Dr. Tracy L. Beck Exploring the Universe and Our Origins

The Nature of Light…

Why We go to space - Earth’s Atmospheric Transmission! Gamma Rays X Rays UltraViolet InfraRed Many kinds Of light are Blocked by earth’s Atmosphere ! Where Hubble works Radio

Why we go to space - Hubble vs. ground-based telescopes - image quality! Air in the earth’s atmosphere causes astronomical images to be blurry! Twinkle, twinkle little star…! Subaru Observatory (~27ft!) HST

After SM4 in May 2009 we have 2 new instruments! 2 Fixed Instruments! We The NEW and Improved Hubble!! Ultraviolet Infrared Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Gas flowing away from a dying star! Dense gas lit by nearby stars! Spiral Galaxy Galaxy Cluster

Hubble Space Telescope - the single most productive and popular Astronomical Tool… EVER! HAPPY 20th Anniversary, HUBBLE! Launched April 24, 1990

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Scheduled for launch in 2014, JWST is the successor to Hubble - (there’s NO REPLACING it!) Goal of JWST - Continue the spirit of Hubble to explore our universe, from understanding comets and planets in our own solar system, to the most distant stars and galaxies in our universe…

Who was James Webb? Organized and Oversaw the first manned space missions in the Mercury and Gemini programs Had the foresight and knowledge to push for robotic missions, searching the moon and paving the way for all future remote studies of Venus, Mars and more recently Jupiter, Saturn… etc… He did more for organized space science research than any other person in the US ever has! James E. Webb He was the Second NASA Administrator, from 1961 to 1968.

The James Webb Space Telescope… Telescope Primary Mirror Sun Shield Telescope Secondary Mirror Sun Shield = size of a Tennis Court! Life-Size GSFC

How is JWST different? - the telescope size! Learn more at

How is JWST different? - the telescope LOCATION! The Hubble Space telescope orbits around earth at a height of ~350 miles! This is so the astronauts can reach Hubble, and fix it or upgrade it, if needed! In the infrared, we want much darker skies with no earthshine or moonshine to compete with - so JWST is going to orbit at the sun-earth “Lagrange - 2” point - roughly 930,000 miles away! Photograph of Hubble Artist Drawing of JWST ! Learn more at

What’s a “Langrange” point, and why should we put our telescope out there? “Lagrange Point” - very stable orbit point where gravity and orbital energies are perfectly balanced! There are 5 L- points, JWST is going to “L2” Not much spacecraft fuel is needed to keep JWST in orbit here! Far away from earth = very dark sky! Sun Earth L2 Learn more at

How is JWST Different - INFRARED! Many wavelengths of infrared light sampled by JWST can’t be seen by Hubble or on the ground! Learn more at

How is JWST Different - INFRARED! Some infrared light measures the HEAT from an object! (the warm dog has a cold nose!) Visible light Infrared light

How is JWST Different - INFRARED! Light at some Infrared wavelengths can pierce through clouds of dust… view in visible light is not the same as IR!

The REAL Driver for JWST is the SCIENCE! 4 Key Goals for JWST! 1) The formation of star and planet systems 2) Extra-solar planets and the origin of life in our Universe 4) The first stars and the origin of our Universe! 3) The formation of galaxies and large structures in our universe

Star and Planet Formation Clouds of gas and dust collapse due to gravity form a flattened circumstellar “disk” planets coalesce out of dust and gas in the disk Animation courtesy of M. Ressler, JPL Animation of Star+Planet Formation Large Cloud of Gas and Dust, imaged by HST+WFC3

Fomalhaut - an outer ring of dust… indicative of planet formation? Ring of Dust Light from the Young Star is blocked and subtracted off ACS Images Simulated JWST Image

Fomalhaut B!? Kalas et al. (2008) Holy cow! Is that a planet!? JWST will be able to image and study wide extent planets, as in the planet in the Fomalhaut system!

Extra-solar Planets and the Origin of LIFE in the Universe! In the very first two strong candidate exo- planets were discovered! Today, 15 years later, 429 exoplanets are known! 41 multiple planet systems! New planets are Discovered ALL THE TIME! What was science fiction a mere 15 years ago, is reality today ! One of the most rapidly growing and highest profile realms of study in modern Astronomy! JWST can have a HUGE Impact here! See more at

How are exoplanets detected? 1) Direct Imaging (as in the HST images of Fomalhaut) 2) Planet passes in front of it’s star (transit, or eclipsing planets) 3) Radial Velocity Searches 4) Microlensing (see more info at Exoplanets.org) Main methods for exo-planet detection with JWST!

What is a Transiting, or Eclipsing Exoplanet? Animation from the HST SWEEPS Project - Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Exo-Planet Survey!

What is a Transiting, or Eclipsing Exoplanet? Animation from the HST SWEEPS Project - Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Exo-Planet Survey!

How can we find an Earth-like Planet? O Type = Brightest stars M Type = Faintest Stars It’s easiest to try to find Earth- like planets around the faintest stars! Sun!

JWST will aggressively seek to study earth-like planets as they pass in front of their “M star” hosts - by measuring starlight that passes through the atmosphere of the planet! Planet atmosphere

Our sphere of search for planets is just a small area of the Milky Way! The Milky Way galaxy is a BIG place… the universe is a huge place…! Key question for JWST - How common are earth-like planets? Our Milky Way Galaxy!

The Milky way & Galaxies Galaxies - BIG Huge conglomerations of stars - Milky Way is >200,000,000 stars! We are here! Artist Image of our Milky Way Galaxy

Hubble Space Telescope Images of Galaxies… Elliptical Galaxies It’s believed that some of the galaxies that we see today formed by merging of two different galaxies at some time in the past! Spiral Galaxies Test your Galaxy Classification skills! & Help Merging Galaxies

Distance in Astronomy Light takes time to travel… so looking at objects that are further and further away means that we are looking backwards in time! This is because light travels at a fixed speed - the speed of light! Distance from… Sun to Earth 8.3 light minutes Sun to Proxima Centauri4.26 light years Sun to the center of the Milky Way26,000 light years Sun to the Andromeda Galaxy2.5 Million light years!!!

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field! WOW! Some of the faint fuzzy blobs in this picture are the most distant galaxies known in our universe - 13 BILLION light-years away! Total Exposure time = days!!

The JWST Ultra Deep Field! Astronomer simulation of what the comparable JWST deep field will look like! How deep will we see?

Will JWST Detect the First Stars Ever Formed in Our Universe? Comparison of the Hubble deep field (left) to JWST deep field (right). HST Image - 30 hrs JWST Simulation - 17 mins

The James Webb Space Telescope! From planets to the most distant galaxies, this Infrared optimized observatory scheduled for launch in 2014 will revolutionize our understanding of the universe!! We Hope to Know in ~2014!

Thanks for your attention! JWST Deploying in 2014!!

We Hubble!! Glowing gas lit by massive stars! Eruption from a dying star! Gas flowing away from a dying star! Cluster of Stars! Pillars of dense gas lit by nearby stars!