ASTRONOMY, THE REVOLUTIONARY JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE UNIVERSE

Fernando Alcoforado*

This article aims to present the contribution of astronomy and, in particular, the James Webb telescope to the advancement of knowledge about the Universe. Astronomy is the study of the Universe that exists beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This includes objects that can be seen with the naked eye, such as the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It also includes celestial bodies that can only be observed with telescopes or other instruments, such as distant galaxies and small particles, and things we cannot see, such as dark matter and dark energy. Modern science, that is, the science that managed to articulate the method of observation and experimentation with the use of technical instruments (especially the telescope and the microscope), began to develop, properly, in Europe in the 16th century. The modern scientific method has well-defined steps, like a kind of investigation theory. Every observation is tested by hypotheses, which will guide experiments to produce results.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences in history. Early cultures, such as the Babylonians, carried out methodical observations of the night sky. Astronomical artifacts, such as Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, have existed since ancient times. However, the invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei was necessary for astronomy to become a modern science. Historically, astronomy included such diverse disciplines as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, calendar making, and even astrology, but professional astronomy today is considered a synonym for astrophysics. During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy divided into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy focuses on acquiring data from observations of celestial objects, which are then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward developing computational or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena.

The observational and theoretical branches of astronomy complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain observational results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. There are eight fields of astronomy:

1) Astrometry involves precise calculations of the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. It also includes predictions of solar and lunar eclipses and meteor showers. There is also geoplanetology, a relatively new field that focuses on the discovery and characterization of planets outside the solar system;

2) Planetary astronomy seeks to identify how the solar system emerged and focuses on the formation, evolution and death of planets, moons and other objects in the solar system, also including planetary geology;

3) Astrophysics applies the laws and theories of physics to astronomical observations as an attempt to understand the mechanism behind how the Universe was created and how it has evolved and will evolve;

4) Astrochemistry studies the composition and reactions of atoms, molecules and ions in space;

5) Astrobiology studies life outside Earth;

6) Stellar astronomy concerns the classification of stars and star populations and studies the life cycle and structure of the Sun and stars;

7) Galactic astronomy studies our galaxy — the Milky Way while observing outside it to determine how these groups of stars form, change and die; and,

8) Cosmology studies the origin and nature of the Universe whose key concept is the Big Bang Theory, the most widely accepted explanation of how the universe began. Cosmology also includes purely theoretical subjects, including string theory, dark matter and dark energy, and the notion of multiple or parallel universes.

The study of space has evolved a lot over the years. In ancient times, astronomy could be defined as the activity of simply observing the stars to classify constellations with the naked eye. Nowadays, however, with the advancement of technology, humanity is able to discover and study celestial bodies both in the solar system and in very distant galaxies. Despite the evolution of astronomy, scientists still have difficulty understanding the universe and humanity’s role in it. The more mysteries are discovered, the more complex analyzes of life beyond Earth become. This is the case with the advances in knowledge about the Universe provided by the revolutionary James Webb telescope. The astronomical telescope was an invention of Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science, who perfected the model of telescope created in 1608 by Hans Lippershey from the lenses of the first glasses, until then considered common household items [1].

With his telescope, Galileo made the first observations of the relief of the Moon, the stars of the Milky Way and the satellites of Jupiter. By pointing his telescope at the Moon in November 1609, Galileo showed that the Moon’s surface was not “polished, regular and of perfect sphericity”, but rather “rough and irregular, full of vast prominences and deep cavities”, similarity of the surface of the Earth itself. Galileo was then finishing his observations of the Moon and turned his attention to Jupiter. After a few weeks of observations he concluded that bodies that described smaller circles around Jupiter moved faster than those that did larger circles such as Mercury and Venus around the Sun. Jupiter’s satellites proved the existence of celestial bodies revolving around a planet other than Earth, in contradiction with the geocentric system formulated by Ptolemy that was previously accepted by the scientific community. Galileo discovered that the planet Venus has phases, like those of the Moon, and this observation led him to conclude that the planet Venus revolves around the Sun, as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus stated in his heliocentric theory. It was Galileo who proved Copernicus’ heliocentric theory that the planets orbit the Sun and not around the Earth as Ptolemy claimed with his geocentric theory.

An important point to note is that, with Galileo’s use of the telescope, science also came to exist intimately connected with “technique”, that is, with the ability of human beings to expand their senses through inventions, of instruments and, with them, know and describe the Universe. Many telescope models were developed from Galileo’s telescope so that we would have a wide-range observation model like the one offered to us by the Hubble telescope and is currently being offered by the revolutionary James Webb telescope. Since then, a true scientific and cosmological “revolution” began to develop. The Hubble telescope, launched in April 1990, was responsible for capturing extremely important images for studies relating to the Universe [2]. Designed in the 1970s and 1980s, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and provided a revolution in Astronomy. The images captured through the lenses of this telescope revealed a Universe much larger and more beautiful than human beings had imagined. The Hubble telescope obtained detailed images of nebulae, which made it possible to understand the formation and death of stars, generated images of more than 1500 galaxies, showing an immense Universe, never observed before, presented a real-time view of the collision of a comet with the planet Jupiter, located carbon dioxide (CO2) on the surface of a planet, planets outside the Solar System were identified, showed images of the collision between galaxies and detected black holes which is a region of space with such an intense gravitational field that not even light can escape it.

