Introduction to translation:

In a few days, a mission that amateurs and astronomers have been waiting for for decades will launch into space, the James Webb telescope, which will be able to look into the depths of the universe in time and space to bring us new knowledge, and perhaps the capabilities of this telescope, which is the most accurate in our history, will help us answer Many and many questions about the origin of this universe, its fate and the nature of its laws, but while we contemplate the rise of "James Webb" and its first results that will arrive within months, and its subsequent results in the near future, we must - no doubt - also look to the past, to mathematicians such as Leonard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange and their achievements that lead us today into the future literally "at the speed of a rocket".

Translation material:

Our solar system is replete with wonderful phenomena. For example, we see that Jupiter is characterized by a stormy climate, and its clouds resemble the layer of cream on top of a cup of hot coffee. As for Saturn, it is characterized by rings of thin thickness, made up of countless pieces of ice and rock, arranged like spiral grooves on the phonograph disk, and the most beautiful of all is the phenomenon of the aurora borealis that we witness on the planet as a result of a collision between energetic particles From the sun and atmospheric gases, drawing in the night a wonderful spectacle that fills the sky with a faint green color. All this is nothing in front of the fact that the most magical phenomena in our cosmic environment are in fact completely hidden.

One of these phenomena is points in space whose physical description turns into something like sorcery, at these points the Earth and the sun conspire to create a special kind of balance, so that any body there - such as an asteroid, a spacecraft, or even a cloud of dust - will remain stationary and suspended by the action of The invisible gravitational force created by this equilibrium.

These gravitational forces have given us 5 observation points located near Earth, and later this month (December 2021), NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope will head to one of these observation points located about a million miles away, four times the distance that separates the planet Earth and the Moon.

James Webb.. Hubble's most advanced successor

Before the James Webb Telescope was designed, there was another telescope called Hubble, which is the most famous space telescope for NASA, now over 30 years old and orbiting only 340 miles above Earth. The Webb Space Telescope is Hubble's more advanced successor, aiming to reveal the hidden depths of our universe, gazing into the dim light of the early stars and galaxies that arose after the Big Bang. (Webb will see the universe primarily through infrared, picking up light that the human eye can't see. Hubble's ability to see in infrared is limited. Webb's mirror is also much larger than the Hubble mirror, and this huge light-collecting mirror means Webb can look to periods beyond the past compared to Hubble).

From here, Webb would be able to see everything from the planets in our solar system to the most distant galaxies in the universe (the universe's first galaxies) if he stood on these points, and these hidden points are known as "Lagrange points", which are named after them The name of the French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who discovered its existence in the late eighteenth century.

In this regard, Neil Cornish, an astrophysicist at Montana State University in the United States, tells me: “Usually, objects closer to the sun than the Earth rotate more quickly, while objects farther from the Earth (those in orbits farther from the Earth and the sun) rotate at a slower speed.” . But the combination of the effects of Earth and solar gravity at Lagrangian points allows objects to rotate at the same rate as the Earth’s rotation,” meaning that at the Lagrangian point, this gravity forces the object to move in the same direction coinciding with the Earth’s journey around the sun. As we can see, humans have not discovered the existence of this "Over the years, space agencies have focused on all kinds of missions that the first two Lagrangian points, known as L1 and L2, can perform," says Michael Thaler, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. : "This is a really amazing and subtle way of using the gravity of the solar system."

Lagrangian points between the Earth and the Sun

Likewise, the points L4 and L5 are also stable, and because of their stability, asteroids tend to accumulate in them.

The third point "L3" is located behind the sun, opposite the Earth's orbit.

At the present time, scientists have not discovered a use for this spot, but the gravitational forces between the two masses are equalized so that the third body maintains the same orbital speed, meaning that the satellite, for example, at the point L3 will remain completely hidden behind the sun, (some scientists assumed for a while that if there were An intelligent civilization would like to watch us without us knowing, so its chariots will stop at the L3 point, which we can never see.)

For the Webb telescope to function properly, it must be surrounded by a very cold climate, so engineers decided to send it to point L2, which lies on the line of extension of the Sun and Earth on the other side of our planet, where it is much easier to protect a spacecraft from the glare of the Sun. According to the calculations of experts in orbital mechanics (a branch of classical mechanics that focuses on satellite orbits, the trajectories of spacecraft, and their practical problems), the Webb telescope will be located a small distance from L2.

