Mary’s Minute
Have you heard of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)? Admittedly, I don’t understand how it works
or what it will do. I do know it is a
really big deal, considered a successor to the great Hubble Telescope. My son, Bill, is very fired up about it, and
I recently had conversation with him about it.
One of the things about the JWST that makes it special is
that it has a coronagraph, which allows it to block out light from stars in order
to see the planets around the vert distant stars. Since Bill is really passionate about exoplanets,
this feature has him really excited!
Another advantage that Bill explained to me about telescopes
in general is that they collect light so that we can see in dark places. In other words, sometimes we need more light
to see objects in space, and sometimes we need to block the light in order to
see objects around the bright light.
And if that isn’t enough about light, Bill also explained
that another feature of the JWST is that it sees a different wave length of light,
using infrared. In this way, it can see
a different class of objects than what we have been able to study in the past.
I know
I am rambling about a topic I know very little about, so I will get to my metaphorical
pondering about light. Often when we are
trying to figure things out, we use the strategy of traditional telescopes by
collecting more light to see the same things, but more clearly. The JWST reminds us that sometimes we need to
block out the brightness or the obvious in order to see things we might not
have otherwise seen. And
finally, there is yet another metaphor that the JWST provides. Just like the JWST is using infrared light to
see things not visible to regular light, we may need to imagine things that are
not even visible from our current vantage point.
To summarize my thoughts, in order to see things in our
life clearly, sometimes we need to look at it more closely in the same way (more
light) we have been looking; other times we need to block out completely what
we thought was helping us (blocking out the light from the bright start to see
the tiny planets around it); and finally, sometimes we need to look at it in
totally new way (with new light).
Keeping with the space analogy, the sky is the limit! Keep dreaming and thinking of the world and
your potential in new ways in order to do more and be more, just like JWST will
help us discover things we may not have imagined in space.
Have a great week!
Mary
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