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| 0s | Pilots get ready to warp to the James |
|---|---|
| 3s | Webb Telescope please welcome to the |
| 6s | stage Professor Mark McLaughlin |
| 12s | good morning |
| 14s | thank you |
| 16s | so it's my job this morning to take you |
| 18s | back to real space from the space where |
| 20s | you spend most of your lives as far as I |
| 22s | can tell |
| 23s | um |
| 24s | I have a son who's about your age I'm |
| 26s | looking out I'm guessing most of you are |
| 28s | a bit younger than me |
| 30s | um but it's my job today to talk about a |
| 32s | project which has actually taken a very |
| 33s | long time so when I started on this I |
| 35s | was just as young as you were and I'll |
| 38s | show you some pictures at the end to |
| 39s | demonstrate that so this is the James |
| 41s | Webb Space Telescope it's a joint |
| 43s | project of NASA the European Space |
| 46s | Agency who I work for and the Canadian |
| 48s | space agency and I've been a member of |
| 51s | the science working group the science |
| 52s | team for this Mission since 2002 and I |
| 57s | started on the project in 1998. so a |
| 60s | long time ago to get to this point where |
| 62s | we are today |
| 63s | where finally this telescope is in Orbit |
| 67s | and taking science data |
| 69s | so let's see if we can make this machine |
| 72s | work here |
| 74s | maybe not we're going to have the |
| 76s | trouble right from the beginning |
| 78s | all right we have a backup |
| 86s | that doesn't work either |
| 98s | yeah it doesn't seem to be |
| 102s | let me try again we worked earlier |
| 106s | just give us a moment guys |
| 119s | all right we'll go with that |
| 121s | so on Christmas Day |
| 123s | 2021 the James Webb Space Telescope was |
| 127s | launched into orbit on an Ariane 5 |
| 130s | rocket from French Guiana so the |
| 132s | European Space Agency is one of its big |
| 134s | contributions to this mission was the |
| 135s | Aryan 5 rocket you can see it going into |
| 137s | space here but this story actually |
| 140s | starts a long time before that |
| 145s | maybe if I go and stand all the way over |
| 147s | here |
| 148s | doesn't really matter where I stand on |
| 149s | stage |
| 153s | there you go |
| 156s | so the story starts actually back here |
| 158s | this is in the um in 1990 this is the |
| 161s | launch of the Hubble Space Telescope |
| 163s | which has now been in space for more |
| 164s | than 33 years and even before we |
| 167s | launched Hubble in 1990 we knew that at |
| 171s | some point we would need a new Space |
| 172s | Telescope to do things that Hubble |
| 174s | couldn't do and so in the mid-1980s up |
| 179s | until 1989 a study was started to look |
| 182s | at what we call then ngst the next |
| 185s | Generation Space Telescope so this |
| 188s | conference took place in 1989 even |
| 190s | before we launched the Hubble Space |
| 192s | Telescope and it took all of those years |
| 194s | that Hubble has been operating to get to |
| 196s | where we are today so these are very |
| 198s | long-term projects but we can go back |
| 200s | even further than that |
| 203s | and think about what human beings can |
| 206s | see in space with the naked eye so this |
| 208s | is a shot from a beach in New Zealand |
| 211s | and we can see the Milky Way our galaxy |
| 213s | the one we live in with roughly 200 |
| 215s | billion stars we can see the two |
| 218s | external galaxies there on the left-hand |
| 220s | side a large and small magellanic clouds |
| 223s | which orbit around our Milky Way and we |
| 226s | can see with the naked eye about 6 000 |
| 229s | Stars over the whole sky |
| 231s | so it looks like there are many more in |
| 233s | this picture of course this is a |
| 234s | photograph it can capture fainter light |
| 236s | than we can see with a naked eye but |
| 238s | astronomers are always greedy for more |
| 240s | light we always want to see fainter |
| 242s | things so over the years we've invented |
| 245s | machines called telescopes so starting |
| 247s | roughly 400 years ago with Galileo we've |
| 250s | built telescopes bigger and bigger |
| 252s | collecting more and more light to see |
| 253s | fainter and fainter objects and this |
| 256s | picture here |
| 257s | shows you one of the biggest |
| 258s | observatories in the world this is |
| 260s | called an astronomers are boring this is |
| 262s | called the very large telescope |
| 265s | um and this sets on a Mountaintop in |
| 267s | Chile at about two and a half thousand |
| 270s | meters you can see some small telescopes |
| 272s | there on the left hand side and this |
| 274s | giant telescope there which has a main |
| 276s | collecting mirror eight meters across so |
| 279s | roughly the width of the stage here at |
| 281s | the front and with that of course we can |
| 282s | collect much more light than the human |
| 284s | eye can collect but astronomers are even |
| 286s | more greedy than that because we not |
| 288s | only have one of them |
| 291s | on the same Mountain Top we decided to |
| 294s | build another one |
| 297s | and another one |
| 300s | it does stop soon and another one so |
| 303s | there are four of these eight meter |
| 304s | telescope which make up the very large |
| 306s | telescope and they can all be linked |
| 307s | together underground the light can be |
| 309s | channeled and we can actually collect |
| 311s | the light from all of those not only |
| 313s | with more sensitivity to see fainter |
| 315s | objects but also we can link them up to |
| 318s | do to get higher resolution more detail |
| 320s | on the objects now this is a place where |
| 323s | telescopes are cited especially if they |
| 327s | want to work |
| 328s | in the infrared or at millimeter |
| 331s | wavelengths this is the summit of Mauna |
| 333s | Kea in Hawaii so it's 4.2 kilometers |
| 335s | altitude and that puts you above most of |
| 338s | the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere |
| 340s | and water vapor absorbs infrared light |
| 343s | that's why it's part of the greenhouse |
| 344s | gas equation along with CO2 water vapor |
| 348s | absorbs the infrared and you want to get |
| 349s | above as much of it as you can in order |
| 352s | to be able to see that radiation coming |
| 354s | from space and the telescope on the left |
| 357s | hand side I'll come back to it right at |
| 358s | the end that's the United Kingdom |
| 360s | infrared telescope that's a four meter |
| 362s | wide telescope so very small by modern |
| 364s | standards but it's where I got my PhD |
| 367s | thesis in the 1980s and I'll come back |
| 369s | to that right at the end and just you |
| 371s | know one of those geeky astronomer |
| 372s | things I got married on the summit of |
| 374s | that mountain as well because that's |
| 375s | what astronomers do |
| 378s | thank you |
| 380s | so even Mauna Kea though is not the |
| 383s | perfect observational site for |
| 384s | astronomers clouds very often go |
| 386s | underneath |
| 387s | um because the Big Island sticking out |
| 389s | in the Pacific the clouds go below that |
| 391s | altitude quite often but not always so |
| 393s | there are times when there are clouds |
| 395s | above you on Mauna Kea |
| 397s | and even when there are no clouds |
| 402s | I'm getting two clicks now |
| 405s | then there's a glow in the sky humans |
| 407s | can't really see it but our telescopes |
