Perimeter Lecture: The James Webb Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope transformed our view of the universe; in the March 2017 lecture of this popular lecture series, NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn will give an update in its successor, due for launch in 2018

The idea of a telescope in space, free of the effects of the Earth's atmosphere, is seductive and powerful, and was proposed at least as early as 1946. The Hubble Space Telescope was eventually launched in 1990. The Hubble deep field, revealing thousands of galaxies in a tiny segment of sky, is one of the most memorable of all scientific images. Many discoveries have been made with this fantastic instrument. (It was an special thrill when it was used for rapid follow-up observations when Steve Fossey and students in my department at UCL discovered a new nearby supernova in 2014.)

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