The images from the James Webb Telescope are even more revolutionary than those from the Hubble Telescope [3]. The James Webb Telescope is not a replacement for the Hubble Telescope. In fact, it is complementary, as it has eyes that Hubble does not have. The James Webb Telescope is dedicated to observing the Universe in infrared light, while Hubble will continue to study it primarily in ultraviolet and optical waves, although it will have some infrared capability. The James Webb Telescope also has a much larger mirror than Hubble. Therefore, he will see things that are “invisible” today using the Hubble telescope. The first image revealed by the James Webb telescope shows the distant Universe. The primary mission of the James Webb Telescope is to examine the infrared radiation resulting from the birth of the Universe with the Big Bang and to make observations about the infancy of the Universe [4].

Observations of very distant objects are the telescope’s flagship, its most challenging purpose. This is what Hubble cannot do due to size limitations and lack of infrared equipment unlike the James Webb Telescope. As the Universe is expanding, it is only possible to observe the first 100 million years after the Big Bang in the infrared of the James Webb telescope. The light from the most distant galaxy in that image came out when the Universe was just 600 million years old. With the James Webb telescope, we even see its chemical composition. And then we found that, chemically, it is similar to the closest galaxies we know[5]. We will learn how our own galaxy was formed and how the chemical enrichment of the Universe happened to generate our Solar System and life. It was also impressive to learn that the James Webb telescope can easily detect water on planets around other stars and the light from the star that is passing through a planet’s atmosphere [5].

Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began scientific operations in July 2022, a series of images have been released as the most detailed photo of the Universe. The telescope’s main purpose is to peer into the past, looking back a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Consequently, it is common for it to bring images of the oldest stars and galaxies ever detected. The photo draws attention to the age of the galaxies seen there, some of which are more than 13 billion light years away, pointing to the beginnings of the Universe (one light year measures around 9.5 trillion km). Some attract attention due to the record they represent, while others surprise with their beauty and rich details. James Webb looked at the galaxy GLASS-z13 located 13.4 billion light years away, considered by scientists to be the oldest galaxy ever seen in the Universe. The James Webb telescope was able to capture the oldest star ever seen in the Universe, located 12.9 billion light years from Earth. Aerendel, as it was called, is located within the Sunrise Arc galaxy. James Webb was able to capture the image of a supernova star – stellar explosion – that occurred between 3 and 4 billion light years from Earth. Last but not least, we have the Cartwheel galaxy. The system, which gets its name due to its shape similar to a car wheel, is the result of the collision between two galaxies. The clash between giants occurred about 400 million years ago. The brightest area of the Cartwheel is home to clusters of young stars, while the outer ring has stars forming and others exploding into supernova stars [6].

It can be seen from the above that the James Webb Telescope is transforming astronomy. One of the James Webb Telescope’s key abilities is its ability to look back through time to the beginning of the Universe, observing the first galaxies and stars. The telescope, which is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, has already spotted the most distant and oldest galaxy found so far. The James Webb Telescope also made the first detection of a “molecule of life”. A team of international scientists has detected a new carbon compound in space for the first time. The James Webb super telescope with its great discoveries shows the importance of the telescope by revealing, with unexpected speed, a series of information that could call cosmological theories into question.

REFERENCES

1. FERNANDES, Cláudio. A invenção do telescópio por Galileu Galilei. Available on the website <https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/a-invencao-telescopio-por-galileu-galilei.htm>.
2. MUNDO EDUCAÇÃO. Telescópio Hubble. Available on the website <https://mundoeducacao.uol.com.br/fisica/telescopio-hubble.htm>.
3. POSSES, Ana, MELLO, Duília e PONTE, Geisa. Astrônomas explicam por que as imagens do James Webb são revolucionárias. Available on the website <https://revistagalileu.globo.com/Ciencia/Espaco/noticia/2022/07/astronomas-explicam-por-que-imagens-do-james-webb-sao-revolucionarias.html>.
4. WIKIPEDIA. Telescópio Espacial James Webb. Available on the website <https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesc%C3%B3pio_Espacial_James_Webb>.
5. FREITAS, Felipe. Telescópio James Webb é capaz de detectar água em outro planeta. Available on the website <https://mundoconectado.com.br/noticias/v/26842/telescopio-james-webb-e-capaz-de-detectar-agua-em-outro-planeta>.
6. FIORATTI, Carolina. As 5 grandes descobertas do James Webb até aqui. Available on the website <https://gizmodo.uol.com.br/as-5-grandes-descobertas-do-james-webb-ate-aqui/>.

* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer from the UFBA Polytechnic School and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017),  Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press,  Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022), How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chișinău, 2023) and A revolução da educação necessária ao Brasil na era contemporânea (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2023).