Royal Institution Public Talk - Designing the James Webb Space Telescope
Saturday 19th October 2024 from 19:00pm to 20:30pm
The Royal Institution
21 Albermarle Street, London, London, W1S 4BS
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has now been capturing glimpses of our Universe for three and a half years. But as the largest telescope in space, the design and development of JWST was no small feat.
Join Astrophysics Division Director at NASA Mark Clampin as he discusses his own experiences in the design of the JWST, and how these design elements led to some of the ground-breaking science results it has yielded from observations of the early universe, the formation and evolution of stars, and the study of exoplanet atmsopheres.
Looking to the future, Mark will also give us a glimpse into two of NASA’s upcoming projects observing our universe. NASA’s next astrophysics flagship, the Roman Space Telescope, will study the nature of dark energy and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a new mission concept that will propel forwards the search for life in the universe, while building on the technical achievements of the Roman and Webb telescopes.
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Event darkness
The below chart shows if and when the skies will be at their darkest during this event. Moonlight is shown in light yellow and the Sun's twilight in light blue. Midnight on the date shown is shown as a white line with sunset to the left and sunrise the next morning to the right. A black background with stars shows the best times for stargazing.
Sat 19th Oct
Local light pollution
The Royal Institution is estimated to have light pollution levels similar to an urban location based on the latest data from the VIIRS satellite.
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Dark site
The above demonstrates the estimated effect of light pollution - graphics created using Stellarium.
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