The world’s first telescope, created in 1608 by Hans Rippersssy, a Dutch eyeglass maker, led to a stunning technology that would later revolutionize understanding of the universe. His telescope used a simple lens to enlarge the object to about three times its size, but later scientists built on this concept to peer into the depths of outer space.
However, some telescopes are more powerful than others, finding distant stars and galaxies, allowing researchers to study extreme phenomena such as black holes and Einstein rings. So, what is the most powerful telescope, and how far can it be seen in space?
The answer is no surprise to anyone familiar with today’s headlines. The most powerful telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which was currently launched in December 2021. Its predecessor and cousin, the Hubble Space Telescope, was primarily designed to detect visible spectral light and ultraviolet rays.
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In the universe, many objects do not produce or reflect visible spectral light sufficient to be seen with the naked eye. However, infrared rays are very long and easy to detect from a wide range. Longer wavelengths even have the advantage of stabbing clouds of dust, making them particularly convincing for astronomers hoping to peer into the deepest depths of the universe.
Even the powerful new Vera C. Rubin telescopes recently activated in Chile have to fight off abnormal blockages such as dust, which are not visible to space.
When the universe began, it was condensed into a hot mash of particles (protons, neutrons, electrons). As the universe expanded and cooled, the first stars and galaxies began to merge. The earliest of these we can see are around 13.7 billion years old, just over 100 million years since the Big Bang.
Related: How many galaxies are carrying the Milky Way in orbit?
“James Webb’s Space Telescope proves that you can see 98% on your way to the Big Bang,” Peter Jacobsen, an affiliate professor at Astrophysics at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, told Live Science in an email. “This exceeds most of us who are involved in James Webb’s early planning for space telescopes.”
What does JWST look like so far?
Much of the force behind JWST comes from the large mirrors of Carol Christian, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Space Telescope Science in Baltimore.
The JWST primary mirror is 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter and gives a total collection area of 270 square feet (25 square meters). In contrast, the Hubble main mirror has a diameter of 8 feet (2.4 m) and a collection area of 50 square feet (4.5 m). But both telescopes can be billions of light years away, as they are in space far beyond the ambiguous haze of Earth’s atmosphere.
However, the JWST is also equipped with an infrared detector located to absorb redirected light from a large mirror that helps Hubble identify remote light that is invisible.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere of the earth creates unique problems due to terrestrial stretching. These issues range from light pollution to “atmospheric turbulence.” This is a random movement of the atmosphere. Such factors can obscure and distort images, limiting the ability of telescopes to see deeper into the universe. On the other hand, the space is darker and there are none of these issues, so many of our strongest telescopes are located far beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
In James Webb’s case, the telescope sits about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth at the Lagrange point, or 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) at a point with the proper gravity balance to keep the satellites stable in orbit.
How far can you see James Webb’s Space Telescope?
Looking at the night sky essentially reflects time. The light travels 299,792,458 meters per second (186,282 miles per second). This means that the light that reaches us from objects far away in space is older than when it was emitted. It takes 43.2 minutes of light from the sun to reach Jupiter, but only 8 minutes to reach Earth. The distance to the outermost depth of the universe is very far, complicating calculations. Measuring how much telescopes can see in space is not an easy process, Jacobsen said.
The two hurdles astronomers need to explain regularly are the expansion of the universe and the finite speed of light, he said. Astronomers bypass these complications by measuring the redshift of distant objects.
The Red Shift is what we see as the objects are far from us. As the universe expands, light emitted from far-flung objects extends to a longer “red” wavelength. The longer the light moves, the greater its redshift.
One of the most remotely known redshift candidates at the moment is the Galaxy Jades-GS-Z14-0, Jacobsen said. That redshift puts it around 290 million years after the Big Bang.
Another candidate that has not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals is the Galaxy Mom-Z14, which is only 280 million years after the Big Bang. Its redshift is 14.44, which is greater than the redshift of the Jades-GS-Z14-0, at 14.18.
One study analyzed a particularly large and distant set of galaxies detected by JWST and found that they may be older than the current model of our universe.
JWST proves that you can peer deeper into the universe than Hubble.
JWST is a champion who is currently peering deep into our universe’s past, but its rivals are on the horizon. China is building a space telescope called the China Space Station Telescope. This allows more information to be withdrawn from the Cosmos using technology that can capture more optical frequencies than JWST.
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