(Back to the menu - click here.)

Date:

Download-files:

Time:

Thursday, 25 April 2024

Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support

- Video.mp4 (ca. 327 Mb)

15:15 – 16:15

"JWST: One Giant Leap Towards Observing the First Stars"

Dan Coe

(STScI, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, USA)

Abstract:

With the Hubble Space Telescope, we have looked back in time and witnessed

a rich diversity of galaxies growing, merging, and taking shape over 13 billion

years of cosmic history. But the most distant galaxies in the early universe are

too small and faint to study in detail with Hubble, leaving us with many questions.

When did the first stars and galaxies form? Did any early galaxies look like

our Milky Way? And what were they made of?

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is beginning to answer these questions

and pose new ones. In only its second year of operation, JWST has already taken

a giant leap towards discovering the first stars. I will discuss observations using

gravitational lensing that reveal individual stars including Earendel observed

13 billion years ago. We also observe star clusters dating back to even earlier

times in the Cosmic Gems Arc. I will show spectroscopy that reveals heavy elements

created by stars less than 400 million years after the Big Bang.

And this is just the beginning for JWST. We hope it may continue observing for

20 years or more.

The Biography:

Dan Coe is an ESA/AURA Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute

(STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. STScI runs JWST

science operations, mission control, and user support. Dan spends half his time

studying distant galaxies with his team Cosmic Spring and the other half supporting

other astronomers using JWST's NIRSpec instrument. Dan graduated from Cornell

University, obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins, and did postdocs at NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory and STScI before joining the STScI staff in 2013.