Inside the James Webb Space Telescope’s Orbit Around the Sun

NASA spent billions on the James Webb Space Telescope and now we’re going to launch it really far away. But why do we need to send it so far? And what technologies are on board to support its success?
» Recap on the James Webb Space Telescope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO-D0bXcO6g&list=PL6uC-XGZC7X7ACJpjTf83BXAhxCHUkkDh
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Mostly known as the successor of the incredibly popular Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will observe the universe with detectors that target near and mid infrared wavelengths. This means that the instruments on board Webb are specially designed to combat some of the historic challenges astronomers have faced when trying to observe the early universe, like huge dust clouds that block the view of celestial objects, cosmological redshifting, and even interference from other bodies.

In fact, there are three things necessary to create the perfect environment for an infrared telescope; a large mirror to collect as much light as possible, extremely cold temperatures, and a clear line of sight to your target. Each detail has been thought out meticulously over the past two decades leading to this point, like orbital selection. 1.5 million kilometers is a bit of a trip to say the least.

So why are we putting Webb in such a distant orbit? Well, it’s heading to L2, the second Lagrange point around the Sun and Earth. These five points are stable configurations that allow bodies to orbit each other, but still remain in the same position relative to one another. The key to L2 is centripetal force, which you can imagine as the tension in a rope on a tether ball that keeps it connected to the pole. At L2, the centripetal force required for a small satellite-sized object to move with respect to the Earth is equal to the gravitational pull of the two larger masses. Meaning that this particularly cozy orbit has several benefits to support Webb’s mission.

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https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22664709/james-webb-space-telescope-launch-date-december-science-hubble
"'The Webb represents the culmination of decades, if not centuries, of astronomy,' says Sara Seager, a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at MIT. 'We’ve been waiting for this a very long time.'"

NASA's new telescope will show us the infancy of the universe
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/nasas-new-telescope-will-show-us-the-infancy-of-the-universe
"The J.W.S.T. will then continue on its own, for twenty-nine days, toward a lonely, lovely orbit in space, about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, where we will never visit it, though it will stay in constant communication with us. From Earth, it will appear ten thousand times fainter than the faintest star."

The Five Big Ways the James Webb Telescope Will Help Astronomers Understand the Universe
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-big-ways-james-webb-telescope-will-help-astronomers-understand-universe-180978303/
"Webb’s conception is inspired by the Hubble Space Telescope—the 31-year-old observatory famous for capturing stunning photos of our universe's galaxies. But Webb picks up where its predecessor falls short, says Eric Smith, Webb’s program scientist and chief scientist of NASA’s Astrophysics Division. There’s really no telescope like Webb so far, he says."

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