything we see is back in time.

[cp124]

Devs on Hulu.

[John Milner]

Have it see if it can tell where I left my cell phone yesterday.

[Seruzawa]

The European Space Agency is launching this.

So much for our worthless NASA.

[GingisK]

Maybe they can identify those responsible for the JFK assassination.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

The higher resolution would allow us to observe additional objects and events not just further back in time but even very recent smaller objects or events that were previously undetectable.

Interesting the science of putting a distance on objects and events.

Can’t wait for the pics.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

Did you have the bartender put in on a charger for you and forget it when you left?

If not, check the couch.

Call it from the house and listen for it the house and/or the car.

[Berosus]

They’re probably launching this rocket from French Guiana because the launch pad is close to the equator. Maybe the telescope is going to a geosynchronous orbit.

[Berosus]

Last night I read an article about some folks who were all upset about the telescope, because the NASA director it is named after was allegedly a homophobe. Myself, I’m just glad it isn’t named after the other James Webb, the former Virginia senator who wrote pornography on the side.

[llevrok]

I wonder if it can clearly see Uranus?

[epluribus_2]

The light we see from Sun is about 8 1/2 minutes back into the past.

Wow man. The solar system could have been destroyed already and we haven’t seen it yet. Far out. Isn’t marijuana legalization combined with public education so entertaining.

[epluribus_2]

186,000 miles per second.

It’s not just a good idea - it’s THE LAW.

[PfromHoGro]

No, it will be stationed very far away. I don’t think it’s a Legrange(?) point, but there will be no servicing opportunities. It has to work out of the box. Now its launch window starts at 7:20am Eastern Christmas morning, last I heard.

[Manly Warrior]

Actually, the speed of light is decided upon by international convention, not actual experimental proof.

Seems it varies dependent on how fast a clock one has....

Interesting read if one cares to “ science” it.

Generally, the SOL is figured by a clock and two mirrors, and the “time” lapse between images is averaged....but we all know that makes some unproven assumptions. Anyways, “seeing “ into deep space is not exactly the same as seeing “ back in time”. After all, the light producing the deep space image is making an image “ now” regardless of “when” that light was radiated.

[Blennos]

Everything we see is back in time.

Right. Light waves take some time to travel from their source to our eyes. Even if an event occurs a few feet away, we are seeing the past.

[freefdny]

Close to L2
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/4201-Image

[Lazamataz]

Right. Light waves take some time to travel from their source to our eyes. Even if an event occurs a few feet away, we are seeing the past.

I like when people show me a picture of themselves, and remark, "This was taken when I was younger."

I'm like, "DUH!"

[House Atreides]

The launch is currently scheduled for December 25th, 7:20am EST.

https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/launch.html

[Delta 21]

From https://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/webb-l2.html

The Webb won't be orbiting the Earth –instead we will send it almost a million miles out into space to a place called "L2."

L2 is short-hand for the second Lagrange Point, a wonderful accident of gravity and orbital mechanics, and the perfect place to park the Webb telescope in space. There are five so-called "Lagrange Points" - areas where gravity from the sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of a satellite. Putting a spacecraft at any of these points allows it to stay in a fixed position relative to the Earth and sun with a minimal amount of energy needed for course correction.