The Infra Red Mirror

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Gold is absorbing every color except gold, which it reflectis reflecting the gold light. They spend literally about three months calebrating these mirrors, just to make sure that they are as focused as physically possible on a secondary mirror. And then each individual honeycomb can move in like six degrees of freedom, and can till it can pan. These things are so well polished that if you expanded the j b s t to the size of the continental united states, o good, the difference between the highest mountain and lowest ocean valley would be two inches.

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)