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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Cahill, Hameetman Auditorium

Astronomy Colloquium

Inaugural Neugebauer Lecture
Marcia Rieke, Regent's Professor of Astronomy, Univ. of Arizona,

JWST: How Does a Folding Telescope Work?

Getting a 6.5-meter diameter telescope to fit inside an existing rocket fairing is quite a challenge, and when the telescope also requires cooling to 40K, a very complicated system is required. The James Webb Space Telescope builds on the heritage of both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope to provide us with a capability far beyond anything that the first generations of infrared astronomers ever imagined. The instrument suite has been optimized to take advantage of the large, cold telescope.  I will delve into the clever design choices that enable the promise of high sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.

For more information, please contact Althea E. Keith by phone at 626-395-4973 or by email at [email protected].