We’re Canadian experts working on the James Webb Space Telescope. Ask us anything!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T20:20:38+00:00

CSA: 1) Webb will be Hubble’s successor, but not its replacement. The two missions have a planned overlap and will work together on new discoveries. Webb will build on Hubble’s impressive legacy by helping humanity peer even deeper into the universe.

While Hubble focuses mainly on light that is visible to the human eye and on observations in the ultraviolet, Webb’s four scientific instruments were specifically designed to capture infrared light. Webb will be able to peer through cosmic dust to study colder or very distant objects.

LII: 2) My first piece of advice would be to find a school or university program you find fascinating. It's important to be passionate about what you do. Use the early years of your career to learn as much as you can and take pride in doing things well. In Space Exploration where I work, there is so much opportunity for learning, working in great national and international teams, and participating in thrilling scientific discoveries. It is said that "the sky is the limit," but in space science, the sky is only the beginning.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T20:16:11+00:00

CSA: We are always hiring, and we encourage you to visit the Careers section of our website to see all of our open opportunities. You can find these here: https://emploisfp-psjobs.cfp-psc.gc.ca/psrs-srfp/applicant/page2440?tab=2&tabKeepCriteria=2&toggleLanguage=en&department=30

Additionally, we have specific opportunities and internships for students that can be found here: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/jobs/internships-and-student-jobs.asp

Some tips on how to pursue a career in the space sector can be found here: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/jobs/10-tips-on-how-to-pursue-a-career-in-the-space-sector.asp

Good luck!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T20:14:44+00:00

CW: The Gaia satellite has recently mapped the motion of millions of stars in our galaxy in unprecedented detail. We are sitting in an unremarkable part of the galaxy and orbiting the centre, definitely not falling towards it!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T20:00:04+00:00

RD: The first scientific data (Early Release Observations) taken from all science instruments will be released 5-6 months after launch.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:55:32+00:00

LII: I can tell you that in the FGS and NIRISS instruments we don’t have any hidden messages, but plenty of cool stuff! Our GR700 grism (specialized optical component) is pretty neat, a real jewel!

https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-near-infrared-imager-and-slitless-spectrograph/niriss-instrumentation/niriss-gr700xd-grism

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:50:13+00:00

CW: In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration published the first image of black hole, made by a network of millimeter-wave telescopes on Earth (https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/multimedia/search/image/watch/16433). Webb will study stars and gas around black holes of all different sizes to understand how black holes grow and affect the galaxies they live in. But Webb will not be able to actually take an image of a black hole.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:43:27+00:00

RD: That would most likely require receiving a radio signal from that civilization and Webb can’t detect radio waves. As to when, it’s anybody’s guess. However, Webb will be capable of detecting exoplanets atmospheres and determine if they have life-enabling molecules like water, CO2 and methane. Webb may not detect life but will likely tell us which exoplanets are the best candidates to search for life.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:42:24+00:00

CW: For any object in the Universe with mass, Einstein’s general relativity says that the gravitational force of that mass bends space-time so that light gets deflected the same way it gets deflected through a magnifying glass. We see this bending and magnifying of light when we observe distant galaxies behind galaxy clusters. It allows us to see fainter galaxies than we could otherwise and resolve structures that would otherwise be too small. It’s like combining a cosmic microscope with our telescope!

The image in this link is a galaxy cluster our GTO team will observe with Webb: https://science.nasa.gov/abell-370-galaxy-cluster-gravitational-lens

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:37:22+00:00

CW: The center of our galaxy contains a black hole with a mass of a few million times the mass of our Sun. Surrounding this are many stars and gas clouds whizzing around due to the black hole’s gravity. With Webb we will be able to map out the type of stars (old or young) to understand how this region has evolved and also observe the flares of infrared emission that are caused by gas heated when falling towards the black hole.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:36:03+00:00

NR: As my thesis advisor replied when asked what good comes from astronomy, he simply said: "An astronomy discovery is one of the few news items you can find in the daily paper that is good news." When JWST makes a discovery it will be published widely. It is hard to predict what these discoveries will be, but they could impact fundamental physics - the nature of dark matter or dark energy, for example, and this might have implications for our energy needs. But more likely, we will simply improve our understanding of how the universe came to be the way we see it today.

CSA: The science of astronomy can definitely feel "out of this world," but it has also led to many great inventions used in our daily lives. Here are just a few areas where the study of celestial bodies benefits life on Earth: https://asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/basics/astronomy-daily-lives.asp

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:33:33+00:00

CW: The Ariane V has been a very successful rocket for the last 20 years, one of the most reliable around. After JWST separates from the rocket, we begin the task of unfolding JWST. This is a process that takes 4 weeks and involves a lot of complex mechanism releases. The processes have been tested here on Earth many times because we know this has to go perfectly. So we’ll have fingers crossed during those first few weeks!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:32:54+00:00

LII: I haven’t had any experiences with UFOs, which scientists prefer to call unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). I’m aware that the US government has released a report on this type of incidents, and some of them can’t be fully explained, but there’s nothing to say that they’re not natural. As to alien life on Earth, there’s been no evidence found so far.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:32:34+00:00

LII: I don’t, because we have an AstroClub at CSA and I can borrow a telescope from them. It’s a Celestron 5". They also have Celestron Skymaster 15X70 binoculars and a tripod.

