James Webb Space Telescope will observe a hundred objects at once; Read to know how

While the James Webb Space Telescope is still in the alignment phase, scientists already have high hopes for its unmatched capabilities of observing the universe. Speaking with Space.com, an astrophysicist from Oxford University Andy Bunker discussed the extent scientists are willing to push Webb to obtain the desired results. "One of the rules for building spacecraft is to have as few moving parts as possible. And that's why we have built something that has a quarter-million shutters", Bunker told Space.com. 

That 'something' is Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), which is one of the telescope's four instruments. Recently aligned with Webb's primary mirror, the NIRSpec is said to boost the telescope's capabilities as it is a hundred times more powerful than a similar instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Interestingly, this instrument is so powerful that it can observe a hundred objects at once. 

Observing the universe through spectroscopy

A contribution of the European Space Agency (ESA), the NIRSpec will detail the universe through spectroscopy. It is pertinent to mention here that since the NIRSpec is a spectrograph, it would not deliver pictures of the cosmos and this job has been assigned to the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). NIRSpec's job would be to split the incoming light into individual components of the light spectrum, according to scientists. 

The process of spectroscopy is crucial as different components of the spectrum reflect light-absorbing properties and the chemical composition of the imaged objects such as planets, stars and galaxies. Interestingly, scientists can even determine the temperature, and mass of an object by analysing the spectrum of an object. "Scientifically, spectra are enormously valuable," Bunker told Space.com. "There's a lot of information encoded in them. We can chart how chemical elements build up in galaxies, but also determine the distance and properties of galaxies, such as the rate at which they turn their gas into stars."

ESA says that since the NIRSpec has to examine thousands of galaxies in its short operational period of just five years, its capability to observe hundreds of objects simultaneously would be of great help. Launched on December 25, Webb is currently stationed at the second Lagrange point, about 15 lakh kilometres from Earth and will be fully operational in the next few months. 

Image: Twitter/@ESA