Closer to home we are going to be looking at stars being born today. JM: That’s certainly the hope and we will definitely be looking for this. RM: Will we be able to learn about the lifecycle of stars and galaxies and the order in which things occurred? Does that happen because the galaxy produces a black hole or does the black hole come first and produce the galaxy? That’s a very interesting question. Another thing is that our Milky Way has a black hole in the middle and so do most galaxies. When we look back in time, we can see if galaxies were really very different and, so far, the evidence is that yes, they were, which is very interesting.

JM: Part of it is the general subject of how did we get here? What’s the history of humanity? We can start putting together all the pieces: we know there was the Big Bang, we know something happened to produce stars and galaxies, and we know it is pretty likely that galaxies grow from collisions of little bits. RM: What can we learn from seeing this far into space? We know more or less how we would recognise them if they are there, so that is one of the hardest problems for us to work on, but also one of the most important. It’s hard to tell at the moment, so we want to just look. So we will be looking further back in time to see what grew first, whether they were stars, galaxies or black holes. JM: We’re looking for everything, from the first objects after the Big Bang until now. RM: What will the James Webb be able to show us that the Hubble cannot? This allows us to see further back in time. The wavelength is longer, so we need an infrared telescope to see what started out as visible or UV. The expansion of the universe stretches out light that we receive from the most distant objects so that it is infrared instead of visible or ultraviolet. The less obvious one is that it is cold, so it can observe infrared light. What are key differences between the James Webb and the Hubble telescope that allow this?ĭr John Mather: The obvious one is it is a lot bigger, which allows it to see fainter things that are further away. Robert Mead: The James Webb telescope will allow us to look further into space than ever before. Smoot of the University of California) for his work using the COBE satellite to measure heat radiation from the Big Bang, this latest venture sees Mather zoom in on the universe’s most intriguing mysteries. Having won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics (shared with George F. In his role as Senior Project Scientist, Nobel Laureate and scientist Dr John Mather is a leading figure behind the project. Once completed and launched into orbit, astronomers will use it to study how planets and solar systems are born, bringing us closer to revealing the origins of the universe and humanity. It will look further into space than ever before, allowing us to gaze through the history of the universe. Re-read your story aloud to listen to see if it makes sense and if you can up-level it even further.The James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest ever built by NASA and successor to the current Hubble telescope.

Write a story about your newly discovered ability and what you can do with it. But what would be the benefits of looking back in time? How far back can you see? How do you know when it’s the past and when it’s the present? You blacked out for a moment and when you came to, you had the ability to look back in time on Earth as well.

Light from the sun bounced off one of the satellites orbiting Earth and came back down the lens of the telescope, sending Gamma rays into your pupils. Imagine you were one of the scientists looking through the James Webb telescope and you made an epic discovery. Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activityĬurriculum Links: English Science Critical and Creative Thinking If we knew the sun was going to suddenly disappear, what would you do in the 8.3 minutes you have left before darkness? Write a descriptive paragraph about this experience. Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activityĬurriculum Links: Visual Arts Science Critical and Creative Thinking You can use pencils, textas or whatever materials you have to complete your drawing. Write the era or time you are looking back on at the top of your picture. Pick an era and draw what you might see (be as imaginative as you like and draw as much detail as possible).

If you could use this new telescope to look back in time, which era would you like to look at through the lens of the James Webb telescope?

James web telescope to see planets