Florida State University’s Astrophysics Department has come a long way since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021. His three professors at FSU have begun work on the first observation cycle.
When NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope last Christmas, there were few guarantees that it would reach its destination safely. After traveling a million miles, the telescope still had to be carefully deployed from its stowed launch position, cooled to below minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and adjusted for its first observations.
Nevertheless, NASA scientists were more than capable of making this feat of engineering look easy.
Here in Tallahassee, the Challenger Learning Center hosted a clock party to celebrate NASA’s release of the telescope’s first five images on July 12th.
Jeremiah Murphy, professor of astrophysics at FSU, said he felt “emotional in the sense that it was just right” when these first images were sent.
Professor Murphy said, “I’m glad that this project, which has been going on for decades, is finally coming to fruition. “In the community, we knew this could go terribly wrong.”
Professor Murphy was more than just a viewer. Rather, he was watching as one of his three FSU astrophysics professors selected to be some of the first observers to utilize this newly minted space telescope.
Because the James Webb Space Telescope is such a powerful scientific tool and has such a limited usable lifespan, Maryland operators have long prioritized It has to go through a ranking process.
According to NASA, proposals for use of Webb are “judged by a peer review system, in which a team of independent scientists ranks observational proposals according to their scientific merit, and the highest ranked proposals are selected. “
As a new research field founded in 2006, it’s worth noting that the Astrophysics Group at Florida State University was given time for Webb’s first observation cycle. This success shows that his FSU proposal to build the National Magnet Institute in 1990 beat out his MIT proposal and speaks to the university’s focused efforts to become a premier research institution. reminds me.
“We made a very good case that we could really beat the competing groups at Harvard, West Coast and East Coast and almost put FSU on the map,” said Professor Peter Hoeflich. The proposal submitted with Professor Eric Hsiao is to study Type Ia supernovae.
All three professors use Webb to observe the myriad ways stars explode (or start exploding before they themselves collapse). The James Webb Space Telescope is powerful enough to see stellar explosions that occurred at the beginning of the universe more than 13 billion years ago.
“Trying to catch these first supernovae is very far away,” said Professor Hsiao. “Another unknown that Webb can answer is what these would look like, because the first generation of stars wouldn’t be the same as they are today.”
According to Professor Hoeflich, “The ambition is to be competitive and stay competitive. Our goal is to create a lean, average group that can take full advantage of our billion-dollar investment. For our students, it’s basically perfect.It’s a training ground.”
Professors Hoeflich and Hsiao have already begun observations with Webb, and the Goddard Space Institute controller has begun the process of sending commands to the tennis-court-sized telescope and pointing it at the desired star system. Professor Xiao explained that the supernova they are observing is “virtually in our backyard.”
“It’s in another galaxy,” he said. “It means millions of light-years away, but it’s close to us.”
For more information on FSU’s astrophysics program and how to get involved, visit https://astrophysics.physics.fsu.edu/.
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