McNamara chairs the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo, and late this year or early next year, he will use the space telescope to take a closer look at the Phoenix galaxy cluster. The James Webb Space Telescope — JWST for short — launched on Christmas Day 2021, and the first images were released publicly on July 12. “The images took my breath away,” McNamara said. His proposal to examine the Phoenix galaxy cluster was accepted by NASA, which selects the research projects from among thousands it receives from astronomers around the world. The Phoenix galaxy cluster contains the first confirmed supermassive black hole. The cluster is 5.7 billion light-years from Earth. A light year is a measure of distance — the distance light travels in one year, which is 9.5 trillion kilometers. McNamara can hardly wait for his time in the space telescope. After seeing the JWST images of a galaxy cluster called Stephan’s Quintet, his enthusiasm for the technology knows no bounds. The Stephano Quintet is a group of five galaxies in the constellation Pegasus. “You can see dust coming out of the galaxies, dust and gas,” McNamara said. “This is the raw material for the formation of new stars, and you can see the stars being formed during this quite violent process.” The JWST is one of humanity’s greatest moments, he added, requiring the cooperation of thousands of technicians and scientists and millions of taxpayers. “It’s something that brings us all together,” McNamara said. “The division just melts away and it really shows what we can achieve.” JWST carries critical technology built in Cambridge by Honeywell Aerospace, formerly known as Com Dev International: a camera, guidance system, image stabilizer and spectrometer. The company won a contract from NASA in 2004 and delivered hardware and software in 2012 for a spectrometer that collects and analyzes light in the infrared band. This light is so old, and has traveled so far, that the human eye cannot see it. The spectrometer allows astronomers to learn about the atmospheres of distant planets. Each element absorbs light at specific wavelengths unique to that individual. When astronomers look at the spectrum of a distant star or galaxy, they can determine its composition based on these wavelengths – allowing them to detect carbon, water, oxygen and nitrogen, or even signs of life. “Because the taxpayers paid for it, this is our telescope, it’s humanity’s telescope,” McNamara said. “I think that’s an achievement we can all be proud of.” Mike Hudson, another UW astronomer, agrees on the importance of JWST. “By going further into the infrared, we can see these very, very distant galaxies and remember that we’re looking back in time,” Hudson said. He hopes JWST will see and photograph some of the oldest objects in the outer reaches of the universe. “So that’s really the most impressive thing — the ability to study these very, very early galaxies in detail, how fast they’re assembling, how many stars are forming, what their structure is, what kind of stuff they’re basically made of.” Hudson said. It took a generation to plan, finance, build and launch the JWST. Scientists around the world watched the Christmas Day launch and shared their reactions and hopes on Twitter. “Everyone followed the launch and we all breathed a sigh of relief when it went smoothly and successfully,” Hudson said. “You’re always worried because there are moving parts in space and if something goes wrong it’s very hard to fix.” SHARE:
