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Ltryptophan's avatar

If we built a JWST today how much better would it be?

Asked by Ltryptophan (12091points) September 3rd, 2022 from iPhone

If I understand correctly, the JWST was started many years back. So, would a telescope designed today be a significant upgrade?

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8 Answers

Inspired_2write's avatar

Good idea to explain when using abbreviations, as you may receive more answers then.
Didn’t know what JWST meant so had to look it up.

James Webb Space Telescope – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › James_Webb_Space_T…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed primarily to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, .

Inspired_2write's avatar

As for your question.
Since technology is advancing more rapidly I woud expect newer devices in the present and the future.

gorillapaws's avatar

I’m far from an expert, but I have been following some of the details of the JWST and it’s mind-boggling how advanced it is. I suspect if they wanted to build a 2.0 version, it would be necessary to learn from the 1.0’s shortcomings over the coming years moreso than advancements in CPU performance or something. Micro meteors may be a bigger problem than anticipated for example.

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flutherother's avatar

Perhaps not much better due to the law of diminishing returns. Hubble was amazing the JWST less so, at least up to now.

Kropotkin's avatar

Yes. There’s already a number of telescope concepts in place that would be many times more powerful than the JWST.

This is one of then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Ultraviolet_Optical_Infrared_Surveyor

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

I would like self healing windows and mirrors. To protect from micrometeoroids.

Sorry that I couldn’t find a link, its mostly emotional healing stuff on the Goggle.

RocketGuy's avatar

The next step would be something 10x bigger and assembled in space.

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