| | Astrophysics Colloquium: George Sonneborn, Lab. for Observational Cosmology, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: "Imaging and Spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope" | |
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| The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized telescope scheduled for launch in 2014. JWST is designed to find the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way galaxy. JWST will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. JWST's instruments will work primarily in the infrared range of 1 - 28 microns, with some capability in the visible range. JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters in diameter, and will be diffraction-limited at 2 microns (0.1 arcsec resolution). JWST will be placed in an L2 orbit about 1.5 million km from the Earth. The instruments will provide imaging, coronography, and multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy across the full 1 - 28 micron wavelength range. The breakthrough capabilities of JWST will enable new studies of star formation and evolution in the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the early universe. |
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