Question Could or will there soon be a large James Webb or larger size space telescope that can see further into the infrared like Spitzer or Herschel?

[newworldsexplr]

I heard that the former NASA Spitzer and European Space Agency (ESA) Herschel space telescopes were colder and could see further into the infrared than the James Webb space telescope. However, they were both substantially smaller telescopes than James Webb. What are the possibilities that NASA, ESA or others or in combination could make a new space telescope for the infrared at least as large as James Webb but that could see further into the infrared than James Webb or at least as far as Spitzer or Herschel. I heard that at these longer infrared wavelengths there are some other things they can see in circumstellar or protoplanetary disks than at the shorter infrared wavelengths. How much, if any are there further spectral bands of interest for potentially habitable planets in the far infrared and what chemicals are these for. Finally how far into the infrared would HabEx or Luvoir be able to see compared to James Webb and what other celestial objects would these other telescopes be able to observe and would a large, at least James Webb size, space telescope that could be cooled enough to look also into the farther infrared need to use the same technology as James Webb that is segmented mirrors and a sunshield or if there some other way to make and put into operation in space such as large and seeing into the farther infrared space telescope?

 

[Neel Ranjan Choudhury]

Yes there are many proposals as of now and telescopes such as LUVOIR, LYNX and the well known (and under development) Nancy Grace Roman telescope is soon to be launched. Other prospective telescopes are still under deliberation by several other governmental space agencies and tie ups with JAXA, ISRO and NASA.

 

[Helio]

Although serious IR work requires space scopes, keep in mind that the large IR bandwidth does have windows in our atmosphere. [Google "atmospheric windows" to get a variety of graphs.]

The 30 meter LGM telescope, for instance, will have an imager for the Y,J,H,K bands (Near IR).

 

[Phillip Huggan]

The cooling strategies I know might not be cold enough. Once you get a better superconductor it should be easy. I imagine you get new metallurgy layers of metals and torque them with pressure or magnets or electricity the right way.

 

[Props]

I hope in the future we can launch a telescope that has a similar design to the JWST but is much larger. I wonder how much a telescope 10x the size of JWST would be able to see, theoretically.

 

[Helio]

I hope in the future we can launch a telescope that has a similar design to the JWST but is much larger. I wonder how much a telescope 10x the size of JWST would be able to see, theoretically.

Resolution increase is linear with aperture increase. So, the aperture (mirror) diameter would have to be 10x greater for 10x better resolution.

This is why interferometry will become important because to get greater resolution two or more smaller mirrors can be combined so that the distance between them yields an effective aperture diameter. I don't know, however, just how hard it would be to do this in space, but it won't be easy, and it's not easy here on Earth.