Can James Webb space telescope helps researchers in search of alien life?

In olden days, we used to look into the space using small ground based telescopes. But Earth's atmosphere blocks and absorbs most of the light of some wavelengths, so they can't reach the ground. That is why we are sending the telescopes into the space for finding out the alien life and to learn more about the cosmos. Every telescope is unique and has varying capabilities of recording different frequencies in electromagnetic spectrum, so that we can study the universe in different wavelengths of light observed. NASA, in conjunction with other countries and space agencies, started a space observatory program called as 'The Great Observatories'.

Some of the great observatories include Hubble space telescope, Compton gamma ray observatory, Chandra X-Ray observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. One of the important telescope in the above mentioned list is Spitzer space telescope which has the capability of observing infrared light at high temperature and due to this reason the Spitzer space telescope was sent into deep space to compensate the cooling required for the system for its efficient working. It was launched in the year 2003 and explored the universe in infrared region for almost 16 years. On January, 2020 the Spitzer space telescope retired, the mission engineers kept it in safe mode and ceased all of its operations.

Now, the NASA is set to launch with a new telescope which not only replaces Spitzer space telescope but also way more efficient than it called as 'James Webb space telescope' simply called JWST. Because of its capability, which is 100 times clearer than Hubble space telescope, it became very popular before its launching itself. By this telescope, NASA is expecting to create history in space exploration and is also expecting to find alien life with the technology that was especially designed and integrated in this telescope.

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Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

What is infrared light?

In 1800's, the astronomer Sir William Herschel, used a prism to refract Sun's light and he recorded temperature of each visible spectrum of light. Then he noticed that temperature is increasing form blue to red. This wasn’t so surprising until he observed that the temperature beyond red is still increasing which gave him the thought that there might exist some invisible light beyond red and named them as 'calorific rays', later termed as 'infrared rays'. Infrared light is the part of EM spectrum which lies between 700 nm to 1mm (longer waves than visible light).

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CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2521356

From James Webb telescope we can see infrared light (near infrared and mid infrared) as similar to Spitzer space telescope but with more accuracy because of its improved sensitivity and the new technology introduced in this telescope. From this we can observe the light inside the gas clouds, galaxies, nebulae and more in infrared vision. As said by NASA, It is the most powerful space science observatory ever built.

How can we find alien life?

Well, that’s simple, it’s by observing light from a planet we can find life on that planet.

Explanation: When a planet is orbiting its home star, it transits between the observer and the star, which decreases the apparent brightness of incoming light from the star. By this astronomers and cosmologists can trace new planets called 'exoplanets'.

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Image credit: NASA Ames

Similar process is used to find the alien life. When we observe light from a planet some of the light is absorbed by the planet. For example, if trees are present on that planet they absorb some of the light of wavelength (430nm and 662nm) to prepare their food by photosynthesis process. If light observed by the telescopes doesn't have that wavelength of light then we can say that life on that planet may exist. Spitzer space telescope uses this technology but it can't measure very accurately due to its limitations. Same technology is employed in JWST but with improved accuracy and capability to watch into the deep space, inside the galaxies and observe infrared light produced in big bang.

In Hubble space telescope, the primary mirror used is of 2.4 meters but in JWST 6.5 meters primary mirror is adapted, so that it can observe more light. But the challenge is observing infrared light causes telescope to heat up so much. Therefore, NASA is introducing a specially designed cooling system in it to attend its needs. Like that of Hubble space telescope (about 547 kms above earth) the JWST doesn't orbit around the earth but it orbit around the Sun at 1.5 million kms beyond earth's orbit, due to this much of distance repair or upgrade of hardware seems impossible.

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Image credit: NASA

NASA is continuously delaying the launch date of JWST due to the technical challenges and high budget (more than 1000 crores USD). It is using ultra modern technology to attend the challenges of JWST. Due to this reason the budget is increasing exponentially and taking more time to build. NASA expected to launch the JWST in 2015 but got delayed. Recently NASA announced launch date of JWST as 30 march, 2021.

For the first time in the history of mankind, JWST provides us a opportunity to observe the birth of universe, secrets and alien life. This telescope will work for 5 years continuously but NASA set an target to work it for 10 years. If possible we can find alien life with this telescope and will become 1st generation to see them. All astronomers and cosmologists are eagerly waiting for launch of JWST and NASA was trying to make this telescope with their high efforts. Let's wait until the launch of JWST.

Even i'm also eagerly waiting for that moment, you too?

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