| 409s | because they're so sensitive they |
| 410s | capture so much light they can see this |
| 413s | reddish glow in the sky and it's even |
| 414s | brighter in the infrared and what this |
| 417s | glow is is molecules at about 80 |
| 419s | kilometers altitude made of one oxygen |
| 422s | and one hydrogen it's called the |
| 424s | hydroxyl molecule and that captures |
| 426s | ultraviolet light during the daytime and |
| 428s | at night it releases that energy in the |
| 431s | form of a visible glow and an infrared |
| 433s | glow so if you're trying to see faint |
| 435s | objects in space of course you're trying |
| 436s | to look through all of that bright stuff |
| 438s | in the foreground it's a bit like me now |
| 440s | I can really not see the people at the |
| 442s | back because they've got such a bright |
| 443s | light in my face if you turn that off I |
| 445s | would have a much clearer vision and so |
| 447s | that's again a problem with astronomy |
| 449s | you want to get rid of as much of the |
| 451s | bright background so you can see these |
| 453s | faint objects |
| 455s | now even if you manage to do that then |
| 457s | you have this to compete with on the |
| 459s | earth and that's called what we call |
| 460s | seeing this is atmospheric turbulence |
| 463s | heat rising in the atmosphere and that |
| 466s | causes the refractive index of the |
| 468s | atmosphere to change slightly from place |
| 470s | to place and if you look very carefully |
| 472s | you can see the moon is not just moving |
| 474s | All in One Direction at once to the left |
| 476s | then to the right bits of it are moving |
| 478s | in different directions all over the |
| 480s | place uh the kind of a rubber sheeting |
| 482s | there |
| 483s | and that means if I have a very bright a |
| 485s | source I want to look at which is a |
| 486s | point of light a distant star it gets |
| 489s | smeared out it gets blurred into a into |
| 491s | a rounder Circle and that limits the |
| 494s | resolution you can get from the Earth |
| 498s | we can correct some of that by using |
| 501s | lasers we can attach big lasers to our |
| 503s | telescopes shine them up to about 80 |
| 506s | kilometers again hit sodium atoms in the |
| 509s | upper atmosphere make artificial Stars |
| 511s | which then help us deform the telescope |
| 514s | in a way which corrects the turbulence |
| 516s | so that's called laser guide star |
| 518s | Adaptive Optics and we use that for very |
| 520s | small pieces of the sky where it works |
| 522s | well but again it's not perfect across |
| 525s | big areas of the sky which you want to |
| 527s | survey so in the end you put telescopes |
| 530s | in space it's a lot more expensive it |
| 532s | takes a long time to develop them but |
| 534s | there are huge advantages to putting |
| 536s | these big machines in space this is the |
| 538s | Hubble Space Telescope which you see I |
| 540s | showed you at the beginning launched in |
| 541s | 1990 it's still in operation it's had |
| 544s | several missions over its lifetime |
| 546s | changing instruments changing faulty |
| 548s | Parts fixing the mirror which was broken |
| 550s | in the first place |
| 552s | um |
| 553s | we're having fun this morning and has |
| 557s | new solar panels and so on so Hubble Is |
| 559s | Still operational but Hubble is a |
| 561s | visible wavelength telescope it focuses |
| 563s | on the wavelengths you and I can see in |
| 565s | this room it goes into the ultraviolet |
| 567s | and a little bit into the infrared but |
| 569s | it's not really a very good infrared |
| 571s | telescope at all and the reason for that |
| 573s | is that this telescope is close to the |
| 575s | Earth you can see it's just at about 400 |
| 577s | kilometers above the earth the earth is |
| 580s | heating the telescope from underneath |
| 581s | the sun is heating it from the other |
| 583s | side the whole telescope is about room |
| 585s | temperature we like to think that space |
| 587s | is cold well not if you're near a planet |
| 588s | and not if you're near a star it's |
| 591s | actually about room temperature out |
| 592s | there in space you'll die for other |
| 594s | reasons but you won't die of cold |
| 597s | um |
| 597s | so the telescope is heated up to 20 |
| 600s | degrees and that means that it's giving |
| 602s | out light not in the visible it's dark |
| 605s | in the visible but it's giving out light |
| 606s | in the infrared heat radiation and that |
| 609s | means it has this bright background of |
| 611s | emission which makes it hard to see |
| 613s | faint objects in the infrared so it's |
| 615s | not a very good infrared telescope at |
| 616s | all |
| 617s | the other advantage of putting |
| 619s | telescopes in space is that the Earth's |
| 621s | atmosphere I told you it absorbs water a |
| 625s | water absorbs infrared light but other |
| 627s | molecules in the atmosphere absorb other |
| 629s | kinds of light coming from space and if |
| 631s | you look on the left hand side there the |
| 633s | atmosphere is completely opaque you |
| 635s | can't see through it at all at gamma ray |
| 637s | wavelengths or x-rays so if you want to |
| 639s | do that kind of astronomy you have to be |
| 641s | in Space the same for the whole of the |
| 644s | middle infrared between 100 Micron |
| 646s | wavelength and one millimeter you pretty |
| 648s | much have to be in space or on super |
| 650s | high mountains with no water vapor at |
| 652s | all |
| 653s | so Hubble works at visible wavelengths |
| 655s | there and you see just to the left |
| 656s | that's the infrared where the James Webb |
| 658s | Space Telescope works so we have all of |
| 660s | these different missions in space which |
| 662s | operate at different wavelengths and |
| 665s | jwst was designed to fit in at the red |
| 667s | end of the optical the visible that we |
| 669s | can see all the way out to wavelengths |
| 671s | about 50 or 60 times longer than that |
| 674s | and you can see some of that you can see |
| 676s | from the ground some of those photons |
| 677s | make it down to the ground but many of |
| 679s | them don't and with jwst we get rid of |
| 682s | all of those barriers at different |
| 684s | wavelengths |
| 686s | now |
| 688s | one of the most famous pictures ever |
| 691s | taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is |
| 693s | called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field it's |
| 695s | a very tiny piece of the sky it's about |
| 697s | the size of a piece of rice held at the |
| 700s | end of your your arm so it's very small |
| 702s | area on the sky and the Hubble pointed |
| 705s | at it for around about a month taking |
| 707s | images every few minutes and you add the |
| 710s | images together you stack them up and at |
| 712s | the end of the month you get this view |
| 713s | which is seeing galaxies |
| 717s | very few stars in our Milky Way because |
| 719s | we're looking at a tiny piece of the sky |
| 721s | but beyond that there are galaxies upon |
| 723s | galaxies upon galaxies and you see some |
| 725s | of the big ones in the foreground the |
| 727s | big Spirals and ellipticals and then the |
| 729s | galaxies get a bit smaller there's |
| 730s | plenty of smaller galaxies and there's |
| 732s | plenty of points of light in there so |
| 735s | we're seeing galaxies further and |
| 737s | further away the fainter they get but |
| 739s | here's the critical thing we're not just |
