BAAO — 2021 Astronomy & Astrophysics Challenge
Question 3
After many delays, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is due to be launched in December 2021. This will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and has a much bigger primary mirror (6.5 m in diameter against 2.4 m for the HST) so will be able to study the Universe in unprecedented detail. Given the faintest objects the HST can see have a magnitude of ∼ 31 (known as the limiting magnitude), what limiting magnitude might we expect for JWST?
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Source
Source: British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (BAAO), Astronomy & Astrophysics Challenge 2021. Question text, answer-choice text, and answer were transcribed from the official BAAO paper and solutions PDFs; the explanation and metadata are original.