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Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Park
(North York Astronomical Association)
Explanation:
This timelapse gif tracks the
James Webb Space Telescope as
it streaks across the stars of Orion on its journey to a destination
beyond the Moon.
Recorded on December 28, 12 consecutive exposures each 10 minutes long
were aligned and combined with a subsequent color image of the background stars
to create the animation.
About 2.5 days after its December 25 launch, JWST cruised past
the altitude
of the Moon's orbit as it climbed up the gravity ridge
from Earth to reach a halo orbit around L2, an
Earth-Sun
Lagrange point.
Lagrange points are convenient locations in space where
the combined gravitational attraction of one massive body (Earth)
orbiting another massive body (Sun)
is in balance with the centripetal force needed to
move
along with them.
So much smaller masses, like spacecraft, will tend to stay
there.
One of 5 Lagrange points, L2 is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth
directly along the Earth-Sun line.
JWST will arrive at L2 on January 23, 29 days after launch.
While relaxing in Earth's surface gravity you can follow the James Webb
Space Telescope's
progress
and complicated deployment online.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day