Online Event: Opening the Infrared Treasure Chest with the James Webb Space Telescope
Join Nobel prizewinning astrophysicist John Mather as he discusses the groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope.
Early booking tickets: £14
The JWST, which launched in 2021 and began science operations in 2022, is now peering into the past to find the first objects that formed after the big bang and to study the first black holes, the growth of galaxies, the formation of stars and planetary systems, and more. About 100 times more powerful than the celebrated Hubble Space Telescope, JWST could observe a bumblebee at the Earth-moon distance, in reflected sunlight and thermal emission, and it promises to reveal many wonders of our universe.
In this talk, senior project scientist for JWST and Nobel prizewinning astrophysicist John Mather will discuss how NASA and its partners built JWST and share some of the telescope’s first discoveries.
Metet the Speaker: John Mather, Senior Astrophysicist, NASA
John Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. His research centers on infrared astronomy and cosmology. As an NRC postdoctoral fellow at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York City), he led the proposal efforts for the Cosmic Background Explorer (74-76), and came to GSFC to be the Study Scientist (76-88), Project Scientist (88-98), and also the Principal Investigator for the Far IR Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) on COBE. He showed that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum within 50 ppm.
As Senior Project Scientist (95-present) for the James Webb Space Telescope, he leads the science team, and represents scientific interests within the project management. He has served on advisory and working groups for the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, and the NSF (for the ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and for the CARA, the Center for Astrophysical Research in the Antarctic).
He has received many awards including the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006, for his precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation using the COBE satellite.
What's included in your ticket:
- Live lecture lasting 60 minutes including Q&A with John Mather
- On-demand access to a recording of the lecture and Q&A for 12 months
Selected articles from New Scientist including:
- How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres
- The hunt for habitable ocean worlds beyond our solar system
- 7 big questions the James Webb Space Telescope is about to answer
On-Demand Video:
- The Origin of the Universe with Professor of Physics, Will Kinney
Online Event Series: The greatest physics experiments in the world
SAVE 20% ON A SERIES TICKET
When the legends of physics such as Galileo, Newton and Faraday were driving forward our knowledge of the Universe, they did so with simple tabletop equipment, working in small basement laboratories. Today, physicists collaborate on gigantic experiments with colleagues from across the world to explore the fundamental nature of reality and to see further into the Universe than ever before.
In this series you can hear from experts at the leading-edge of scientific discovery, who work on enormous experiments like the Large Hadron Collider or the James Webb Space Telescope. Find out how these incredible facilities get built, how thousands of scientists collaborate effectively and what these incredible experiments are telling us about the nature of our Universe.
Fermilab: solving the mysteries of matter and energy, space and time
Tuesday 4 April | 6-7pm BST | 1-2pm EDT | On-demand
Secrets of the Large Hadron Collider with Clara Nellist, particle physicist and science communicator
Available on-demand (recorded live Tuesday 7 February | 6-7pm GMT | 1-2pm EST)
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Booking information:
This online event will start at 18.00 BST /13:00 EDT on 17th May 2023 and will last for approximately one hour. Access to a recording of the event will be exclusively available to ticket purchasers for the 12 months following the live event. The on-demand recording will be available to view within 24 hours of the live discussion.
Eventbrite will email you a confirmation immediately after purchase. You will also receive a separate email from our virtual events platform, Workcast with a link to access the event auditorium prior to the event; please note that each link is unique and should not be shared. The event auditorium will also provide access to the other items included in your ticket.
Tickets are non-transferable to any other New Scientist event.
All tickets are non-refundable.
New Scientist reserves the right to alter the event and its line-up, or cancel the event. In the unlikely event of cancellation, all tickets will be fully refunded. New Scientist Ltd will not be liable for any additional expenses incurred by ticket holders in relation to the event.
Tickets are subject to availability and are only available in advance through Eventbrite. To secure your place we recommend you book in advance.