Neil
03-Jun-2013, 08:43 AM
This is aimed to be launched in 5yrs time... Should be interesting. Compared to Hubble - http://jwst.nasa.gov/comparison.html
http://jwst.nasa.gov/images2/hstcompare.jpghttp://jwst.nasa.gov/images2/webbcompare.jpg
Webb will have a 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror, which would give it a significant larger collecting area than the mirrors available on the current generation of space telescopes. Hubble's mirror is a much smaller 2.4 meters in diameter and its corresponding collecting area is 4.5 m2, giving Webb around 7 times more collecting area! Webb will have significantly larger field of view than the NICMOS camera on Hubble (covering more than ~15 times the area) and significantly better spatial resolution than is available with the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.
http://jwst.nasa.gov/images2/hstcompare.jpghttp://jwst.nasa.gov/images2/webbcompare.jpg
Webb will have a 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror, which would give it a significant larger collecting area than the mirrors available on the current generation of space telescopes. Hubble's mirror is a much smaller 2.4 meters in diameter and its corresponding collecting area is 4.5 m2, giving Webb around 7 times more collecting area! Webb will have significantly larger field of view than the NICMOS camera on Hubble (covering more than ~15 times the area) and significantly better spatial resolution than is available with the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope.