Neptune pictures james webb12/10/2023 ![]() ![]() That “beef stew” is material left over from the formation of the Solar System, Lunine said. “We want to sort the crumbs on the table from the original ingredients so we can understand where all of this came from and the original distribution of these molecules.” “If you make this wonderful beef stew of some kind and mix all the ingredients together it obscures what you started with,” Lunine said. This way, scientists hope to see materials that they could have never detected using Earth-based telescopes. “JWST covers a broad wavelength range, so we will see where these various molecules that might be on the surface have their primary vibrations,” said Lunine. JWST’s cameras will be able to use sunlight reflected by objects in the Kuiper belt to study the absorption and emission lines that show which atoms, molecules, ices, and minerals are giving off light that vibrate in its atmosphere.Īway from Earth’s atmosphere, which blocks infrared light, the JWST Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) integral field unit will reveal these objects’ light from the near-infrared to the beginning of the far infrared. “Its raw infrared sensitivity will allow us to get good signals because these are obviously very cold, very distant, and relatively small bodies,” said Lunine.įor planetary scientists, JWST’s greatest strength is its incredible spatial resolution combined with its ability to capture images using infrared spectroscopy. As JWST continues its mission of exploring the Universe with greater depth and sensitivity than any telescope, it will be able to see Kuiper belt objects in an entirely new light. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |