NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to unravel distant signs of life right after launch?

The day when NASA will deploy its state-of-the-art James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is nearing and the hype is more real than ever. The telescope has been assigned with the task of searching for evidence of life in the farthest reaches of space, an endeavour that has borne significant fruit in recent years with the addition of a range of ground-based and orbital telescopes that scan the heavens along with different spectra of electromagnetic radiation, giving astronomers numerous tools to scan the cosmos. However, the James Webb Space Telescope will vastly boost this arsenal and is set to be a formal replacement for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Some experts believe that JWST has the capability of detecting signs of life in exoplanets in just three days, that's the level of expectation attached to the telescope. 

The experts believe so after conducting a study that was reported at the American Physical Society April meeting this year, as per The Science Times.

"Webb will also observe exoplanets located in their stars’ habitable zones, the regions where a planet could harbour liquid water on its surface and can determine if and where signatures of habitability may be present. Using a technique called transmission spectroscopy, the observatory will examine starlight filtering through planetary atmospheres to learn about their chemical compositions," explained Webb Fact Sheet by NASA.

Experts put their faith in James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST, unlike the Hubble telescope, won't be orbiting the Earth but instead, it will circle the Sun at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from our planet at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. American Physical Society April's study author, Caprice Phillips' research says that while orbiting the sun, the telescope will investigate the atmosphere of seven potentially habitable gas dwarf exoplanets using its instruments to find ammonia and other potential signs of life and might be able to produce results in just three days.

Putting their faith in the JWST, experts believe that the brand new observatory will offer additional insights into the little-known atmosphere of the potentially habitable gas dwarf planets that have till now remained shrouded in mysteries. According to NASA, the Webb telescope is being sent so far is because it will be observing very faint infrared signals of very distant objects, and it needs to be shielded from any bright, hot sources, like the sun for instance. 

James Webb nearing launch

The telescope is currently undergoing the final stages of testing before it gets launched on December 18 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. However, the scientists are now faced with the challenge of safely stacking the delicate object into an Ariane rocket which has a diameter measuring only 5.4 metres. Besides, it will be fairly challenging for the experts to escort the rocket out of Earth’s atmosphere as the telescope under the rocket will have to endure rigorous vibrations and shaking for eight minutes after the rocket takes off. Notably, NASA has chosen Arianespace for launch service as it is one of the world’s most powerful rockets. 

(Image: James Webb Space Telescope)