| 741s | seeing them further away we're seeing |
| 743s | them further back in time |
| 745s | because the further away we look the |
| 748s | longer it has taken light to reach us |
| 750s | and some of the galaxies in here the |
| 753s | light has been traveling for 10 billion |
| 755s | years before it gets to our telescope |
| 757s | and those are the smallest points of |
| 759s | light in this picture now here's the |
| 762s | thing we know that the universe is only |
| 765s | 13.8 billion years old there are many |
| 768s | reasons we know that many measurements |
| 770s | with different kinds of telescopes we |
| 772s | know there is a wall we cannot see |
| 774s | further away than 13.8 billion years |
| 778s | into the past |
| 780s | Hubble has seen about 10 billion 11 |
| 782s | billion years and at that distance or |
| 785s | that time in the past there are galaxies |
| 787s | everywhere so the question is when did |
| 790s | the first galaxies actually form when |
| 792s | did the first stars form when did the |
| 794s | first galaxies form |
| 796s | Hubble will never see them Hubble cannot |
| 799s | see them even if it spends a year or a |
| 801s | hundred years observing and the reason |
| 804s | for that is what we call redshift |
| 806s | so as the universe is we see further and |
| 809s | further away we also know that the |
| 810s | universe is expanding every day every |
| 813s | second every year it gets bigger and |
| 815s | bigger those galaxies are effectively |
| 817s | moving away from us they're attached to |
| 819s | space-time and as space-time stretches |
| 822s | out in the expansion of the universe the |
| 824s | galaxies move away and they move away in |
| 827s | a in a sense faster and faster and |
| 829s | faster the further they are away from us |
| 832s | and the phenomenon of redshift says that |
| 834s | the faster something is moving away from |
| 836s | you the more its light gets moved to Red |
| 840s | wavelengths we know this from sound if |
| 842s | an ambulance comes towards you along the |
| 844s | street and it's moving towards you it's |
| 845s | blue shifted the notes go up to a higher |
| 848s | frequency and when it goes away from you |
| 850s | the note drops and it goes to a lower |
| 852s | frequency that's called Doppler shift |
| 854s | the same thing happens with light so |
| 857s | when you go further and further back in |
| 859s | time in the universe those galaxies are |
| 861s | further away moving faster away and the |
| 864s | light is redshifted |
| 866s | to longer wavelengths so what we call |
| 869s | redshift three and I'll say what this |
| 870s | means in a moment you see the light has |
| 873s | moved from visible wavelengths into the |
| 875s | near infrared |
| 876s | and if we go to redshift of 10 which is |
| 879s | where Hubble can see there's only a tiny |
| 882s | amount of light left at visible |
| 884s | wavelengths all that light has gone to |
| 885s | the infrared now |
| 887s | and just to show you what that means in |
| 889s | terms of age redshift of 10 is 13.2 |
| 893s | billion years ago in the past so there's |
| 896s | still 600 million years since the |
| 898s | beginning of the universe and what |
| 900s | Hubble can see and somewhere in that Gap |
| 902s | the first galaxies formed so you need an |
| 906s | infrared telescope to see them you need |
| 908s | a telescope that can see at those |
| 909s | wavelengths where that curve is now and |
| 912s | Beyond and that's one of the reasons for |
| 914s | the James Webb Space Telescope |
| 916s | those objects also get a lot fainter |
| 919s | because the further away they are the |
| 921s | dimmer the light and when you add that |
| 922s | factor in then these galaxies get |
| 925s | incredibly faint on the axis on the |
| 927s | y-axis these are factors of a hundred |
| 930s | thousand in each step so they're |
| 931s | incredibly faint these objects so you |
| 934s | need a much bigger telescope than Hubble |
| 936s | to see them as well you need an infrared |
| 938s | telescope and a much bigger one |
| 940s | now once you have that you can do all |
| 943s | other kind of astronomy so one of the |
| 945s | other things that affects where the |
| 948s | light comes out is the temperature of |
| 950s | the object |
| 951s | surface of a fairly average star a bit |
| 954s | dimmer than the sun would be at about 3 |
| 957s | 000 Kelvin 3000 degrees Kelvin and that |
| 961s | puts most of its light out at visible |
| 962s | and red wavelengths but if you go to |
| 965s | longer wavelengths |
| 969s | so 300 Kelvin for example is the |
| 971s | temperature we're all at in the room |
| 973s | here around 200 |
| 976s | Kelvin is 2 minus 273 degrees Centigrade |
| 980s | so you just add on what your temperature |
| 982s | is in centigrade then you get your |
| 984s | absolute temperature so we're around 300 |
| 986s | Kelvin and all of our light is coming |
| 989s | out in the infrared I mean I can just |
| 991s | about see you with reflected visible |
| 992s | light but if I was a snake and I had |
| 994s | infrared vision which they do you'd be |
| 997s | glowing in the room and I would be |
| 998s | running in your direction to have lunch |
| 1002s | and then you can get down to much much |
| 1003s | lower temperatures you see here but once |
| 1006s | you can see things that say a thousand |
| 1008s | Kelvin or 300 Kelvin you're looking at |
| 1010s | stars before they were born Stars before |
| 1013s | they heat up so the process of star |
| 1015s | formation and Planet formation is most |
| 1018s | naturally done in the infrared where |
| 1020s | these objects are still young and only |
| 1021s | just warming up at the beginning of |
| 1023s | their lives so this is another good |
| 1025s | reason to build a big infrared telescope |
| 1030s | and here's a sort of demonstration there |
| 1032s | are some unfortunate people on the |
| 1033s | left-hand side there have been who have |
| 1035s | been seen by a snake and will not last |
| 1036s | much longer |
| 1038s | um now the other thing is as I said |
| 1040s | before if you want to make sure you can |
| 1042s | see these wavelengths from space from |
| 1044s | this objects out at a great distance you |
| 1047s | need to make sure your telescope is not |
| 1049s | emitting light at the same wavelength |
| 1051s | again Hubble Is around that temperature |
| 1053s | Hubble would just be blinded if it tries |
| 1056s | to look at faint light in the infrared |
| 1058s | so the way you get over that is you cool |
| 1060s | the telescope down so the James Webb |
| 1063s | Space Telescope is designed to be called |
| 1065s | to minus 233 degrees Centigrade so it's |
| 1070s | not giving any light out at these |
| 1072s | wavelengths so it's a very different |
| 1074s | kind of telescope to the Hubble Space |
| 1076s | Telescope and then one last real |
| 1079s | advantage of looking in the infrared is |
| 1082s | that dust which is in the regions where |
| 1084s | stars and planets are being born they're |
| 1086s | being made from gas and dust dust |
| 1089s | absorbs infrared light very effectively |
| 1091s | so this is the famous Orion Nebula which |
| 1093s | I'll come back to at the end this is a |
| 1095s | visible light picture taken by the |
| 1096s | Hubble Space Telescope if you look at |
| 1099s | infrared wavelengths from the ground |
| 1102s | then you see many more stars in there |
| 1104s | they're hidden away in the visible |
| 1106s | because all of that gas and dust but |
