Competition is fierce to take a peek through the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, so astronomer Tom Stallard feels “very lucky and very happy” to be getting a turn next month.
The British scientist has been granted 22 hours to point the telescope at Jupiter, study its upper atmosphere and gather unique images to help solve mysteries about the planets, including Earth.
Since Webb is a powerful time machine that can show scientists the earliest stars and galaxies whose light reaches Earth more than 10 billion years later, it is even rarer to turn its mirror towards “little old Jupiter”, Mr Stallard said.
Out of 249 winning proposals for Webb's second year of observation, his is the only one that focuses on a planet in our Solar System, and was approved by fellow scientists in May.
“I’m actually very surprised. Time on the James Webb telescope is almost impossible to get,” he told The National. “I'm very lucky and very happy to get the time.”
As familiar as Jupiter may be by Webb's standards, Mr Stallard expects that “we'll be seeing all sorts of weird and wacky stuff” when images are beamed back to Earth.
“James Webb is changing how astronomers see the universe in a really profound way. We are mostly as breathless as everyone else when we see this stuff come back,” he said.
Like rocket launches, turns on the telescope are timed to align with the movements of planets and satellites. In Jupiter’s case, Webb will photograph the planet right as Nasa’s Juno orbiter is taking corresponding measurements.
The date is September 7 but it is not a matter of stargazing from a window – the instructions for Webb’s instruments will have been submitted in advance, and at that point, there is “nothing we can do”, Mr Stallard said.
Images of Jupiter from the James Webb telescope – in pictures
But “profoundly wonderful” images should start coming down within hours, to be combined with the data from Juno and pored over by eager astronomers back on Earth.
The aim is to create a data set “mineable for years to come” and publish findings on Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, which loses its contents to space in a manner that is not fully understood.
Mr Stallard’s case that “there’s something weird going on with gas giants”, and understanding them better could help us get to grips with far-flung planets and whether they might be habitable, won over Webb’s selection panel.
He says there are things to learn about the Earth by studying Jupiter because the atmospheric processes are similar even though the gas giant’s magnetic field is much stronger.
Webb is the only way
The submission also rested on Mr Stallard’s argument that the Webb telescope, which was launched in 2021 and orbits the Sun, “is the only way you can do this kind of observation”.
He said Webb’s 22-hour surveillance of Jupiter was worth several nights on the Keck Observatory, a pair of ground-based telescopes 4,150 metres above sea level in Hawaii.
Planetary astronomers are lucky that people like looking at Jupiter and “we get a lot of free observations that are useful”, according to Mr Stallard. It is even possible to send spacecraft there – the European orbiter Juice is due to arrive at Jupiter in 2031 for a look at its icy moons.
But these are no substitute for the powerful Webb as a way of understanding Jupiter’s atmosphere.
“If we didn’t do it this way, there would be no way of doing it,” said Mr Stallard, who is based at Northumbria University in north-east England and is principal investigator among dozens of scientists on the project.
Webb is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and its instruments are more sensitive, its mirror six times larger and its orbit farther from Earth – all of which means it can see things a billion times fainter than the human eye.
This week it observed the farthest star yet detected in the universe, known as Earendel, and visible about a billion years after the Big Bang.
In a striking illustration of its impact, one physicist in Canada recently used findings from the telescope to theorise that the universe is actually 26.7 billion years old – twice as old as previously thought.
The gatekeepers to Webb’s instruments are scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute. It invited astronomers around the world to fight over 5,000 hours of observation time in this year’s cycle.
Astronomers on Webb “never go in hoping that you’ll be completely surprised” but every observation brings something unexpected and there are sure to be unusual findings on Jupiter, Mr Stallard said.
“When you see an amazing image, it’s just as bizarre and bonkers for us.”
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
The specs: 2019 BMW i8 Roadster
Price, base: Dh708,750
Engine: 1.5L three-cylinder petrol, plus 11.6 kWh lithium-ion battery
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 374hp (total)
Torque: 570Nm (total)
Fuel economy, combined: 2.0L / 100km
Celta Vigo 2
Castro (45'), Aspas (82')
Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')
Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
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Forced%20Deportations
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Violence%20
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Itcan profile
Founders: Mansour Althani and Abdullah Althani
Based: Business Bay, with offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and India
Sector: Technology, digital marketing and e-commerce
Size: 70 employees
Revenue: On track to make Dh100 million in revenue this year since its 2015 launch
Funding: Self-funded to date
The five pillars of Islam
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
The specs
Price: From Dh180,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 320hp @ 5,700rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.7L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
McLaren GT specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
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On sale: now
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
ATP RANKINGS (NOVEMBER 4)
1. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 9,585 pts ( 1)
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 8,945 (-1)
3. Roger Federer (SUI) 6,190
4. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 5,705
5. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 5,025
6. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 4,000 ( 1)
7. Alexander Zverev (GER) 2,945 (-1)
8. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 2,670 ( 1)
9. Roberto Bautista (ESP) 2,540 ( 1)
10. Gaël Monfils (FRA) 2,530 ( 3)
11. David Goffin (BEL) 2,335 ( 3)
12. Fabio Fognini (ITA) 2,290
13. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 2,180 (-2)
14. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2,125 ( 1)
15. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 2,050 ( 13)
16. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 2,000
17. Karen Khachanov (RUS) 1,840 (-9)
18. Alex De Minaur (AUS) 1,775
19. John Isner (USA) 1,770 (-2)
20. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 1,747 ( 7)
Salah in numbers
€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of €39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.
13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.
57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.
7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.
3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.
40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.
30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.
8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Director: Shady Ali
Cast: Boumi Fouad , Mohamed Tharout and Hisham Ismael
Rating: 3/5
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Indoor Cricket World Cup Dubai 2017
Venue Insportz, Dubai; Admission Free
Fixtures - Open Men 2pm: India v New Zealand, Malaysia v UAE, Singapore v South Africa, Sri Lanka v England; 8pm: Australia v Singapore, India v Sri Lanka, England v Malaysia, New Zealand v South Africa
Fixtures - Open Women Noon: New Zealand v England, UAE v Australia; 6pm: England v South Africa, New Zealand v Australia
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
