The James Webb Space Telescope represents an unprecedented step forward in space exploration. Not only to take beautiful photographs of distant galaxies or capture incredible nebulae in all their detail. This device has a much more important task – to allow scientists to “travel in time” in search of the origin of our universe. For this, Magazine The science decided to call it the most important scientific achievement of this year..
To the surprise of a few, James Webb received the award. A very high achievement among a very significant list of discoveries and advances that have occurred within the last 365 days. Despite all the delays that the launch of the space telescope has experienced, on January 24 this year, scientists from NASA, ESA and CSA managed to position it at the L2 Lagrange point. Since then, “James Webb” has put on all sorts of shows from the darkness of its orbit, leaving the world silent.
If you need context for other honorees in previous years, we have Alphafold as the winner of 2021. This algorithm made it possible to determine the structure of proteins by amino acids. The 2020 winner, for its part, was the messenger RNA technology used for COVID-19 vaccines.
James Webb: $10 billion toy that helps us understand the universe we live in
After almost a year of his rise, James Webb has managed to become the scientific breakthrough for the journal in 2022. The science. During all this time the telescope surprised us with the beauty of its images, but also with their own details and everything they have to offer the scientific community. Where many see beautiful wallpapers, researchers and scientists see a greater understanding of the universe we live in.
The first portraits of James Webb were not very impressive. However, he will arrive soon after to completely silence us with his deep sky images, iconic photographs of the Carina Nebula and the South Rim Nebula. All these space telescope pictures They revealed much more information that Hubble – James Webb’s predecessor – could not see in his 30 years of service..
Chief Editor The science, Herbert Holden Thorpe, had a few words in an editorial published in honor of the telescope. Comment that “James Webb promises great scientific prospects. Its huge mirror will allow us to observe events and objects at distances sufficient to detect the universe when it was less than a billion years old.
It also explores the atmosphere and climate of exoplanets, which will provide insight into the potential for life on other planets; It’s hard to imagine a more breathtaking glimpse into the beauty of nature than understanding how the universe came into being and whether life exists anywhere else.
The science
Among the other finalists in the Breakthrough of the Year category, we have the discovery of a huge bacterium. The publication describes that it is 5,000 times larger than other bacterial cells. Also progress in the development of a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus or the success of the NASA DART mission, with which they managed to deflect an asteroid from its orbit. Undoubtedly It’s been a great year for the US space agency..
Source: Hiper Textual
