James Webb Space Telescope is throwing major shade into space

After many decades of hard work NASA is ready to send the James Webb Space Telescope into the cosmos. There are a ton of operations that have to go perfectly once the telescope is launched. Once the JWST is ready to explore, it will keep its fine-tuned science instruments out of the sun’s rays with a massive sunshield. In this video, Daniel performs an experiment to show how the shield will operate in the vacuum of space.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope website:

Visit our website:

Connect with us!

About us:
Exploration Place, The Sedgwick County Science and Discovery Center, is Kansas’ Premier Science Center, inspiring a deeper interest in science and technology through creative and fun experiences for all.

[jsteins]

Rather than using an LED flashlight for this example (with narrow light frequency range) you should use either a "natural sunlight" source of light, or even a simple/old incandescent light, which would have some lower frequency light. This would more closely represent the way sunlight reaches your sheet of mylar (at 2:20) and show that some heat energy will go through, even when very little visible light goes through the mylar.
You could also measure the amount of temperature rise over a specific span of time (like 5 minutes) to give a comparison of how much heat energy reaches your thermometer... using anywhere from zero to five layers.
You may also want to show how the temperatures reaches a stable level, given a longer time.