| 1108s | when you go to the infrared suddenly you |
| 1110s | can see cooler objects and objects which |
| 1113s | are hidden by dust and so that's another |
| 1115s | reason we want to work in the infrared |
| 1118s | and if you can work in the infrared you |
| 1120s | can also start measuring the atmospheres |
| 1122s | of planets going around other stars so |
| 1125s | we're not just interested with a James |
| 1127s | Webb Space Telescope in taking pictures |
| 1129s | of things but also measuring their |
| 1131s | properties the chemistry the physics and |
| 1134s | maybe even the biology because we can do |
| 1136s | spectroscopy we can split the light out |
| 1138s | in different wavelengths |
| 1142s | and actually start measuring compounds |
| 1145s | in the atmospheres of those planets so |
| 1148s | that's a really powerful part of jwst is |
| 1152s | to be able to do spectroscopy Beyond The |
| 1154s | Imaging so I'll show you some examples |
| 1155s | of that when we get to that point |
| 1157s | so |
| 1160s | what do we need to do well this is the |
| 1161s | Hubble Space Telescope it has a main |
| 1163s | mirror two and a half meters across it's |
| 1165s | a big machine it weighs about 12 and a |
| 1167s | half tons and it operates at wavelengths |
| 1170s | between the ultraviolet and kind of near |
| 1172s | infrared |
| 1173s | it's now 30 years old still working |
| 1176s | everything's fine maybe we have a few |
| 1178s | more years left at some point it will |
| 1180s | drop into the Earth's atmosphere and we |
| 1181s | have to think about what to do about |
| 1183s | that |
| 1184s | but the James Webb Space Telescope has a |
| 1186s | main mirror which is six and a half |
| 1187s | meters across so close to the one of |
| 1189s | those VLT telescopes you saw at the |
| 1191s | beginning |
| 1192s | it's a much lighter telescope it's kind |
| 1194s | of a floppy telescope it only weighs |
| 1196s | about six and a half tons and it is at |
| 1199s | this operating temperature of minus 233 |
| 1202s | and one of the ways we one of the things |
| 1205s | we need to do to make sure it gets cold |
| 1206s | is move it away from the earth it cannot |
| 1209s | be near the Earth and it can never see |
| 1211s | the Sun or the Earth so we have this |
| 1213s | giant sunshield underneath which is |
| 1216s | always in the direction of Earth and Sun |
| 1218s | and to do that we sit at a point one and |
| 1220s | a half million kilometers away from |
| 1223s | Earth which puts the Earth and the Sun |
| 1225s | permanently in the same direction we can |
| 1227s | put the sun shield the telescope then |
| 1229s | gets cold and we can do the astronomy we |
| 1231s | want to |
| 1233s | so let's have a look at some of the |
| 1234s | reality of this machine |
| 1236s | well so first we've also got all the |
| 1238s | instruments on the back side and the top |
| 1240s | there so we have the main mirror on the |
| 1242s | front uh the big sun shield underneath |
| 1244s | we have a big on the on the warm side we |
| 1246s | also have computers and electronics to |
| 1248s | send the data back to Earth so that's |
| 1250s | that's that doesn't get super chilled on |
| 1252s | that bottom side but all of this stuff |
| 1254s | on the top side is down at around 40 |
| 1256s | degrees Kelvin so minus 233 |
| 1260s | so just trivially this is how the light |
| 1263s | is collected it comes from a different |
| 1265s | object it's focused by the primary |
| 1266s | mirror and then by the secondary mirror |
| 1269s | these two mirrors are really interesting |
| 1270s | they allow the telescope effectively one |
| 1273s | of them is moving constantly and that |
| 1276s | makes the telescope stable it helps keep |
| 1278s | objects fixed on the sky even though the |
| 1281s | telescope itself because it's floppy |
| 1283s | might be wobbling around just by moving |
| 1285s | that third mirror tracking the movement |
| 1287s | of a star you can have super Sharp |
| 1289s | Images |
| 1290s | and then on the back side well I'm out |
| 1294s | of sequence today because I can't see my |
| 1295s | talk |
| 1296s | um so these are just six of those |
| 1298s | mirrors each one of those mirrors is 1.2 |
| 1300s | meters across it's made of beryllium one |
| 1303s | of the lightest metals that has a gold |
| 1305s | coating on the surface very thin each |
| 1307s | one of those mirrors only weighs about |
| 1308s | 20 kilograms they're incredibly light |
| 1310s | it's all been sculpted out on the back |
| 1312s | they're only very thin on the front |
| 1314s | surface but they're very rigid and they |
| 1316s | work extremely well at low temperatures |
| 1319s | and then you put all 18 of them together |
| 1321s | with obviously a hole in the middle to |
| 1323s | let light through and this is in testing |
| 1325s | at Goddard space flight center in the US |
| 1327s | and you can see of course that it's |
| 1328s | curved you often see pictures of it |
| 1330s | looks flat that mirror it's not it has |
| 1332s | to be a curve in order to focus the |
| 1334s | light |
| 1335s | so this is a big very rigid system but |
| 1338s | very lightweight |
| 1342s | here are the four instruments which we |
| 1344s | have on board we have cameras for the |
| 1346s | near infrared and the mid infrared and |
| 1348s | we have spectrometers for both of those |
| 1351s | wavelengths as well so we have |
| 1353s | um the camera in the bottom right hand |
| 1355s | side which you'll see most of the images |
| 1357s | from and the big thing at the top there |
| 1359s | about two meters across is the European |
| 1361s | spectrograph called neospec and then the |
| 1364s | mid infrared instrument is between the |
| 1365s | European space agency and NASA and the |
| 1368s | Canadians supplied another camera and |
| 1370s | they also supplied this really important |
| 1371s | guidance system that allows us to keep |
| 1374s | the images very stable |
| 1376s | so just to show you how one of these |
| 1378s | things work we've got all of the |
| 1379s | examples this is just Miri the mid |
| 1381s | infrared instrument this is how it takes |
| 1383s | pictures the light comes in from one |
| 1385s | side it's reflected from some mirrors to |
| 1387s | start getting it ready and bending the |
| 1389s | light around it goes through a filter |
| 1391s | wheel so we can select just a certain |
| 1393s | color of light certain wavelengths then |
| 1395s | we take another picture we take another |
| 1397s | picture at different wavelengths we |
| 1399s | don't take color images at one time we |
| 1401s | take one wavelength then take another |
| 1403s | image another wavelength and if we take |
| 1405s | three of them we can put them together |
| 1406s | as RGB we can make a color picture if |
| 1409s | you like |
| 1410s | so Imaging is quite easy spectroscopy on |
| 1413s | the other hand where you have to split |
| 1414s | the light up into its individual |
| 1416s | wavelengths that's a bit more |
| 1418s | complicated |
| 1419s | so here we see the light coming in again |
| 1421s | it'll go past the camera unit which is |
| 1423s | in the top half |
| 1426s | and as it goes into the bottom half the |
| 1429s | light then starts getting split up into |
| 1431s | different channels well I'll just let it |
| 1434s | speak for himself because it's a bit |
| 1435s | crazy |
| 1448s | so amazingly that works |
| 1452s | and what that lets us do |
