前往L2点途中的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜

前往L2点途中的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜

2021年12月31日 JWST on the Road to L2 Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Park (North York Astronomical Association) Explanation: This timelapse gif tracks the James Webb Space Telescope as it streaks across the stars of Orion on its journey to a destination beyond the Moon. Recorded on December 28, 12 consecutive exposures each 10 minutes long were aligned and combined with a subsequent color image of the background stars to create the animation. About 2.5 days after its December 25 launch, JWST cruised past the altitude of the Moon’s orbit as it climbed up the gravity ridge from Earth to reach a halo orbit around L2, an Earth-Sun Lagrange point. Lagrange points are convenient locations in space where the combined gravitational attraction of one massive body…