Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Reflecting telescope wikipedia , lookup
Very Large Telescope wikipedia , lookup
CfA 1.2 m Millimeter-Wave Telescope wikipedia , lookup
Space Interferometry Mission wikipedia , lookup
Hubble Space Telescope wikipedia , lookup
International Ultraviolet Explorer wikipedia , lookup
Exploring the Universe and Our Origins Dr. Tracy L. Beck The Nature of Light… Why We go to space - Earth’s Atmospheric Transmission! X Rays Gamma Rays Radio UltraViolet InfraRed Where Hubble works Many kinds Of light are Blocked by earth’s Atmosphere ! Why we go to space Hubble vs. ground-based telescopes - image quality! Twinkle, twinkle little star…! Air in the earth’s atmosphere causes astronomical images to be blurry! Subaru Observatory (~27ft!) HST We The NEW and Improved Hubble!! Gas flowing away from a dying star! Galaxy Cluster Ultraviolet Dense Wide Field gas lit by Camera 3 (WFC3) nearby stars! Spiral Galaxy Infrared Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) After SM4 in May 2009 we have 2 new instruments! 2 Fixed Instruments! Hubble Space Telescope the single most productive and popular Astronomical Tool… EVER! HAPPY 20th Anniversary, HUBBLE! Launched April 24, 1990 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Scheduled for launch in 2014, JWST is the successor to Hubble - (there’s NO REPLACING it!) Goal of JWST - Continue the spirit of Hubble to explore our universe, from understanding comets and planets in our own solar system, to the most distant stars and galaxies in our universe… Who was James Webb? He was the Second NASA Administrator, from 1961 to 1968. James E. Webb Organized and Oversaw the first manned space missions in the Mercury and Gemini programs Had the foresight and knowledge to push for robotic missions, searching the moon and paving the way for all future remote studies of Venus, Mars and more recently Jupiter, Saturn… etc… He did more for organized space science research than any other person in the US ever has! The James Webb Space Telescope… Sun Shield = size of a Tennis Court! Life-Size Model @ GSFC Telescope Primary Mirror Sun Shield Telescope Secondary Mirror How is JWST different? the telescope size! Learn more at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ Photograph of Hubble How is JWST different? - the telescope LOCATION! The Hubble Space telescope orbits around earth at a height of ~350 miles! This is so the astronauts can reach Hubble, and fix it or upgrade it, if needed! In the infrared, we want much darker skies with no earthshine or moonshine to compete with so JWST is going to orbit at the sun-earth “Lagrange - 2” point roughly 930,000 miles away! Learn more at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ Artist Drawing of JWST ! What’s a “Langrange” point, and why “Lagrange Point” should we put our very stable orbit point where gravity orbital telescope out there? and energies are Earth Sun JWST @ L2 perfectly balanced! There are 5 Lpoints, JWST is going to “L2” Not much spacecraft fuel is needed to keep JWST in orbit here! Far away from earth = very dark sky! Learn more at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ How is JWST Different INFRARED! Many wavelengths of infrared light sampled by JWST can’t be seen by Hubble or on the ground! Learn more at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/ How is JWST Different INFRARED! Visible light Infrared light Some infrared light measures the HEAT from an object! (the warm dog has a cold nose!) How is JWST Different INFRARED! Light at some Infrared wavelengths can pierce through clouds of dust… view in visible light is not the same as IR! The REAL Driver for JWST is the SCIENCE! 4 Key Goals for JWST! 1) The formation of star and planet systems 3) The formation of galaxies and large structures in our universe 2) Extra-solar planets and the origin of life in our Universe 4) The first stars and the origin of our Universe! Star and Planet Formation Animation of Star+Planet Formation Large Cloud of Gas and Dust, imaged by HST+WFC3 Clouds of gas and dust collapse due to gravity form a flattened circumstellar “disk” planets coalesce out of dust and gas in the disk Animation courtesy of M. Ressler, JPL Fomalhaut - an outer ring of dust… indicative of planet formation? Ring of Dust Light from the Young Star is blocked and subtracted off ACS Images Simulated JWST Image Fomalhaut B!? Kalas et al. (2008) Holy cow! Is that a planet!? JWST will be able to image and study wide extent planets, as in the planet in the Fomalhaut system! Extra-solar Planets and the Origin of LIFE in the Universe! In 1995 - the very first two strong candidate exoplanets were discovered! Today, 15 years later, 429 exoplanets are known! 41 multiple planet systems! New planets are Discovered ALL THE TIME! What was science fiction a mere 15 years ago, is reality today ! One of the most rapidly growing and highest profile realms of study in modern Astronomy! JWST can have a HUGE Impact here! See more at http://webbtelescope.org How are exoplanets detected? 1) Direct Imaging (as in the HST images of Fomalhaut) 2) Planet passes in front of it’s star (transit, or eclipsing planets) 3) Radial Velocity Searches 4) Microlensing (see more info at Exoplanets.org) Main methods for exo-planet detection with JWST! What is a Transiting, or Eclipsing Exoplanet? QuickTime™ and a Sorenson Video 3 decompressor are needed to see this picture. Animation from the HST SWEEPS Project Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Exo-Planet Survey! What is a Transiting, or Eclipsing Exoplanet? QuickTime™ and a H.264 decompressor are needed to see this picture. Animation from the HST SWEEPS Project - Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Exo-Planet Survey! How can we find an Earth-like Planet? O Type = Brightest stars Sun! It’s easiest to try to find Earthlike planets around the faintest stars! M Type = Faintest Stars Planet atmosphere JWST will aggressively seek to study earth-like planets as they pass in front of their “M star” hosts - by measuring starlight that passes through the atmosphere of the planet! Our sphere of search for planets is just a small area of the Milky Way! The Milky Way galaxy is a BIG place… the universe is a huge place…! Key question for JWST How common are earth-like planets? Our Milky Way Galaxy! The Milky way & Galaxies Galaxies - BIG Huge conglomerations of stars - Milky Way is >200,000,000 stars! We are here! Artist Image of our Milky Way Galaxy Hubble Space Telescope Images of Galaxies… Spiral Galaxies It’s believed that some of the galaxies that we see today formed by merging of two different galaxies at some time in the past! Elliptical Galaxies Merging Galaxies Test your Galaxy Classification skills! & Help Astronomers! @ www.galaxyzoo.org! Distance in Astronomy Light takes time to travel… so looking at objects that are further and further away means that we are looking backwards in time! This is because light travels at a fixed speed - the speed of light! Distance from… Sun to Earth 8.3 light minutes Sun to Proxima Centauri 4.26 light years Sun to the center of the Milky Way 26,000 light years Sun to the Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 Million light years!!! The Hubble Ultra Deep Field! WOW! Some of the faint fuzzy blobs in this picture are the most distant galaxies known in our universe - 13 BILLION light-years away! Total Exposure time = 11. 3 days!! The JWST Ultra Deep Field! Astronomer simulation of what the comparable JWST deep field will look like! How deep will we see? Will JWST Detect the First Stars Ever Formed in Our Universe? HST Image - 30 hrs JWST Simulation - 17 mins Comparison of the Hubble deep field (left) to JWST deep field (right). We Hope to Know in ~2014! The James Webb Space Telescope! From planets to the most distant galaxies, this Infrared optimized observatory scheduled for launch in 2014 will revolutionize our Thanks for your attention! QuickTime™ and a H.264 decompressor are needed to see this picture. JWST Deploying in 2014!! We Eruption from a dying star! Cluster of Stars! Glowing gas lit by massive stars! Hubble!! Gas flowing away from a dying star! Pillars of dense gas lit by nearby stars!