James Webb Space Telescope: The Story of International Collaboration and a New Era of Astronomy for All
Day: Wednesday 21 September
Time: 09:00 - 10:00 CEST
Location: Room Paris South, Level 3, Hall 7, Paris Convention Centre
PART 1: The challenges of the James Webb mission
Launched on Dec. 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies. Webb is an international collaboration involving hundreds of scientists and thousands of engineers. Webb embodies NASA’s values of teamwork, diversity, and excellence. In a follow-on panel to IAC 2021 in Dubai, the panelists will present some of the challenges encountered in making this amazing facility operational. They will discuss the issues encountered during the program life, arising from the international nature of the mission, the development of a segmented, cryogenic telescope, and the process of bringing the mission online after launch.
Speakers
Moderator
PART 2: Unfolding the Universe: Early Science Results from the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA's newest great observatory, developed in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies. Webb will explore all phases of the universe's history and greatly expand our understanding of everything from the first galaxies to form after the big bang, the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time, the formation of stars and planets in our galaxy, and phenomena in our solar system. What science advancements have we seen and what awaits us? The IAC will be the first major conference to hear about the significance of the first images, unveiled on 12 July 2022, and discoveries for all of humanity. We will demonstrate the capabilities of Webb, showing preliminary results from the Early Release Science Program and Early Release Observations. The presentations will span the area that Webb will explore in its initial few months: distant galaxies, active galaxies, stars forming in our own galaxies, and transiting exoplanet studies.
Speakers
Vassilis CHARMANDARIS
Director & Researcher of the Institute of Astrophysics, Professor of Department of Physics, University of Crete
Greece
Guido ROBERTS-BORSANI
Postdoctoral Reasearcher, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
United States
