FIRST IMAGES FROM JWST

SC 202 FIRST IMAGES FROM JWST
Format B/C

Christmas Day 2021 saw the flawless launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, to its home at a gravitationally stable point near the Moon. A six-month commissioning period ensued, followed by NASA’s July 12, 2022, press release of JWST’s first five images. These were of the Carina Nebula star-forming region, the gravitationally interacting galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet, the planetary nebular end-of-life phase of Sun-like stars captured in the image of the Southern Ring Nebula, the spectrum of the exoplanetary atmosphere of Wasp 69-b, and the deepest and sharpest infrared images of distant galaxies ever observed in the infrared through the gravitational lens of SMACS 0723. The current frontiers of knowledge in each of the above astronomical sub-fields will be provided as background in order to appreciate what these data mean.

Presenter: Mary Barsony, Ph.D., Physics; Research Astrophysicist

Developers: Michal Peri and Marj Besemer

Friday, February 24; 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM