Thanks to Canada’s participation in the James Webb Super Telescope Project, researchers in the country will be able to use it exclusively 5% of the time.
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The images provided by the telescope, a real technical feat, gave new light to the universe. These images, the deepest ever captured in space, were made possible thanks to international cooperation, in particular with a Canadian-made instrument.
“We have a system that seeks to guide the telescope, without which an image would not be possible,” said Eric Dupuy, director of space exploration development at the Canadian Space Agency, and that system is “Canadian guide.”
Added to this is the infrared sensor, which allows capturing unprecedented images in the history of space photographs. “We have a Canadian scientific instrument, NIRISS, that captures images and spectra in the infrared,” said astrophysicist Natalie Owlette.
In exchange for its participation in James Webb’s manufacturing and development, Canada received 5% of the machine’s uptime. “Canadian astronomers will be able to determine where the telescope will look, and they will be able to receive images first to be able to analyze them and make new discoveries,” Mr. Dupuy added.
These new discoveries may, for example, be images of chemical compounds in the atmospheres of other planets in the universe, which could be evidence of a distant life form.
Check out the full interview with Erick Dupuis in the video above.