Hubble versus Webb
By PHIL PLAIT - BAD ASTRONOMY BLOG
Updated: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:12:27 UTC
Hubble is an awesome ’scope, but its life is limited. Heavy and huge, there’s no way to bring it back, and with the Shuttle retiring there’s no easy way to get to it. Eventually its gyros will fail, it won’t be able to be pointed, and then that’s that.
For the past few years, NASA has been working on the James Webb Space Telescope, what some people call Hubble’s "replacement", which is a misnomer: it’s actually Hubble’s successor. It will do amazing astronomy too, but it has different capabilities than its predecessor.
How different, you ask? I’m glad you did, and so is NASA: they’ve put together a side-by-side comparison of the two observatories (warning huge Flash animation stuff).
Just how different are they? Check out the comparison of their mirrors:
... Continue reading and links
Tweet
RELATED CONTENT
Pew pew pew pewSun Is Roundest Natural Object Known
Dave Mosher - National Geographic Comments
The sun is the roundest natural object ever precisely measured, astronomers say.
Astrophysicists simulate 14 billion...
Liat Clark - Wired.co.uk Comments
Astrophysicists simulate 14 billion years of cosmic evolution in high resolution
Mars rover searching for signs of life
Lawrence Krauss - CNN Comments
Author and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, discusses what it would be like if we found life on another planet.
Mars Science Laboratory Touches Down...
Sean Carroll - Cosmic Variance -... Comments
Launched on November 26, 2011, the mission is scheduled to land on Mars’s Gale Crater tonight/tomorrow morning: 5:31 UTC, which translates to 1:30 a.m. Eastern time or 10:20 p.m. Pacific.
MORE BY PHIL PLAIT
Washington pertussis outbreak is very,...
Phil Plait - Bad Astronomy Comments
There are 13 times as many people – more than 2500 in total so far – getting pertussis right now as there were last year at this time in Washington.
Phil Plait - Slate 18 Comments
I became an astronomer because I looked through a telescope at age 5. More kids need to experience that joy.
While temperatures rise, denialists...
Phil Plait - Bad Astronomy 83 Comments
While temperatures rise, denialists reach lower
Stunning view of a bloom from space
Phil Plait - Bad Astronomy 6 Comments
Stunning view of a bloom from space
SPEECH Act now a law: big win for libel...
Phil Plait - Bad Astronomy 35 Comments
RSS Feeds
Comments
Comment RSS Feed
Please sign in or register to comment
View Comments Page