                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2021 December 31

                           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 (Earth) orbiting another massive body
   (Sun) is in balance with the centripetal force needed to move along
   with them. So much smaller masses, like spacecraft, will tend to stay
   there. One of 5 Lagrange points, L2 is about 1.5 million kilometers
   from Earth directly along the Earth-Sun line. JWST will arrive at L2 on
   January 23, 29 days after launch. While relaxing in Earth's surface
   gravity you can follow the James Webb Space Telescope's progress and
   complicated deployment online.

                   Tomorrow's picture: 2021 in Moonstripes
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