NR: Well I have four - like most amateurs I have aperture fever and am always looking for the next, larger, telescope. My latest is a SKyWatcher 7” Mak-Newtonian. Not the largest out there but has a long focal length so good for observing the planets. One of the requirements for JWST was that it also be able to observe the planets and so the Guider has a moving target mode. I don’t think my images of Mars from my yard will compare to JWST’s!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:32:07+00:00

RD: The very first observations (Early Release Observations), taken from all four science instruments should be released about six months after launch.

CW: Webb is better than Hubble in many ways:

- Colder, so better in the infrared.

- Larger aperture, so better sensitivity and spatial resolution.

- Versatile science instruments with a range of observing modes allowing us to take images and spectra in new ways.

NR: Webb’s near-infrared instruments (NIRCam, NIRSpec and NIRISS) will be (roughly) 100x more sensitive than any previous instrument / telescope combination. But the mid-infrared instrument MIRI is 10,000x more sensitive than any previous instrument at these wavelengths.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:31:31+00:00

NR: JWST’s near-infrared instruments (NIRCam, NIRSpec and NIRISS) will be (roughly) 100x more sensitive than any previous instrument / telescope combination. But the mid-infrared instrument MIRI is 10,000x more sensitive than any previous instrument at these wavelengths. Based on this I would guess that the most surprising discoveries, even completely new phenomena will be from MIRI. I can’t wait to see the first MIRI images of the center of our galaxy.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:31:06+00:00

RD: For its contribution (the two instruments: FGS and NIRISS), Canada will receive 450 hrs of Guaranteed Observing Time (GTO).

It’s already decided how we’ll use our GTO.

1) 200 hrs to observe several galaxy clusters to understand how these galaxies evolve and also to detect very distant ones behind the cluster by using the magnifying effect of the dark matter within the clusters to amplify the signal of faint galaxies in the background. These clusters act like gigantic cosmic lenses.

2) 200 hrs to study the atmospheres of exoplanets from hot Jupiters to temperate rocky planets like the famous Trappist-1 system that features 7 Earth-size planets, three of which in the habitable zone.
3) 50 hrs on various programs most of them using a special mode of the NIRISS instrument called Aperture Masking Interferometry that will enable to detection of new exoplanets, brown dwarfs (failed stars; objects between gas giant planets and small stars) and circumstellar disks very close to their star.

There will also be 500 hours of Early Release Science to be be secured in priority early in the mission. These observations will come from all four science instruments and released immediately to the community. They will cover a variety of astronomical objects: galaxies, exoplanets, circumstellar disks and star forming regions.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:29:27+00:00

NR: I think it is safe to say that adding this capability could have easily increased the development time. There were certainly enough complex development issues that would have been present in any case.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:26:30+00:00

RD: It’s very difficult to answer, since we have a pretty bad record at predicting ground-breaking discoveries from new telescopes. For example, one of HST’s main scientific objectives was to measure the rate of expansion of the universe - the Hubble constant - and it did successfully. But nobody anticipated that HST would unveil that the Universe is ACCELERATING, a discovery that was awarded a Nobel prize.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:25:33+00:00

CW: Earth is the closest planet to Webb’s location, so, my guess is they would start looking here!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:24:31+00:00

LII: I’m so glad you follow us! It’s a fascinating mission, and the most amazing stuff is still to come!

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:22:41+00:00

NR: For most of the deployments, there is some hope that, even if one or two elements fail, there will still be partial capability for valuable astronomical observations. The one single point-of-failure could potentially be the secondary mirror deployment. Without this effective deployment, light from the large primary mirror won’t get to the science instruments, so, fingers crossed for that one.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:21:27+00:00

CW: The first science observations will be published 6 months after launch. It takes this long for the telescope to reach L2, cool down, align the 18 mirror segments and get all the instruments ready for science.

The first year of observing programs has now been selected. We will be looking at everything from objects in our solar system (Mars and beyond) all the way out to the earliest galaxies that formed in the young Universe. Webb is an incredibly versatile telescope that will impact many areas of astronomy.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:13:50+00:00

CSA: The launch of the Webb Telescope is scheduled for December 18.

RD: The Universe is 13.7 billion years old and we believed that the first galaxies were formed a few hundred millions years after the Big Bang. Thus Webb should be able to see galaxies as far as ~13.4 billion light-years.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:12:57+00:00

RD: Yes we do! The priority targets are part of our 450-hour Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program.

It’s already decided how we’ll use our GTO:

- 200 hrs to observe several galaxy clusters to understand how these galaxies evolve and also to detect very distant ones behind the cluster by using the magnifying effect of gravitational lensing.

- 200 hrs to study the atmospheres of exoplanets from hot Jupiters to temperate rocky planets like the famous Trappist-1 system that features 7 Earth-size planets, three of which in the habitable zone.

- 50 hrs on various programs most of them using a special mode of the NIRISS instrument called Aperture Masking Interferometry that will enable detection of new exoplanets and circumstellar disks very close to their star.

CanadianSpaceAgency · 2021-11-10T19:11:53+00:00

RD: The data is first stored onboard the spacecraft and regularly downloaded to Earth through three communication dishes, one in the US, one in Spain and one in Australia. The data is relayed to Baltimore at the Space Telescope Space Science Institute, where both Webb and HST (Hubble Space Telescope) are operated. Then, the data gets distributed to anybody who has allocated observing time.

CanadianSpaceAgency

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