Galaxies deeper in the universe than humanity has ever seen. Images of what’s really in exoplanet atmospheres.
The James Webb Space Telescope is revealing the spectacular crowds contained in even the tiniest bits of dark sky.
“Watching it go into orbit, watching it deploy, watching each instrument, one by one, prepare, there were hundreds of single-point failures with this telescope that if something didn’t work, the whole telescope wouldn’t have worked.” says astronomy professor Steve Finkelstein.
But it’s working, wonderfully.
“It’s almost seeing the universe writ large,” says Finkelstein. “You can see from the nearby universe to the most distant galaxies that humans have ever encountered. And scientific papers are already starting to come out.”
Today, On Point: Scientists join us to explain how to understand what the James Webb Space Telescope is sending home.
guests
Catherine Espaillat, astrophysicist and director of the Institute for Astrophysical Research at Boston University. (@DrCEspaillat)
Steve Finkelstein, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. (@astrosteven)
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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