| 1455s | what that lets us do is take a patch of |
| 1457s | the sky and take each row in that in |
| 1461s | that patch of the sky then we rotate the |
| 1464s | row around and we split it into |
| 1466s | different Spectra for each row and then |
| 1469s | we assemble it all back again at the |
| 1470s | other end to make a cube a cube of data |
| 1473s | so you for each position on the sky you |
| 1475s | have a full spectrum and you can say |
| 1477s | well for that point in the Galaxy we see |
| 1479s | this kind of stuff happening this point |
| 1481s | in the galaxy and so on so this this is |
| 1483s | a really powerful way of taking a |
| 1485s | picture but having a spectrum for every |
| 1486s | point in that uh in that uh in that |
| 1491s | pixel so this is showing just one of the |
| 1493s | instruments being attached to the others |
| 1495s | this is the near spec the European |
| 1496s | instrument so these are big animals big |
| 1498s | beasts but very lightweight this is all |
| 1500s | made of silicon carbide for example |
| 1502s | which is a really lightweight material |
| 1504s | but incredibly stiff which is what you |
| 1507s | need to make sure all the Optics stay |
| 1509s | lined up the instruments that when |
| 1511s | packaged on the back of the telescope |
| 1513s | you can see on the left hand side being |
| 1515s | dropped down someone on the back of the |
| 1516s | telescope the telescope's facing down |
| 1518s | onto the floor at that point so this is |
| 1520s | all assembled |
| 1522s | and then has to be all tested at low |
| 1524s | temperatures so it's put into this huge |
| 1526s | chamber a Johnson Space Center in the |
| 1528s | U.S this is actually where the Apollo |
| 1530s | space modules were tested in the 1960s |
| 1534s | um and that so that chamber is big |
| 1535s | enough for the whole of Apollo but now |
| 1537s | we put the James Webb Space Telescope in |
| 1539s | there that the chamber gets to minus 233 |
| 1543s | Celsius so down to those temperatures we |
| 1545s | need to operate out and for months it |
| 1547s | sat in there and we ran all the |
| 1549s | instruments and checked all the Optics |
| 1551s | made sure everything was good |
| 1553s | for launch but then we had to attach |
| 1555s | this big thing which is the sun shield |
| 1557s | and you can see how large that thing is |
| 1559s | look at the people on the Cherry Pickers |
| 1561s | there that is roughly the size of a |
| 1563s | tennis court 22 meters long and of |
| 1566s | course that has to be folded up before |
| 1568s | we go into space just like the telescope |
| 1570s | you can see here the telescope is partly |
| 1572s | folded up and we need to package all of |
| 1574s | that to get inside the rocket fairing |
| 1577s | so all of that was put together and then |
| 1579s | shipped on it on a on a ship a literal |
| 1582s | ship through the Panama Canal and down |
| 1584s | to French Guiana and here you see it on |
| 1586s | the left-hand side in its launch |
| 1588s | configuration with the sun shield folded |
| 1590s | up all of the layers those five |
| 1592s | individual layers pull together the |
| 1594s | whole telescope pulled together and then |
| 1596s | in the middle the Ariane 5 main core |
| 1599s | stage and then with the solid rocket |
| 1601s | boosters on the right hand side there so |
| 1603s | this was November December 2021 I was |
| 1607s | lucky enough to be down there to see the |
| 1608s | telescope in November and then also on |
| 1610s | Christmas day to see the launch so I'm |
| 1613s | going to show you the launch now this is |
| 1615s | a piece of a video a longer video you |
| 1616s | can find online which is a kind of a |
| 1619s | documentary about the the launch of jwsc |
| 1622s | and this is where I'll ask somebody to |
| 1624s | bring me some water because they get |
| 1625s | quite emotional when I watch this |
| 1628s | we could just make it as loud as you |
| 1631s | like |
| 1638s | foreign |
| 1668s | liftoff from a tropical rainforest to |
| 1671s | the Edge of Time itself James Webb |
| 1673s | begins a voyage back to the birth of the |
| 1675s | unit |
| 1683s | punching a hole through the clouds 20 |
| 1685s | seconds into the flight good pitch |
| 1687s | program reported |
| 1701s | on 5 rocket continues to fly uphill in |
| 1705s | nominal fashion |
| 1709s | foreign |
| 1714s | as I say Christmas day right what a way |
| 1716s | to spend Christmas day |
| 1717s | I was if you if you may have seen me |
| 1720s | bold guy in the middle of one of those |
| 1721s | shots so it was a good place to be |
| 1724s | um so yeah we had to launch and then of |
| 1726s | course then the telescope had to get |
| 1728s | into space and one of the first things |
| 1729s | that had to happen we had to unfold this |
| 1731s | solar panel on the back of the uh |
| 1734s | Observatory to get some power we were |
| 1736s | only on batteries and we only had a few |
| 1737s | hours on batteries so this is the last |
| 1739s | shot taken of the telescope from the top |
| 1741s | of the Ariane five |
| 1744s | there it is all folded up this is faster |
| 1746s | than real time it's about five times |
| 1748s | faster than real Time That's Somalia and |
| 1750s | the Gulf of Aden down there and then |
| 1753s | you'll see now the solar array open up |
| 1755s | and this was the moment where people |
| 1756s | really cheered because we knew we had a |
| 1759s | space mission at this point without that |
| 1761s | we were dead but that all worked |
| 1763s | perfectly well I don't know that's as |
| 1765s | good as some of the graphics in Eve |
| 1766s | right I mean but it's real it's real |
| 1770s | hmm |
| 1776s | so this point where we where we needed |
| 1778s | to get out to the L2 point which is one |
| 1780s | and a half million kilometers away as I |
| 1782s | say it keeps the Earth and the Sun |
| 1784s | always on the same side of the |
| 1786s | observatory gravity balance is out there |
| 1788s | in a way which is very clever uh it |
| 1790s | still follows the Earth around it |
| 1792s | doesn't get further away from the earth |
| 1793s | but it enables us to be stable as we |
| 1796s | orbit around and we keep the sun shield |
| 1798s | pointed towards Earth and the Sun the |
| 1800s | telescope on the other side is looking |
| 1802s | out into the darkness of space and we |
| 1804s | can get down to that temp there's really |
| 1805s | low temperatures |
| 1807s | now we need to unfold it this is the 15 |
| 1809s | second version |
| 1815s | all right I could spend the three-hour |
| 1816s | talk on that but |
| 1818s | um all incredibly complicated took about |
| 1820s | a month every single piece had to work |
| 1822s | there were lots of single point failures |
| 1824s | in there particularly the sun shield as |
| 1826s | the sunshield did not deploy fully then |
| 1829s | we would not have a mission because the |
| 1830s | telescope would never get cold the |
| 1832s | instruments would never get cold we'd |
| 1833s | never be able to see a thing but it all |
| 1836s | worked |
| 1837s | we were able then to again Orient the |
| 1840s | telescope pointing towards the cell on |
| 1842s | the right hand side uh the the sun |
| 1844s | shield and then the telescope looking |
| 1845s | out into space it looks sideways it |
| 1847s | doesn't look away from the Sun and the |
| 1849s | Earth it looks sideways but it looks |
| 1851s | into the dark so it's an incredibly |
| 1853s | sensitive |
