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metalmantoday at 10:54 AM1 replyview on HN

I am poking fun (at your expense) at the notion that because the light is already there, adding other sensors would be feasable. Once you grasp the requirements of building an infrared telescope, you will be going, oh!, damn, wow! It's actualy not that deep a dive to get a feel for just how special the JWST is from an engineering perspective, and then a look into just how difficult it will be to get visible light from those distances, which may require a interferometric telescope with multiple huge sub units flying in formation at distances, known to a fraction of the target wave length , but perhaps several hundred thousand km, apart. doable, but :), just


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jacquesmtoday at 12:51 PM

The temperature gradient across that thing is mindblowing.