Russia (bbabo.net), - The most important operation has begun at the world's largest space observatory - the deployment of the main mirror.

This "eye" of the telescope, covered with a thin layer of gold, has a diameter of 6.5 meters. It is impossible to send such a gigantic structure into orbit - it will not fit into any of the modern rockets. Therefore, NASA engineers came up with the idea of ​​dividing the mirror into 18 petals and folding them into a rocket like origami. And these petals should bloom in space, at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth.

The operation is, of course, unique. After all, the eighteen mirror segments must be precisely aligned so that they act as a single light-collecting surface. For such an assembly, a whole set of instruments is used, which must detect any inaccuracy and instruct the 126 actuators to correct it - precisely position, bend or unbend each segment. Deploying the mirror is expected to take about ten days.

Previously, NASA dispatchers successfully completed the installation of a tennis court-sized sunscreen. It is made up of five layers, each as thick as a human hair and coated with reflective metal to reduce the effects of heat from the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

Great hopes of scientists are pinned on the James Webb telescope. After all, it can study the Universe much deeper and more thoroughly in comparison with the famous Hubble telescope, which has been in orbit for more than 30 years. The fact is that they look into space differently. Hubble is basically an optical instrument, it works in the visible spectrum. This greatly limits its capabilities, preventing it from studying black holes, discovering exoplanets where life can be, getting close to the Big Bang - the main mystery of science.

Webb has this ability because it looks into the world through infrared radiation. And this is a completely different tool. As scientists say, it can be used as a kind of time machine. In astronomy, the farther from the Earth objects, the older they are. After all, light takes a very long time to get to the Earth. And if "Hubble" looked back 13.5 billion years, then "Webb" will "dig" into the history of the Universe much deeper. To what extent, now it is even difficult to say. In any case, the results will be the most revolutionary. Figuratively speaking, the Big Bang can be one hand away.

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