After two decades of work preparing for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), Saint Mary’s University professor and researcher Dr. Marcin Sawicki is looking forward to using the Hubble successor—and most powerful space telescope ever built—for research along with his students.
Webb’s advanced technology will study every epoch of cosmic history, from the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe to stars around other planets and objects within our solar system.
The rocket launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America
on December 25, 2021, saw the telescope begin the complicated process of transforming into its final form, which will orbit 1.5 million kilometres from earth. After this six-month long commissioning procedure, the first images are expected to be delivered this summer.
Dr. Sawicki has been a member of the science team responsible for the Canadian contribution to Webb from early in the telescope’s development. The team’s made-in-Canada Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument is a key part of the telescope.
"Where the Hubble telescope was a NASA project, the James Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration that includes the European and Canadian space agencies,” says Dr. Sawicki, “and there is also a very significant Saint Mary’s University element to this story.”
Because of Dr. Sawicki’s involvement in Webb’s key NIRISS instrument, Saint Mary’s University researchers will have unprecedented access to Webb for research. Led by Dr. Sawicki, Saint Mary’s has the largest Canadian team of Webb scientists outside of Montreal; this team of faculty, post-doctoral fellows and students is getting ready to parse data from the telescope.
“At Saint Mary’s our postdocs and students will be using JWST to observe the birth of the first galaxies soon after the Big Bang, and to study how these baby galaxies then grew over cosmic time to become beautiful giant structures like our home, the Milky Way Galaxy,” says Dr. Sawicki. “With Webb, the potential for extremely impactful science is enormous, and we are ecstatic that the launch and telescope deployments have gone so perfectly and are eager to begin using Webb for world-leading research here in Nova Scotia.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb’s advanced technology will study every epoch of cosmic history—from the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe to stars around other planets and objects within our solar system. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
Saint Mary’s is a leader in astronomy and physics research and the only place you can study astrophysics east of Montreal. Our students learn from experienced faculty who are internationally recognized for their work, yet classes are small enough that professors will know your name. Saint Mary’s is home to a Canada Research Chair in Astronomy and the Institute for Computational Astrophysics.
This story originally appeared on SMU.ca