Program Description
Event Details
The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. Since its launch on Dec. 25, 2021, people have been anticipating new images of the cosmos, with new discoveries to follow. We invite you to join us for an evening exploration as the JWST begins to provide us with its first images. How does this new observatory work? What makes it different from other telescopes? What may we expect it to show us that has been previously unseen? With its new capabilities, what more may we expect to learn about already-familiar galaxies, stars, dust, or exoplanets? Let’s talk about these questions as we gaze at space together with a special slideshow presented by Bill Higgins. Mr. Higgins is a Fermilab physicist and has been giving presentations as a NASA Solar System Ambassador volunteer for 23 years.
About the Presenter
William S. Higgins is a regular speaker on such topics as spaceflight, astronomy, physics, science fiction, and the history of science and technology. His work as a radiation safety physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory involves the transport of high-energy particle beams. As a volunteer since 1999 in NASA's Solar System Ambassador program, his quest for learning has taken him to observatories, labs, and launch sites. He has been an eyewitness to spacecraft encounters with Neptune, Pluto, and the icy asteroid Arrokoth.
This is an official "NASA Webb Space Telescope First Images Community Event."