James Webb Space Telescope Trivia Quiz Questions

Trivia quiz questions with answers about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

James Webb Space Telescope Trivia Quiz Questions with Answers

What is the James Webb Telescope?
A: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy.

The most powerful telescope ever launched into space, its greatly improved infrared resolution and sensitivity will allow it to view what kind of objects?
A: Objects too old, distant, and faint for the Hubble Space Telescope.

This is expected to enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observations of what?
A: The first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

When was JWST launched?
A: On 25 December 2021.

What kind of rocket was it launched on?
A: On an ESA Ariane 5 rocket.

From where was it launched?
A: From Kourou, French Guiana.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's development in collaboration with whom?
A: The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed what?
A: Telescope development.

Who operates JWST?
A: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Who was the prime contractor?
A: Northrop Grumman.

The telescope is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during what programs?
A: The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

JWST's primary mirror consists of how many hexagonal mirror segments?
A: 18.

What are the segments made of?
A: Gold-plated beryllium.

When combined the segments create what diameter mirror?
A: A 6.5-meter (21 ft) diameter mirror.

This gives the Webb telescope a light-collecting area about 25 square meters, about how many times that of Hubble?
A: 6 times.

What wavelengths will the JWST observe?
A: From long-wavelength visible light (red) through mid-infrared (0.6–28.3 μm).

The telescope must be kept extremely cold, below what temperature to observe faint signals in the infrared without interference from other sources of warmth?
A: 50 K (−223 °C; −370 °F).

It is deployed in a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point, about how far from earth?
A: 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth.

Its five-layer kite-shaped sunshield protects it from warming by what?
A: The Sun, Earth, and Moon.

When did development begin?
A: Development began in 1996 for a launch initially planned for 2007 with a US$500 million budget.

The James Webb Space Telescope has a mass that is about how much of Hubble Space Telescope's mass?
A: Half.

The mirror has a gold coating to provide what?
A: Infrared reflectivity and durability.

It can detect objects up to 100 times fainter than what?
A: Hubble.

How far back in the history of the universe can the JWST?
A: Back to redshift z≈20 (about 180 million years cosmic time after the Big Bang).

The earliest stars are thought to have formed when?
A: Between z≈30 and z≈20 (100-180 million years cosmic time).

Ground-based telescopes must look through Earth's atmosphere, which is opaque in what?
A: In many infrared bands.

JWST operates in a halo orbit, circling around a point in space known as the what?
A: The Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point.

The five-layer sunshield, each layer as thin as a what?
A: A human hair.

The sunshield was designed to be folded how many times so that it fit within the Ariane 5 rocket's payload fairing, which is 4.57 m (15.0 ft) in diameter, and 16.19 m (53.1 ft) long?
A: 12.