| 1855s | telescope because the background is |
| 1857s | really low it's huge it's cold |
| 1859s | everything works extremely well and the |
| 1862s | main thing was to get all of those 18 |
| 1863s | mirrors to all line up to act as one |
| 1866s | mirror and that happened in March 2022 |
| 1869s | so from March 2022 once we had this |
| 1872s | image which me which we could read all |
| 1875s | the parameters of and know that all 18 |
| 1877s | segments were working perfectly we could |
| 1879s | start taking science data so I have |
| 1881s | about 15 minutes left I'm going to take |
| 1882s | you through some of the highlights of |
| 1885s | what we have but there's more every day |
| 1887s | this telescope is now just producing |
| 1889s | floods of data and in the next few |
| 1891s | months lots of data will start becoming |
| 1893s | publicly available there's a lot already |
| 1895s | publicly available but after one year |
| 1897s | after it's taken all data becomes public |
| 1900s | and because we're roughly a year after |
| 1902s | launch after after first science at |
| 1905s | least then you'll start being able to |
| 1906s | see much more data in the archives all |
| 1909s | completely available to you |
| 1911s | so here's one of the early images that |
| 1913s | are released it's a big star-forming |
| 1915s | region called the Karina nebula in the |
| 1917s | southern hemisphere these are all |
| 1918s | Optical pictures taken from the ground |
| 1920s | and we're only able to see a small piece |
| 1922s | of the sky with jwst so as we zoom in we |
| 1925s | get closer and closer to this region |
| 1928s | where young stars are being born and you |
| 1930s | can see on the right hand side here a |
| 1932s | place where there's there's hot gas on |
| 1934s | one side and cold gas and dust on the |
| 1937s | other this is an old Hubble Space |
| 1938s | Telescope picture but now with the James |
| 1941s | Webb Space Telescope we see in there |
| 1943s | with much more detail and because we're |
| 1945s | in the infrared we can actually see |
| 1946s | young Stars forming in that gas and dust |
| 1949s | on the bottom so as we just kind of zoom |
| 1952s | in a little bit because these images are |
| 1953s | enormous they're many thousands of |
| 1955s | pixels tens of thousands of pixels in |
| 1957s | many cases as we Zoom along along the |
| 1960s | edge of this Cosmic Cliff as it's been |
| 1962s | called you'll see a place in the middle |
| 1965s | here where there's a young star being |
| 1967s | formed with this kind of jet this kind |
| 1969s | of material flowing away North and South |
| 1971s | not visible at all to the Hubble Space |
| 1973s | Telescope |
| 1975s | these are the shortwavelengths for the |
| 1977s | jwst we can also go to longer |
| 1980s | wavelengths out to wavelengths between |
| 1981s | about 5 and 30 microns 5 and 30 |
| 1985s | micrometers |
| 1987s | and that's what the Miri instrument does |
| 1989s | so it's the same region again but we |
| 1991s | kind of now see those young embedded |
| 1993s | stars shining brightly in red they're |
| 1996s | only being seen at the longest |
| 1998s | wavelengths they're cool they haven't |
| 2000s | started fusing hydrogen yet then are |
| 2003s | only a few hundred degrees and they give |
| 2005s | out light in the infrared |
| 2007s | now a few months ago or yeah a couple of |
| 2010s | months ago this was the first |
| 2011s | anniversary image this is another |
| 2013s | star-forming region in a place called |
| 2014s | roafuki and there's in this picture as |
| 2017s | well as this big reflection at the |
| 2019s | bottom there's this enormous jet of |
| 2021s | material coming out in both directions |
| 2023s | to the top right and the lower left you |
| 2026s | can see a dark shadow two-thirds of the |
| 2028s | way along and right in that dark shadow |
| 2030s | is a very young Proto star something |
| 2033s | that might be only 50 000 years old and |
| 2036s | as it's accumulating material and it's |
| 2038s | surrounded by gas and dust so we can't |
| 2040s | even see it with jwst it's ejecting |
| 2043s | material out at high speeds as well it's |
| 2045s | a bit like a baby right you you put |
| 2047s | stuff into a baby and some fraction of |
| 2049s | it comes out again at high speed right |
| 2052s | um |
| 2053s | so that's exactly what happens in Star |
| 2055s | formation we get these big jets of |
| 2057s | material coming out they're a really big |
| 2059s | thing that we want to try to understand |
| 2061s | better |
| 2063s | now we can also see the planets on our |
| 2065s | own solar system this is Uranus and |
| 2067s | Uranus we've known for a long time has |
| 2069s | rings around it which we see and we see |
| 2071s | its moons very clearly here we are also |
| 2073s | seeing deeper into the atmosphere that |
| 2075s | you can see at visible light and we can |
| 2078s | see down to depths of hundreds of |
| 2080s | kilometers in the infrared and we can |
| 2082s | see different structures in this gassy |
| 2084s | atmosphere the same is true of Neptune |
| 2089s | and you can see here Neptune which is |
| 2091s | basically just boring and blue in infra |
| 2093s | invisible wavelengths in the infrared we |
| 2095s | can see hot spots which are high up in |
| 2097s | the atmosphere we can see cooler parts |
| 2100s | and then we can see hotter stuff even |
| 2101s | deeper into the atmosphere as well so in |
| 2104s | infrared we can see much more detail in |
| 2106s | the atmosphere of these planets and we |
| 2107s | also see that it has rings which we knew |
| 2110s | so ringed planets are more common than |
| 2112s | not actually we always thought it was |
| 2114s | just Saturn but Uranus Neptune Jupiter |
| 2117s | has rings Saturn has rings everybody has |
| 2119s | rings except us actually but we've just |
| 2121s | made an artificial ring with satellites |
| 2123s | so we got there in the end |
| 2127s | now those are planets in our own solar |
| 2129s | system what about planets Beyond so this |
| 2131s | is an artist's impression of an |
| 2132s | exoplanet this is a planet orbiting |
| 2134s | around a distant star it's very hard |
| 2137s | because they're so close to the star and |
| 2139s | they're so far away it's going to be |
| 2140s | very hard to take direct pictures of |
| 2143s | planets in most cases we will see some |
| 2145s | with jwst which are quite far away from |
| 2148s | their stars but in most cases what we're |
| 2150s | going to rely on is the fact that |
| 2152s | sometimes planets go in front of the |
| 2155s | star between us and so the planet goes |
| 2158s | between us and the star and as it does |
| 2160s | that some of the light of the star is |
| 2162s | absorbed by the atmosphere of the planet |
| 2165s | if it has an atmosphere |
| 2168s | so we call that a Transit as the planet |
| 2170s | moves in front it absorbs some of the |
| 2172s | light and because if it has an |
| 2174s | atmosphere |
| 2175s | some light will be absorbed more |
| 2177s | strongly at some wavelengths than others |
| 2179s | a bit like our own atmosphere |
| 2181s | if there's water in the atmosphere of an |
| 2183s | exoplanet some of the infrared light |
| 2185s | will be better absorbed than other |
| 2186s | wavelengths and that's what you can see |
| 2188s | on the bottom that those different |
| 2190s | colors indicate different wavelengths |
| 2192s | being absorbed differently and we can |
