The James Webb Space Telescope is the most complex telescope ever built and the largest ever to be sent into space. From its 21.3 feet-wide mirror designed to fold into an Ariane 5 rocket and then unfurl and calibrate itself mid-flight, to its 5-layered sunshield the size of a tennis court built to sustain meteor strikes while keeping Webb’s instruments cold and operational, the James Webb Space Telescope is an engineering marvel. Most incredibly, Webb has already overcome 295 single points of failure on its million-mile journey to its destination where it now orbits the sun, readying itself for scientific observation. Unlike the Hubble, which underwent several repairs by astronauts, Webb is too far for human travel, too far to repair in the event any systems fail.
Please join our Director of Sciences, Prof. Janna Levin, as she hosts NASA’s Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, Nobel Laureate John Mather, and renowned observational astronomer Wendy Freedman to discuss Webb’s very first glimpse of the universe and this new era in astronomy.
This project is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, bridging the two cultures of science and the arts.
Subscribe to Pioneer Works: [ Ссылка ]
More from the Science Studios: [ Ссылка ]
Read more on the Pioneer Works Broadcast: [ Ссылка ]
