The Gravity of the Sun Affects the Moon

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The telescope was sent to a very special point in space called legrange two. This is because of something caled the three body problem, where you have one supermassive, or just pretty big, orbital body that is very makes a lot of gravity,. You've got a second one that's pretty big and has a lot of Gravity. So we study the way that two objects interact all the time. How does the gravity of the sun affect the earth? How does thegravity of the earth affect the moon? But we don't often consider there's two super large objects. Imagine you put a small object near them. It's being pulled by both objects in a certain way, right?

This week we have another longform episode! David got a little obsessed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) a few months ago and spent hours and hours researching and talking to experts so that he can try to explain it here on the podcast for Marques and Andrew. This one is a little dense but if you're even remotely interested in the mysteries of our universe this one is for you. David explains why the JWST is such a big deal and what we hope to discover once it begins sending back pictures.

Special thanks to:

Paul Geithner

Dr. Jonathan McDowell

Dr. Peter Gao

Tim Dodd

Sources:

How James Webb Orbits Nothing

Webb vs Hubble (NASA)

Fine Guidance Sensor (NASA)

JWST FAQ (NASA)

Where is Webb? (NASA)

Webb Orbit (NASA)