Megapixels: The James Webb Space Telescope Gets Chilled to 400 Degrees Below Zero

At first glance to the article picture, I thought it was a statue monument to our future Robotic GOD!

But in the read, I found it just better eyes for the cosmos. In either case, I am happy!;)

"In 2018, NASA will launch" No it`s going to be launched by ESA on the European Ariane 5 rocket. It`s one part of their contributions to the joint telescope project.

COMON POPSCI!!! SPEAK IN (SI) !!! i though that it was -400 K ... after all its a scientific site you di##s !

ps:
1. i have nothing against US metrics...
2. at least put a °F in the title
3. *whispering* you want people speak english in america, so speak SI in science....

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(Type 0.72) = We are still just cleaver monkeys!

2.725 K; which works out to -270.425 C or -454.765 F.

This is the overall residual temperature of the whole universe, as we can perceive it, due to the left over radiation from the Big Bang. Anything colder than that would absorb heat and reach that temperature. Anything hotter than that will radiate away energy until it cools to that level.

Reaching lower temperature than that, to the micro-kelvin level, requires active (and thus deliberate) cooling and can be done in a laboratory with the proper (expensive) equipment.

Absolute zero remains at -459.67 F; it is physically impossible to have anything colder than that, that is zero energy left.

thats why i thought its was impossible to be at -400 K you pretty rusty metal can, admit that the title could hold an extra bit of information, dont you think... as i see here people cant write in SI units, put at least an F.... you know what, screw you! re-read my previous post....

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(Type 0.72) = We are still just cleaver monkeys!

vt007,
I was not making a complaint to you.
I was simply trying to be helpful and elaborating to others.
Take care. ;)

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01110100011010000110010100100000010100100110111101100010
01101111011101000110100101100011001000000100011101101111
01100100001000000110000101101110011001000010000001101100
01100101011000010111011001100101001000000111100101101111
01110101011100100010000001101110011101010111010000100000
01100001011011100110010000100000011000100110111101101100
01110100001000000111010001101111011010110110010101101110
01110011001000000110000101110100001000000111010001101000
01100101001000000110000101101100011101000110000101110010
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Wouldn't it be implied that "-400 degrees" means -400°F since both -400°K and -400°C are impossibilities? However, I do agree that popsci should express themselves more scientifically!

The F was stated once in the article.
I am -400 cool with that and understood the article.
Take care. ;)

-400degC or -400degK would be a problem for sure for the electronics on the James Webb telescope. Since at absolute zero (-459.6degF) the movement of electrons that solid state electronics require would come to a halt.

But even a cooling system that requires consistent operation at -400degF would seem to pose difficulties. Even 930,000 miles from earth, solar radiation heating and the internal heating from the telescope's own electronic systems would create more of a thermal load than could be rejected by the telescope systems while maintaining a consistent -400degF.