Opinion: Here's why we should add the James Webb Space Telescope to our list of holiday celebrations [Opinion]
Think of it. The poignance of the Webb’s launch was almost unbearable for those who were paying attention, especially for the thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians from all over the world who had worked together to design, build and launch their creation a year ago. If all went well, the Webb telescope would enable all of us — scientists and laypeople alike — to see back in time almost 13.
. There, beyond the moon and about 1 million miles from Earth, is a sweet spot where the gravity of the sun and Earth effectively cancel each other out. The telescope circles both at the same time, using Earth to shield itself from the sun, to collect light unimpeded from deep space.Its breathtakingly beautiful images of thedeservedly received the most attention.
First is the fact that the vast majority of the universe is extremely inhospitable to life. Our cosmos has been around for some 13.8 billion years, and modern humans emerged only about 120,000 years ago. For that reason, many of us find it a bit of a stretch to infer that an omnipotent God constructed the whole thing for our benefit alone. Natural processes produced Earth’s species, including ourselves. We look more like a brief afterthought or accident in the great scheme of creation.
While we still experience the same awe and wonder that must have stirred them, we are now working with a much larger and more complete understanding of ourselves, our communities and our universe. This gives us the opportunity to reframe our ethics in less divisive directions and to expand our vision of what is sacred.
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James Webb Space Telescope's 1st year in space has blown astronomers awayKeith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He's the author of 'The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence' (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.
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