If you haven’t heard of the James Webb Space Telescope, you are seriously missing out. It is the most powerful space telescope ever built. It lets scientists (and anyone with a phone or computer) see what our universe looked like about a quarter of a billion years ago, 13 billion light-years in the past. Since July 12th, the telescope has been transmitting images of stars, nebulas, planets, galaxies, cosmic dust clouds, you name it!   The process of building and testing the James Webb Telescope may have been just as interesting as its launch and subsequent space travel. Famously, the contraption has over 300 single points of failure, meaning if one of those elements fail, the entire thing won’t be able to function. 

Magnets Used to Operate Shutters on Telescope

Research professor Gunther Kletetschka from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute worked on the “thousands of computer-controlled eyes” that look out from the telescope. Kletetschka, a magnetism expert, was part of designing and creating 248,000 individually controllable microshutters on the telescope’s Near Infrared Spectrograph. Essentially, these shutters allow them to capture high-resolution pictures of upwards of 200 objects at the same time without clutter from other objects.    The key to operating these many, exceptionally small shutters is… you guessed it — magnetism! NASA’s early attempts weren’t successful, but when they brought in Kletetschka, he and his team came up with the idea to use a “slender bar magnet with the width of each array.” Operated remotely, the magnet can be directed across the array, opening specific shutters. Back on Earth, scientists decide which shutters to open or close by releasing an electrostatic field that is separate from the magnet.

Choosing a Magnetic Material

Part of Kletetschka’s job was also to determine the proper magnetic material to use in the cold temperatures of space. First, the team tried to use rare-earth neodymium magnets in conjunction with iron and boron. While it worked well at room temperature, it didn’t maintain its strength when cooled in liquid helium. The replacement material they selected is called praseodymium, a rare-earth element with only one fewer proton than neodymium. It maintained its strength in extremely cold temperatures and even resulted in a slight boost in the magnet’s strength!

Apex Magnets

Magnets are changing our understanding of who and where we are in the universe. That’s pretty incredible! If you want to continue reading stories like this, as well as new stories, magnet DIYS, and more, sign up to receive our newsletter. For answers to questions about our many magnetic products, call or email us to learn more