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JWST Just Passed Line 100K Miles From L2
NASA ^ | 15 January 2022 | Steely Tom

Posted on 01/15/2022 7:42:56 PM PST by Steely Tom

JWST is now less than 100K miles from it's L2 destination.

Its current speed is 0.1731 miles per second, or about 623 mph. This speed is slowly decreasing as it approaches its equilibrium distance from Earth. It will take another eight days to close the remaining distance to its destination; the first 798,000 miles has been traveled in 21 days, 15 hours.

JWST cold side is at -200°C, only 73° above absolute zero.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: jwst
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To: Steely Tom
[,,,] bearing on your theory.

Oh, please! Not even "back-of-the-envelope" calculations! Just "spit-balling" here! For "ordinary" solid objects located in a uniform environment having a different temperature, Newton's Temperature Law would apply - meaning: logarithmic cooling. My talking about the temperature halving with every doubling of age was just a ballpark estimate.

I'm not sure that a distant object just a few degrees above the 105°K temperature limit would stand out from the background enough for the JWST sensors to get much of a read on it.

Again: No "degree" sign for Kelvin. The unit is "Kelvin," not "degrees Kelvin."

I suppose if they integrate light for many weeks or months (like they did for the Hubble Deep Field pictures) they could get enough signal-to-noise ratio to resolve such an object.

Again: Just "spit-balling" here, but I would think that a more than 100 Kelvin difference would be more than sufficient.

Regards,

41 posted on 01/16/2022 12:09:49 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: Clutch Martin

I’ve actually heard Millennial Snowflakes say there was no way we could have gone to the moon because we didn’t “have any computers.” For the smartest Americans to ever have lived, they sure are a bunch of boneheads.


42 posted on 01/16/2022 12:26:57 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (You can vote your way into socialism but you have to shoot your way out of it.)
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To: Larry Lucido

At -200 degrees that is some “cool running”.

Had to look it up - James Webb Space Telescope. Regarding the “L2” position I found the following:

“Webb has been in space for 18 days now and is more than 82% of the way to its final destination. The observatory will orbit a point called the Earth-sun Lagrange point 2, or L2, which is located nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth on the side opposite the sun.”


43 posted on 01/16/2022 12:46:05 AM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: Bobalu

For some reason, that image of Newton reminds me of Robert Plant.


44 posted on 01/16/2022 2:23:54 AM PST by AFreeBird
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To: Larry Lucido

dontcha mean Bobsled team mon!??


45 posted on 01/16/2022 2:29:59 AM PST by sit-rep ( )
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To: Steely Tom

Some say our universe is a certain age because that is what we can ‘see.’ Who is to say what is beyond what we can ‘see’ today?

Tomorrow, or in 200 years, we may see further, more, etc.

The Earth may be about 4, 5 billion years old. The universe we ‘know’, we can ‘see’ may be 13-15 billion years old. Some of the stuff we know and see is backed up by rock-solid, real science. Some is conjecture and extrapolation from things we know. Then, we have speculation, maybe, perhaps, etc. Some of the maybe items might someday be more provable; others not. God gave us these amazing minds and brains, to use, to help others, and to explore this magnificent universe.


46 posted on 01/16/2022 2:37:44 AM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try. )
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To: Steely Tom

I started clicking on all the links at the Where Is Webb page and found some helpful answers.

The orbit around L2 will be approximately the same distance as the orbit of the Moon around the Earth.

However, one complete orbit around L2 will take about six months, compared to about 4 weeks for the Moon.

Relative to Earth, the L2 orbit is a polar orbit, not an equatorial orbit.

Also relative to Earth, the L2 polar orbit would never be on the dark side of the Earth.

Instead, the L2 orbit resembles an Earth polar orbit that is always facing the sun.

I made some quick calculations, and it looks like the Webb orbital speed will be around 325 mph.

The Moon orbits around 2,300 mph.


47 posted on 01/16/2022 2:44:01 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: Vermont Lt

Or any other decade to come


48 posted on 01/16/2022 2:47:00 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Steely Tom

Oh we did a lot of testing. Hope we got it right


49 posted on 01/16/2022 2:48:27 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Steely Tom

LOL.... or maybe Chinese bases!!!


50 posted on 01/16/2022 9:46:00 AM PST by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: markman46

Shhhh..... !


51 posted on 01/16/2022 10:35:19 AM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: zeestephen

Thanks, those are figures I was wondering about but couldn’t find.

What do you mean by “would never be on the dark side of the Earth” ? If it takes six months to make one orbit of Earth, it will see the entire Earth around 180 times, won’t it?

Or are you saying the L2 point orbits Earth in a polar plane? That doesn’t seem right, and is certainly a surprise (to me) if true.


52 posted on 01/16/2022 10:47:18 AM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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