The new telescope has a tank full of gas to fire its thrusters every now and then, with slight modifications so it doesn't drift toward Earth. The telescope will be equipped with one of the most advanced sunshields ever, which divides the observatory (the telescope) into two parts: the side facing the Earth and the sun will contain propulsion and communications systems that can deal with heat, while the side facing space will contain the telescope mirrors and other instruments that need absolute cold .

Commenting on this, NASA reports that the large differences between these two parts of the telescope "allow you to almost boil water on the hot side, and freeze nitrogen on the cold side" (this swings between the temperature difference on the two sides to about 600 degrees Fahrenheit). Since the spacecraft located near L2 will remain, according to scientists, in the same spot in the sky, NASA will be able to communicate with the Webb telescope, but if things go wrong and something goes wrong, then the engineers can only send commands, not crew to help.

Unlike the Hubble telescope, which astronauts have been able to go in and repair, Webb is far from being reached using any current technology, plus it doesn't have any special gates built into it for astronauts.

But in the end, NASA realizes that L2 is too convenient to be overlooked or missed, so it's willing to take the risks.

As a result of a website that puts the sun and the earth behind it, its gold-plated mirrors will be able to view the entire universe without any obstacles.

All we need is two Celestial Germans

Our solar system is filled with Lagrangian points, so all that nature needs to create these invisible points are two celestial bodies, be it a star and its planet, for example, or a planet and moon. We find that Mars keeps four asteroids (said to be the remains of a small planet destroyed by collisions billions of years ago) in its Lagrangian Points, one of which is called Eureka. When moving to Saturn, we will find that "Tethys", the fifth largest moon of Saturn, retains two smaller moons at the points L4 and L5.

As for Jupiter, which has always broken records among all the planets, it collects thousands of asteroids in its Lagrangian points, and NASA recently launched a spacecraft to study some of these asteroids. In this regard, the American physicist "Gerard O'Neill" suggested in the 1970s that humans could one day move to floating houses standing on one of the Lagrange points that lie between the Earth and the Moon. But Cornish astrophysicist proposes a different, more realistic use of Lagrangian points, using their gravitational properties to move the spacecraft at frightening speed from one Lagrangian point to another with the least amount of thrust possible.

Theoretically, the space agency could move a telescope from the distant L2 point towards a closer point between Earth and the Moon, which would make it easier for astronauts to reach.

Commenting on this, Cornish said: "We may have maintenance and repair tools in the vehicle that stops at the L1 point between the Earth and the Moon, and who knows?! Perhaps this situation will help us in servicing and repairing space telescopes in the future at L1, and later sending them to L2."

Isn't it amazing and wild that humans have discovered how to use these dots to learn a thing or two about the universe?

NASA took advantage of this strategy earlier in the early 2000s when a spacecraft traveled to the L1 point that is located between the Earth and the sun, and collected some particles of the solar wind, (a phenomenon characterized by the emission of electrically charged particles from the sun into space), and then later slipped to the point L2 (Finally, the space probe, an uncrewed robotic spacecraft used to explore outer space, crashed, but that's a different story from our topic.)

American astronomer Michael Thaler believes that the presence of Lagrangian points is a deep reminder of the fundamental nature of the solar system, and that it is a place where continuous motions occur.

Commenting on this, Thaler says: “You really feel while you are inside these little balls (spacecraft) floating in space, as if you are in the midst of a beautiful dance, and as the vehicles dance, you will meet on their way these points where gravity balances. That humans have discovered how to use these dots to learn a thing or two about the universe is surprising and wild?"

The astrophysicist "Cornish" remembers the great mathematicians, such as Leonhard Euler and Joseph Louis Lagrange, as the first to realize these cosmic points at which objects stop, saying: "Imagine if I told them a few hundred years ago about the existence of a spacecraft observing the universe, and how far We actually benefited from their mathematical calculations, wouldn't that make them crazy?!"

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Translation: Somaya Zaher

This report has been translated from The Atlantic and does not necessarily reflect the website of Meydan.