Entre passado e futuro: um estudo sobre os telescópios espaciais Hubble e James Webb

Abstract

The development of space telescopes has represented a major milestone in modern as tronomy by overcoming the observational limitations imposed by Earth’s atmosphere. This study aims to comparatively analyze the technological evolution and scientific con tributions of the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, placing their development within a historical context and assessing their impact on contempo rary astrophysics. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, including scientific articles, technical reports, and official documentation from space agencies, with emphasis on technical characteristics, technological innovations, and key scientific discoveries asso ciated with both observatories. The comparative analysis considered parameters such as spectral coverage, optical resolution, and contributions to different fields of astronomy. The results indicate that Hubble, launched in 1990, established new paradigms in visible and ultraviolet observations, providing fundamental contributions to the determination of the Hubble constant and the age of the Universe, as well as advancing exoplanet studies through transit spectroscopy. In contrast, JWST, operating since 2022 in the infrared, has significantly expanded observational frontiers by enabling the detection of primor dial galaxies at high redshifts (z > 10) and the detailed characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres. It is concluded that HST and JWST are technologically and scientifically complementary, with Hubble excelling in visible and ultraviolet observations and JWST optimized for infrared studies, jointly redefining our understanding of the Universe from the formation of the first galaxies to the search for potentially habitable worlds.