Full-scale model at South by Southwest in Austin. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA is set for another Apollo moment with the launch of its new James Webb Space Telescope as early as Dec. 24, barring complications. Billed as NASA’s most ambitious telescope to date, its purpose is to fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.
Light takes time to travel. The nearest star to Earth is four light-years away, so the image we see of it is actually four years old. The new $10 billion instrument is so powerful it will allow us to see farther, essentially to look back in time to see how the first stars and galaxies came into existence. It will also let us peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets—some of which are potentially habitable—as they pass before stars. The light filtering through the atmosphere will leave telltale signs of the atmospheric components.
Mercedes López-Morales, a lecturer in the Department of Astronomy and an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, will be among the first researchers to use the Webb as part of a project to observe more than a dozen small planets during the telescope‘s first cycle. The Gazette spoke to López-Morales about the new telescope, which was named after the former NASA administrator who led the agency through the Apollo missions, and why it has the scientific community so excited. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q&A: Mercedes López-Morales
GAZETTE: Can you talk about the mission of the Webb telescope?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: The James Webb Telescope is the most important flagship space mission ever built. It’s considered the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched more than 30 years ago and completely changed the way we understand how the universe works at ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths. Unlike visible light, ultraviolet and infrared light are hidden from the human eye, and we need special detectors to see them. They hold the secrets of primordial galaxies and the chemical composition of outer space, as well as nearby planets. The capabilities of the James Webb will take us beyond what we learned with Hubble by further opening our eyes to the infrared universe. We’ll be able to study how the universe looked at the beginning and determine when the first galaxies and stars formed. We will also be able to study how and where in our galaxy stars and planets are forming right now, and, for the first time, to study what the atmospheres of exoplanets are made of and how similar or different the atmospheres of exoplanets are from the atmospheres of planets in our own solar system.
GAZETTE: What makes the Webb the most ambitious space probe NASA’s ever built?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: A number of things. NASA has been building this telescope for 25 years. It’s hard to tell, but just as a ballpark, I would say thousands of scientists and engineers have worked on it. Maybe the biggest reason is that there are many technological advancements that are being used for the first time on a space telescope.
GAZETTE: What are some of those?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: One of the most spectacular is the primary mirror that is 6.5-meters in diameter [more than 21 feet], making it the largest telescope mirror ever launched into space. To make it possible to fit such a large mirror into the launch vehicle, engineers had to figure out a completely new way to build mirrors. They split them into a number of hexagonal pieces, each one with its own specific shape so that they could be folded for launch and then once in space they unfold and latch together like pieces of a puzzle into this massive and beautiful mirror painted with a very thin layer of gold with basically no gaps between the pieces.
GAZETTE: The mirror is a very crucial piece of this telescope?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: I always tell people that the mirror is like a bucket. The bigger the bucket, the more data you can collect. That translates into you seeing and collecting more light—both visible and the not-so-visible. Basically, you can push farther into the universe and further back in time.
GAZETTE: What else amazes you about the telescope?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: I would say the sunshield. There are two key requirements for the telescope to be able to produce high-quality observations. It has to be kept cold, at a stable temperature of about minus 200 degrees Celsius [minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit], and it has to be prevented from getting blinded by sunlight. The sunshield takes care of those requirements by shielding the telescope from the sun’s light and heat.
It’s a technological masterpiece. It’s made out of five very thin layers coated with aluminum, so they reflect the light from the sun. Each layer is like a sail. At launch, the sunshield is folded in, in a similar way as the telescope’s mirror is, and once in space the sunshield unfolds to a size of about a tennis court.
GAZETTE: Can you talk about your work with the telescope so far, and what’s upcoming?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: One of my main research interests is understanding the atmospheres of exoplanets, which are planets we have been discovering orbiting around nearby stars for more than two decades now. We have discovered a few thousand exoplanets now, and with that number we can, for the first time, start looking into answering a number of questions that weren’t possible to answer before. I am part of teams that will for the first time search the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets in the infrared to search for molecular species such as methane, ammonia, and carbon, magnesium, and silicate compounds. We cannot detect these with current telescopes, including Hubble. The presence or absence of such chemical species will tell if the planets have atmospheres at all, and if they do, what they are made of and how they compare to the make-up of similar planets in the solar system.
GAZETTE: What’s your biggest hope for this telescope?
LÓPEZ-MORALES: I hope that it helps us discover things that we had not thought about since that is how many of the major breakthroughs in science happen. You open a new window and discover that there is a lot of new information there that we had not considered. I also hope that the discoveries will inspire younger generations in the same way that the Hubble images inspired many of us who are now scientists and engineers.
This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University’s official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