| 2194s | turn that into a spectrum |
| 2196s | we can actually see the chemical |
| 2199s | composition of an atmosphere by watching |
| 2201s | these transits so we see CO2 we see |
| 2203s | sulfur dioxide we see water we see |
| 2206s | sodium we see carbon monoxide and so |
| 2209s | we're beginning now to measure the |
| 2211s | atmospheres of Distant Worlds going |
| 2214s | around other stars I mean I know you |
| 2216s | guys can go there and actually look for |
| 2217s | real we can't quite do that yet in |
| 2220s | astronomy so we have to use this |
| 2222s | indirect technique but we there is a |
| 2224s | real hope now that we're beginning to |
| 2226s | look at planets which are like the Earth |
| 2228s | terrestrial-like planets and we can |
| 2230s | start to measure their atmospheric |
| 2232s | properties and maybe with this |
| 2233s | Observatory or a future one we'll be |
| 2235s | able to see Signs of Life in the |
| 2237s | atmospheres of those planets |
| 2239s | so one of the most famous places that |
| 2241s | Hubble looked at were the Pillars of |
| 2243s | Creation as they were called in the |
| 2244s | mid-1990s and of course James Webb Space |
| 2247s | Telescope went back to look at those it |
| 2249s | can start seeing in the gas and dust of |
| 2251s | those pillars but of course it also has |
| 2253s | much bigger detectors than Hubble had |
| 2256s | back in those days so if you actually |
| 2258s | look at the full image now that jwst has |
| 2261s | seen |
| 2262s | we see the pillars and where the big red |
| 2264s | patches are those are the places where |
| 2266s | young stars are being born inside these |
| 2269s | light year long pillars of gas and dust |
| 2271s | and so again with the infrared we're |
| 2273s | able to look in a different way than |
| 2275s | Hubble was able to do before |
| 2278s | and we can also go to longer wavelengths |
| 2280s | out into the mid infrared and if we do |
| 2283s | that they take on a very different |
| 2284s | appearance |
| 2286s | now they become something out of Harry |
| 2288s | Potter I think I'm not quite sure but so |
| 2291s | we're now seeing the gas and dust |
| 2292s | illuminated from outside by the |
| 2295s | ultraviolet radiation from the big |
| 2297s | massive stars which are out of the |
| 2298s | picture here and we're beginning to see |
| 2301s | all of the gas and dust in a different |
| 2302s | way and that's really useful to us |
| 2304s | because we're really interested in |
| 2306s | looking at how much |
| 2308s | gas and dust is being turned into stars |
| 2310s | in other galaxies here's this giant |
| 2313s | spiral galaxy this is a visible |
| 2315s | wavelength picture with Hubble if we go |
| 2317s | now to the new jwst picture |
| 2321s | then we see the places where the stars |
| 2323s | are being born so all the dark stuff the |
| 2325s | gas and dust in the J in the Hubble |
| 2328s | picture now starts glowing so we're able |
| 2330s | to start measuring how much of that |
| 2331s | material is being turned into Stars |
| 2334s | and then we know also that galaxies |
| 2336s | don't form on their own they often form |
| 2338s | in giant clusters at the beginning I |
| 2340s | showed you the large and small |
| 2341s | magellanic cloud in orbit around our |
| 2344s | Milky Way well this is a giant cluster |
| 2346s | of galaxies called the Stefan's quintet |
| 2348s | there are five galaxies in that picture |
| 2350s | four in a row on the right hand side and |
| 2352s | one on the left hand side the one on the |
| 2354s | left hand side actually isn't in that |
| 2356s | cluster at all it's in the foreground |
| 2357s | and if we zoom in you'll see why |
| 2362s | you can actually see individual stars in |
| 2364s | that Galaxy on the left-hand side little |
| 2366s | points of red light that tells us it's |
| 2368s | much closer to us than the other ones so |
| 2371s | this is just the chance alignment of |
| 2373s | those of that Galaxy with the ones on |
| 2374s | the right the ones on the right on the |
| 2376s | other hand are interacting with each |
| 2378s | other under Gravity they're orbiting |
| 2379s | around each other they're pulling |
| 2381s | material out of each other and that |
| 2383s | material gets heated up and the red |
| 2385s | stuff you see there is forming new stars |
| 2387s | so even on the galactic scale between |
| 2390s | galaxies we see new stars being born |
| 2393s | based in empty space between the main |
| 2395s | galaxies themselves |
| 2397s | and then we can look in again at the |
| 2399s | longer wavelengths in the infrared |
| 2402s | and we can see in the top Galaxy there's |
| 2405s | something red just appeared there and |
| 2407s | that red thing is gas and dust streaming |
| 2410s | into a black hole we can't see the black |
| 2412s | hole directly but we can see the heated |
| 2414s | material just before it falls in and we |
| 2417s | can split that light up and we can take |
| 2419s | a spectrum of it with jwst we can see |
| 2422s | that there's iron and argon and sulfur |
| 2424s | all of the basic elements but also |
| 2426s | molecular hydrogen gas which is at a |
| 2429s | very different kind of temperature so we |
| 2430s | can actually figure out what's going on |
| 2433s | in the region around the black hole we |
| 2435s | can split it in different ways and make |
| 2437s | images in the different species so this |
| 2439s | is a really powerful tool beyond the |
| 2441s | images to actually start being able to |
| 2443s | do the physics and the chemistry which |
| 2445s | is what we want now one of the main |
| 2446s | goals of course if jwst was to look at |
| 2448s | the most distant galaxies and so this is |
| 2450s | the one of the first images that came |
| 2452s | out this is a Galaxy cluster in the |
| 2455s | foreground the white stuff and then the |
| 2457s | stuff beyond the red and yellow stuff |
| 2458s | the galaxies are much greater distances |
| 2461s | and their light is actually coming past |
| 2463s | the foreground galaxies and being bent |
| 2465s | by gravity which is why you see all |
| 2468s | these curves and arcs this is called a |
| 2470s | gravitational lens and so the big the |
| 2473s | mass in the foreground Galaxy is bending |
| 2475s | the light from the background one |
| 2477s | and we can see over this image all these |
| 2480s | galaxies further and further and further |
| 2482s | back in time again we see these very |
| 2485s | weirdly distorted ones that's just the |
| 2487s | effect of gravity you're looking through |
| 2489s | a weird lens like a a kind of a mirror |
| 2491s | fun house then it's not what they really |
| 2493s | look like at all but the gravity is |
| 2496s | distorting their life the gravity also |
| 2498s | makes them look brighter so we can see |
| 2501s | fainter objects than normal if there's |
| 2503s | something to amplify the light these |
| 2505s | gravitational lens |
| 2507s | so that one field is now being joined by |
| 2510s | many others and the famous one again I |
| 2512s | go back to is the Hubble Ultra Deep |
| 2515s | Field which Hubble made back in the uh |
| 2518s | starting in the mid 90s and keeps adding |
| 2520s | data to now but it's a very small piece |
| 2522s | of the sky as I said it's just this one |
| 2525s | grain of rice at arm's length a tiny |
| 2527s | piece of the size of the Moon and yet |
| 2529s | there are thousands and thousands of |
| 2531s | galaxies each with billions of stars |
