UnobservantBastard_sl
shitlord
- 653
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Depends on what you want to look for and how far away it is. Some of the new planet surveyors are WFOV because they want to search large chunks of the sky for planets around stars in our own Galaxy. You don't necessarily need a large mirror for that.
You'd want large mirrors for long distance pinpoint imagery, which is what JWST will do. We should get better pictures out of it than those of the Hubble ultra deep field. That science is looking for the oldest formations in our universe, 10s of billions of light years away. You need large mirrors and low noise sensors for the best sensitivity you can get. That's why they are putting it out at a Lagrange point with a large sun shade. They'll be able to point radiators at deep space and chill down the sensors to extremely low temperatures, which lowers thermal noise in the sensor. With what they are trying to do even being in orbit around earth with earth albedo would heat up the spacecraft too much to get good images.
You'd want large mirrors for long distance pinpoint imagery, which is what JWST will do. We should get better pictures out of it than those of the Hubble ultra deep field. That science is looking for the oldest formations in our universe, 10s of billions of light years away. You need large mirrors and low noise sensors for the best sensitivity you can get. That's why they are putting it out at a Lagrange point with a large sun shade. They'll be able to point radiators at deep space and chill down the sensors to extremely low temperatures, which lowers thermal noise in the sensor. With what they are trying to do even being in orbit around earth with earth albedo would heat up the spacecraft too much to get good images.