Skip to main content

JWST: From First Light to First Science

JWST: From First Light to First Science

538 Davey Lab and https://psu.zoom.us/j/92637070419

2023-02-01

Marshall Perrin Abstract: After decades of development by a globe-spanning team, JWST is now providing an unprecedented view of the cosmos. In this talk I will describe our experience thus far operating this new great observatory: from mission design history and development, to prelaunch preparations, to launch and commissioning, and now into the first of many years of mission operations at the Earth-Sun L2 point. I will provide a first-hand look at the processes and teamwork we used to deploy the observatory and align its segmented mirror system, and discuss some of the surprises (both challenges and good news) encountered during commissioning. Even from early in telescope commissioning, this observatory’s tremendous power and sensitivity were already apparent with spectacular images and spectra. Now during science operations, we continue to learn more about observatory hardware performance; this is still early days in our adventure with JWST. I will close with a look at (a small fraction of) some of the early science results with JWST, with particular attention to our early imaging observations of nearby exoplanetary systems.

TimeSpeakerTitle
15:45Marshall PerrinJWST: From First Light to First Science
About our wordmark
Monica The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.