| 2534s | so let's put that in context Hubble is |
| 2537s | also surveyed a bigger area around that |
| 2540s | not as deep it hasn't taken as long but |
| 2543s | it can go wider |
| 2544s | and it's also drilled down even further |
| 2547s | and made a much deeper image this is the |
| 2548s | deepest image now which we had before |
| 2551s | jwst took about a month of time to get |
| 2556s | and if we look at the new image that's |
| 2558s | been taken by jwsc of exactly the same |
| 2560s | area in a few hours |
| 2563s | and we compare them |
| 2568s | so the top image took a month to take |
| 2570s | the bottom image took about three hours |
| 2572s | so we've only just started with the |
| 2574s | James Webb Space Telescope in terms of |
| 2576s | our ability to measure the faint |
| 2578s | galaxies once we've spent days and weeks |
| 2580s | we'll be able to go much deeper and see |
| 2582s | hopefully these very first galaxies that |
| 2585s | ever formed in the universe but to |
| 2588s | really nail down how far away they are |
| 2590s | we're going to need to make a spectrum |
| 2592s | of each one so this is another field |
| 2594s | which we've been measuring with jwst |
| 2596s | called the Sears field and in there |
| 2598s | there are lots of faint objects and |
| 2600s | people have been searching for the ones |
| 2601s | which might be candidates for the most |
| 2603s | distant Galaxy this is one of them it |
| 2606s | was thought to be at redshift 12 which |
| 2608s | would break all of the records |
| 2611s | and when you took a spectrum of it |
| 2613s | it turns out that it's pretty close |
| 2615s | 11.44 so just the images told us it |
| 2619s | should be at that redshift and the |
| 2621s | Spectrum tells us yes it is so that's a |
| 2623s | confirmed Galaxy but in the same field |
| 2626s | very close by |
| 2628s | there's another one which looks |
| 2630s | to the naked eye just the same but it |
| 2633s | turns out that it's a fake it's not |
| 2635s | actually at that distance at all it's |
| 2636s | much closer to us and our Imaging |
| 2639s | selection was slightly fooled when we |
| 2641s | took a spectrum of it we could say no |
| 2643s | that one's nearer so this is going to |
| 2644s | take a while you're going to see some |
| 2646s | false detections you're going to see |
| 2648s | some good ones this is a game which is |
| 2650s | going to go on for many years yet |
| 2652s | there's no big Discovery at the |
| 2653s | beginning which says Hey we've solved it |
| 2654s | we've sold the way the universe works so |
| 2657s | it's going to take a while stick with us |
| 2659s | but as I said at the beginning you know |
| 2661s | these projects take an enormously long |
| 2662s | time so I just want to finish I'm right |
| 2664s | at the end just want to finish with a |
| 2666s | personal note so I came into this game |
| 2668s | infrared Imaging right at the beginning |
| 2671s | when I started as a young astronomer in |
| 2674s | 1982 as a PhD student the only way you |
| 2677s | could take images in the infrared was by |
| 2678s | having a single Pixel and scanning it |
| 2681s | across the sky move the telescope and |
| 2683s | scan backwards and forwards and make a |
| 2685s | picture one pixel at a time |
| 2688s | man it was boring |
| 2691s | by 1986 we had the first detectors which |
| 2695s | could actually take real images there |
| 2697s | are only 4 000 pixels in that detector |
| 2699s | but that's four thousand times faster |
| 2702s | than anything we had before so it was a |
| 2704s | true Revolution it really changed the |
| 2706s | way we saw the universe and it led |
| 2709s | to the James Webb Space Telescope |
| 2711s | because without these detectors there's |
| 2713s | no point building a big cold in for a |
| 2715s | telescope in space if you only have one |
| 2716s | pixel I mean who would pay for that you |
| 2719s | want to see the pictures |
| 2720s | so that was taken in 1986 it was the |
| 2723s | first light image the first picture |
| 2724s | taken with that new camera the first one |
| 2726s | in the world used for astronomy |
| 2728s | and |
| 2730s | I then stayed in infrared astronomy I |
| 2733s | went to work for NASA I moved around I |
| 2735s | went to work in Germany for a while |
| 2736s | moved in the UK moved back to work for |
| 2739s | Esa now for the last 15 years |
| 2741s | and throughout all of that I've been |
| 2743s | using Hubble and I became involved in |
| 2746s | ngst when it was young now called jwst |
| 2749s | and I have time on that telescope to |
| 2752s | take pictures of things and do science |
| 2754s | and so you can imagine I was pretty |
| 2756s | pleased last year |
| 2758s | when we got the First Data exactly the |
| 2760s | same little piece the center of the |
| 2762s | Orion Nebula this is purely raw data |
| 2764s | nothing has been done to it it just came |
| 2766s | straight from the telescope it's roughly |
| 2768s | 20 times sharper we start to see much |
| 2770s | more |
| 2772s | that's great but it's just one piece of |
| 2775s | an enormous image that we've made and |
| 2777s | I'm not going to show it to you today |
| 2781s | I'll tell you why in a moment |
| 2783s | so this is the region that we're |
| 2785s | actually we've taken picture of that's |
| 2787s | not the jwst picture that's the region |
| 2789s | we've covered and the reason I'm not |
| 2792s | showing today is because in 10 days time |
| 2793s | it will become public and you'll all get |
| 2796s | to see it then and I thought about |
| 2797s | showing it to you today |
| 2799s | but and but I woke up at 3 30 and I |
| 2801s | realized there's lots of very clever |
| 2803s | people watching online with screenshot |
| 2805s | on the finger right there and I thought |
| 2809s | sorry guys not today so I apologize but |
| 2813s | I'm going to show you one little piece |
| 2814s | of that survey |
| 2816s | see that little dot there looks like an |
| 2818s | ordinary star in the ground-based images |
| 2819s | we have such Sharp Images with the jwst |
| 2822s | if you zoom in |
| 2824s | it's a young region it's a young star |
| 2827s | with a disc of gas and dust around it |
| 2830s | making planets today just a million |
| 2833s | years old but being attacked by the hot |
| 2835s | stars in the middle so the material from |
| 2837s | that disc the dark smudge there is being |
| 2840s | lifted away and streamed out into a tail |
| 2842s | so we're seeing star formation in action |
| 2845s | and the whole of my data looks like that |
| 2847s | it's just full of amazing details so |
| 2850s | October the 2nd 12 o'clock CEST on our |
| 2855s | website the images will be released and |
| 2857s | they are utterly stunning so |
| 2861s | just to show you that you can be a young |
| 2862s | person |
| 2864s | really excited about astronomy or |
| 2866s | excited about what you do in life it may |
| 2868s | take a while |
| 2869s | and you may become old and gray and you |
| 2871s | all will I'm sorry that's the way it |
| 2873s | works you will all become old and gray |
| 2875s | but if you're lucky enough you can be |
| 2877s | involved in something truly truly |
| 2879s | amazing and it's been a privilege to |
| 2881s | work with 20 000 other people in Europe |
| 2883s | and North America and it's been a |
| 2885s | privilege to come and tell you a little |
| 2886s | bit about that today thank you very much |
| 2888s | have a great meeting |
| 2892s | thank you |