Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope onboard lifting up from the launchpad at Europe’s Spaceport, the Guiana Space Center, in Kourou, French Guiana, on Dec. 25, 2021.JODY AMIET/AFP/Getty Images
Five weeks after rocketing off the Earth, two Canadian components that are crucial to the operations and success of the James Webb Space Telescope are set to face their first big test.
On Friday morning, the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) were switched on for the first timesince the mammoth astronomical satellite was launched on Christmas Day. Both instruments were built in Ottawa by the Canadian aerospace company COM DEV, which has since become part of Honeywell International.
The successful activation of the instruments was announced by the Canadian Space Agency, which is a partner in the joint North American-European project. It marks a major milestone for the agency as well as the Canadian scientists and engineers who first began working on the project more than two decades ago – and who now hope the momentum it generates will propel Canada to commit to a future space telescope of its own.
“It’s taken way longer than anyone believed possible but here we are,” said John Hutchings, an astronomer who was principal investigator for the Fine Guidance Sensor when it was first proposed as Canada’s contribution to the NASA-led project.
With a price tag of US$10-billion,Webb is, by far, the largest and most expensive piece of astronomical hardware ever sent to space. Canada’s share, which tops $130-million, works out to only a tiny fraction of the total cost of the project, though it is the largest amount the country has ever invested in space-based astronomy.
The contribution is also about as critical as it gets. NIRISS is seen as key to the telescope’s quest to characterize the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems, one of its most anticipated science goals. And if the Fine Guidance Sensor were to fail, the telescope would be unable to hold its gaze steadily enough to capture revealing images of the deep cosmos and a host of other celestial objects on astronomers’ wish lists.
“Everything had to work up to this point and it has, so mostly it’s been a great relief, but we’re not there yet,” said Dr. Hutchings, who is officially retired from the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, but remains active in the research community.
Earlier this week the telescope arrived at its destination, known as L2, an unoccupied point in space about one million kilometres from Earth. It’s here that gravitational forces balance with the telescope’s motion to keep it in the same position relative to Earth as it orbits the sun.
With its sun shield and mirrors now fully deployed, the telescope has been busy shedding heat. This is essential in order for it to reach a temperature below -233 C, allowing the telescope’s sensitive instruments to discern the faint glow of infrared light emanating from distant objects in the universe.
Before that threshold is reached, operators will use the FGS in the coming weeks to help align and calibrate the 18 hexagonal segments that make up the telescope’s 6.5-metre diametermain mirror, so that they can operate as a single unit and achieve the sharpest possible images.
“For me, the big-ticket item is when we close the loop between the guidance system and the attitude control system,” said Erick Dupuis, director of Space Exploration Development at the Canadian Space Agency. “This is when we’re going to start pointing the spacecraft using the FGS – and this is what it was designed for.”
Once all the instruments are fully checked and operational – a process that is expected to take another four to five months – the FGS will use stars as guideposts to make sure the telescope stays precisely on target while it acquires its images. As long as at least three stars are in its field of view at any time, the Canadian sensor can keep the telescope from drifting off target.
Dr. Hutchings said that a key moment in the telescope’s history happened early on, when he and his colleagues convincedNASA that the FGS needed only to spy a patch of sky less than one tenth the diameter of the full moon to fulfill its task. This is because the instrument’s infrared camera can perceive cool, red stars that are plentiful in the sky but too dim to be seen at optical wavelengths. The realization reduced the size of the FGS and made for a better configuration of all the telescope’s detectors.
David Aldridge, a program manager and engineer with Honeywell, was among the few Canadian team members who saw the telescope lift off at Kourou, French Guiana, last month. This week he was at the Space Telescope ScienceInstitute in Baltimore, where he was on hand for Friday’s start up ofthe telescope’s Canadian hardware.
He said that despite witnessing the telescope’s successful ascent and all the hurdles it has cleared since then, he still experienced “a little bit of nervous energy” this week before the Canadian components were activated.
Now that both FGS and NIRISSare awake, approximately 30 team Canadian team members from Honeywell, the Canadian Space Agency and participating universities will be on round-the-clock shifts at the institute over the next several weeks, he said.
“We basically need to provide a full 24 hours a day, seven days a week to monitor and participate in all the alignment activities … everything that’s going on.”
In return for Canada providing the instruments, Canadian astronomers have a guaranteed share of the telescope’s observing time.
Pauline Barmby, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario, said that will translate into an abundance of opportunities for the country’s astronomical community, fulfilling a goal that has been central to its long-term plans for more than a decade. Other projects still lie ahead, including participation in a European Space Agency-led mission called Euclid, which will seek to understand the nature of dark energy, a mysterious phenomenon that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate.
“Of course, it would be amazing for Canada to spearhead its own large-scale space astronomy project,” she said.
Dr. Barmby co-led a report, released last year, that identified such a project as the top priority for Canadian astronomy for this decade. Dubbed CASTOR, the project is being developed by Dr. Hutchings among others.
CASTOR would involve a space telescope with a one-metre diameter mirror. Though small compared with Webb, which sees only infrared light, the Canadian project would play a complementary role by observing the distant universe at blue and ultraviolet wavelengths.
Buoyed by the long-awaited arrival of Webb, Dr. Hutchings said he and other team members arelooking to the 2023 federal budget as an opportunity to win funding for CASTOR through the Canadian Space Agency.
“The agency is putting quite at bit of money into technical studies … and we have hopes that it will be the next big thing,” he said.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
