Joe Palca:
, this factor was constructed for one function or initially conceived of for one function, which is to see gentle from essentially the most distant galaxies and stars. And the rationale you want this telescope and never one thing just like the Hubble Area Telescope, is that these distant objects are transferring away from us so quick that the sunshine is being stretched out. It is in what’s known as the infrared. And so you possibly can’t see it. For those who’re it is like evening goggles, you possibly can’t see something. However in case you look by way of an infrared telescope, oh sure, there I see a star or a galaxy. And in order that’s why they constructed this. However the loopy factor is, is that since they conceived of it, individuals found, Oh, there’s planets orbiting stars outdoors our photo voltaic system and we may have a look at these with this telescope. That is loopy. We will do this. They did not design it for that, however now they will use it for that. The ultimate factor I will say about what they will discover is, they do not know. And that is the cool factor. Whenever you give scientists a brand new piece of kit and say, verify this out, see what you are able to do with it. They will give you attention-grabbing observations, and I used to be saying the primary instance of that’s Galileo. Like he constructed the telescope effectively, he was trying round. He did not know what he was going to search out. He pointed it at Jupiter and out of the blue he found moons round Jupiter. He did not construct the telescope as a result of he wished to know if there have been moons round Jupiter. No one knew. Yeah, however he constructed it and he discovered them.
