6 November 2003

Speaker: John Mather (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Title: The James Webb Space Telescope

Abstract: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) by deploying a large cooled infrared telescope at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. With a 6 m aperture and three instruments covering the wavelength range from 0.6 to 28 micron, it will provide sensitivities orders of magnitude better than any other facilities. It is intended to observe the light from the first galaxies and the first supernovae, the assembly of galaxies, and the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems. In this talk I will review the scientific objectives, the hardware concepts and technology, and the predicted system performance. I will close with a summary of possible future IR space missions, ranging from the far IR to planet-finding coronagraphs and interferometers.

References for students:

1. Web site: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov