WEBVTT FILE

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Hello and welcome to this press

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briefing on the James
Webb Space Telescope.

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I'm Karen Fox.

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With NASA's
Office of Communications.

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And we are here today

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at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland,

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to talk about the latest update
on the Webb Telescope,

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which is all about aligning
the mirrors.

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We will be taking Q&A
from the media on the line.

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After some talks

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today, you can get in the queue
by dialing Star One.

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We are also taking
social media questions.

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Just post your question using
the hashtag unfold the universe

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and we'll be taking some of
those along the way as well.

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We are going to start out
with Thomas Zurbuchen,

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the associate administrator
for science at NASA headquarters

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in Washington, D.C.. Welcome.

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So glad to be here.

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What a day can It's exciting.

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Tell us why we're here.

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Well, look,

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this is one of the most
magnificent days

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in my whole career right now.

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So frankly,
and for many of us astronomers

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one of the most important days
that we've had.

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Because even though there's
still weeks and months

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ahead to really fully unleash
the power

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of this new observatories
orbiter at L2,

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today
we can announce that the optics

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will perform to specifications
or even better.

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It's an amazing achievement.

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Fantastic.

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Tell us a little more
about how we got here.

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What brought us to this day?

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This has been a journey
for over two decades.

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And I go and look at this team.

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They're sitting there right
now, and each and every

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one of them is so important
from different organizations

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from Goddard Space Telescope,
Northrop Grumman Ball, which

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spend work on this,
and other contractors,

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other participants
from all around.

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But for everyone who sits there,
there's tens, hundreds

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that have contributed to this
from the idea stage

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20 plus two years ago
with ten plus

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new technologies
that had to be invented

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coming up with this fragmented
mirror 21 feet across

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18 pieces at the flatness
not conceived before

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and now putting it together

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to get to this place
of course launching from Kourou

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together
with our international partners,

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deploying it seamlessly in space
and now

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aligning that optics it's great.

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I've heard
you talk a lot about this team

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and your admiration
for this team.

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And my understanding is
this is really the first time

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we have ever done this
where we've had to hold a mirror

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and put it up into the fairing
before launch.

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And to talk me through that
a little bit.

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What? What?

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How much had to be conceived
and brought to where we are?

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Look, I mean,
when we have a mission, normally

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elsewhere in our portfolio,
we think of like one or two.

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I call them miracles, you know,
kind of new ideas, entirely new

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technologies that when we start,
we don't know yet

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whether they're going to work
this telescope.

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This observatory
now had ten of them,

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perhaps even 12,
depending on how you count.

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And you should know that the
ingenuity of the entire team,

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you know, the diverse team
that came together the best

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that they offer
from the international community

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got us here.

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You know, for me, when I think
about this, frankly,

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I've said it before,
I'm saying it again.

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I think of that in amazing

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challenge, really
at the edge of what's possible.

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And they did it in a way
that, frankly,

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to outside observers
make it look easy.

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And what people should see
is not that it's easy.

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It will be far from the truth.

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I've lost sleepless
nights, awkwardness,

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this particular step,
but also outer step

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that this team
put behind them in a fashion.

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What you should see

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is just the amazing quality
of a team coming together,

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United behind a purpose and,
you know, desire

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to see the universe in
ways we've never seen before.

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So what's next?

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Well,
so this team is going forward.

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It's doing the entire optics
alignment

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continuing and finalizing it.

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And then, of course,
it's all about instruments.

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Now we need to turn
on these instruments

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and all the modes
that are there, kind of

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somewhere in the summer,
June-July, perhaps.

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You know, we're going to have
kind of these modes there.

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We're going to be ready
to really show that the universe

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that we've not

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seen in that infrared universe
at that resolution.

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And then, frankly,

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what we're most excited about
is turning it over

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to the science community
to let that discovery

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begin at a level
we've never seen before.

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Thank you so much.

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We really appreciate it.
Thank you.

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We are going to keep Thomas
here.

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He'll be here for the question
and answer portion.

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But for now, we are moving on
to the rest of the panel.

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We have a great panel
here. For you today.

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We have Eileen Fineberg,
who is the Webb Optical

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Telescope Element Manager
here at NASA Goddard.

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We have Aaron Wolfe,
who is the Web program manager

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at Ball Aerospace in Broomfield,
Colorado.

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Marshall Perron,
the deputy telescope scientist

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at the Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore.

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Maryland.

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And Jane Rigby,
who is the Web Operations

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Project Scientist
also here at NASA Goddard.

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We're going to start off
with Lee.

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He's going to tell us a little
bit more about this alignment.

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Thank you, Karen.

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Well, we have now

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finished the fourth
and fifth phases

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of the telescope alignment.

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We call those phases course
phasing in fine phasing.

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And that's where
we've made the primary mirror

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all 18 mirror segments
into a single primary mirror.

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And we will initially align
the telescope

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to the near cam instrument.

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That's the instrument
that we use to do the alignment.

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And and we've taken
our first images.

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In fact,

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the team gathered
over the weekend

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when the first images came down.

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We were in the mission
control center.

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And it was a
very emotional moment.

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We kind of blew this
some of the images of stars up

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and really could see
how it was performing.

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And I'm happy to say
that the optical performance

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of the telescope
is absolutely phenomenal.

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It is really working
extremely well.

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And and we said last fall
that we would know

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that the telescope
is working properly

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when we have an image of a star
that looks like a star.

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And and now we have that.

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And you're seeing that image

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This is actually a 2100
second exposure

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taken at roughly two microns,
which is the wavelength

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which Webb
was designed to work at or above

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and you not only see the star
and the spikes

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from the

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diffraction of the star,
but you see

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other stars in the field
that are tightly focused,

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just like we expect
and all sorts of other

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interesting structure
in the background.

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We've actually done

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very detailed analysis
of the images we're getting.

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And so far, what we're finding
is that the performance is

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as good, if not better, than
our most optimistic predictions.

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So we're really pleased
with that.

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And to give you some perspective
of what has happened

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and sort of
how the telescope got here,

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we want to run this video clip
to kind of show you

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what the telescope has been
through to get to this point.

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Webb's science

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objectives required
a large primary mirror,

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a mirror too large
to fit inside the largest rocket

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fairing that exists.

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So we had to design
Webb's optics to be folded

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This meant Webb's
Mirror segments

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had to be extremely lightweight

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and individually controllable

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so they could be aligned
in space.

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We put everything through
rigorous testing to ensure

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Webb's delicate systems
would survive, launch

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and work in the super cold
vacuum of space.

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Webb's cryogenic test
inside Chamber A at the Johnson

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Space Center in Houston
in 20, 17, five years ago

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was actually the last time
we tested the telescope

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or took images
with the near Kim instrument,

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which is used to align
the mirrors

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at Northrop Grumman
in Los Angeles.

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Webb's
optical segment was integrated

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with the spacecraft

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and Sunshield segment,
and we did more testing.

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One thing
we can't directly test on Earth

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is the effect of zero-G
on the system.

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We use computer models.

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These models give us confidence
it would work in the zero

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gravity environment, a space

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We packed Webb and shipped
it out from Los Angeles to the

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Panama Canal to the Gardner
Space Center in French Guiana.

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There, Webb was placed atop
the Ariane five rocket

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and launched into space
on December 25th.

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And. The collection deck
or large lift off

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from a tropical rainforest
to the edge of time itself.

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James Webb begins a voyage
back to the birth

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of the universe.

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Punching a hole
through the clouds.

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This is the first time
the Webb Observatory was exposed

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to the vacuum of space.

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The heat of the sun and zero
gravity.

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Moments
after launch, the solar panel

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deployed

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for the next several weeks.

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The Space

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Telescope Science Institute team
unfolded about 50 parts,

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including the sunshield
and the mirrors.

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The open sunshield helped
cool down the instruments,

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a mirror to about -400 degrees
Fahrenheit.

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One of Webb's
final deployments was releasing

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the Mirror segments
from their launch locks.

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Then we could start
the Mirror alignment process

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for the
next six weeks, the optics team

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worked to perfectly aligned
Webb's mirrors.

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We had to engineer the telescope
and mirrors

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to survive all of this and meet
demanding optical requirements

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So this achievement
was not an accident.

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It took a lot of hard work
and just a total commitment

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to excellence
by a number of teams over.

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For over 20 years,
I've been fortunate

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enough to work with teams

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from Northrop Grumman Ball
Aerospace L-3 Harris.

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Four different NASA's centers
contributed to this,

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as well as ESCO Space Telescope
and many other companies,

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as well as our collaborations
with European Space Agency

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and the Canadian Space Agency
and all the interfaces

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and all the aspects
of the telescope.

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And with all that hard work
and dedication, we can now

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say it was worth it, that
the telescope itself is working.

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We still have work to go

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to bring on

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the rest of the observatory,
the rest of the instruments,

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finish
the alignment of the telescope

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to the other instruments

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but the optical performance
is working,

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and we're getting very close to
the point that we can turn this

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amazing scientific tool over
to the astronomical community

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and kind of want to leave with
the thought that not only have

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we built this amazing

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scientific capability
for this generation,

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but we've sort of pioneered
a new way to build

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large space telescopes
which we can give

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to the next generation
of future generations.

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Thank you so much, Lee.

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We are now
moving on to Aaron Wolfe

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who is the Web program manager
at Ball Aerospace.

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She's going to give us some
details about the engineering

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that made all of this alignment
happen.

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We're seeing

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the payoff of years
of technology development,

251
00:10:55.104 --> 00:10:58.257
the optical hardware that
we spent years manufacturing

252
00:10:58.257 --> 00:11:01.377
and polishing and measuring down
to the tens of nanometers

253
00:11:01.711 --> 00:11:05.064
is working better than
our most optimistic predicts.

254
00:11:05.097 --> 00:11:06.949
It's very exciting.

255
00:11:06.949 --> 00:11:09.418
We also spent a lot of time
developing the algorithms

256
00:11:09.418 --> 00:11:10.820
and the mathematical processes

257
00:11:10.820 --> 00:11:13.239
that we would need to perform
this alignment in space.

258
00:11:13.406 --> 00:11:15.975
We've never had a segmented
telescope in space before,

259
00:11:15.991 --> 00:11:18.511
so we had to invent
a whole new process.

260
00:11:18.511 --> 00:11:21.897
So we built a 16 scale
model of a testbed telescope

261
00:11:21.897 --> 00:11:23.883
in Colorado
to prove out all of those

262
00:11:23.883 --> 00:11:25.885
algorithms
and run through the process

263
00:11:26.452 --> 00:11:28.971
that dictates how what our

264
00:11:29.338 --> 00:11:31.557
moves will be on the motors

265
00:11:34.343 --> 00:11:34.794
And it's

266
00:11:34.794 --> 00:11:37.496
actually been easier in space
than it was in the lab.

267
00:11:38.297 --> 00:11:40.850
So we used the motors
on the back of the mirrors

268
00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:43.285
to make small adjustments
to the mirror positions

269
00:11:43.819 --> 00:11:46.889
And we also have that center
radius of curvature actuated

270
00:11:46.889 --> 00:11:48.391
that can actually change

271
00:11:48.391 --> 00:11:51.444
the curvature and shape
of each individual segment

272
00:11:51.527 --> 00:11:55.097
as we align and tip and tilt
and piston through focus

273
00:11:55.381 --> 00:11:56.399
and move them all around.

274
00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:57.116
And the goal here

275
00:11:57.116 --> 00:12:00.453
is to get all 18 segments
to work together as one.

276
00:12:00.536 --> 00:12:02.671
One big,
monolithic primary mirror

277
00:12:03.322 --> 00:12:06.475
And you can really see
the progression of this process

278
00:12:06.475 --> 00:12:08.177
through our pupil images.

279
00:12:08.177 --> 00:12:10.579
So a couple of weeks ago,
we took this pupil image

280
00:12:10.946 --> 00:12:12.081
and you can see one segments

281
00:12:12.081 --> 00:12:15.534
really lit up brightly
with some starlight coming in.

282
00:12:15.534 --> 00:12:19.789
But now we have a new pupil
image with all 18 segments

283
00:12:19.789 --> 00:12:22.858
just lit up
and it looks wonderful.

284
00:12:23.459 --> 00:12:24.443
So we're really excited.

285
00:12:24.443 --> 00:12:26.245
So far, the process is working

286
00:12:26.245 --> 00:12:29.432
and the hardware is performing
better than requirements.

287
00:12:29.815 --> 00:12:32.001
We couldn't be happier
and it's just a testament

288
00:12:32.017 --> 00:12:35.971
like Thomas and Lee have said
to all of the years and years

289
00:12:35.971 --> 00:12:40.292
of hard work that everyone
has put in, people that haven't.

290
00:12:40.376 --> 00:12:43.529
Not necessarily on the team
now for the commissioning,

291
00:12:43.729 --> 00:12:46.499
but they did the technology
development decades ago.

292
00:12:46.532 --> 00:12:48.868
The integration for many,
many years.

293
00:12:49.168 --> 00:12:52.488
So it's really an honor
to bring Webber

294
00:12:52.488 --> 00:12:53.722
through this process

295
00:12:53.722 --> 00:12:55.941
now at the end
and work on all of that

296
00:12:55.941 --> 00:12:58.944
amazing technology development
that the team did back then.

297
00:13:01.497 --> 00:13:03.415
Thank you to Aaron.

298
00:13:03.415 --> 00:13:06.469
We are now going to move to
Marshall Perron with the Space

299
00:13:06.469 --> 00:13:09.588
Telescope Science Institute
is going to give us more details

300
00:13:09.588 --> 00:13:11.340
about the alignment

301
00:13:12.241 --> 00:13:12.708
Thanks.

302
00:13:12.708 --> 00:13:16.228
So the alignment process began
after the initial deployments

303
00:13:16.228 --> 00:13:16.579
of Webb

304
00:13:16.579 --> 00:13:18.481
back in the first few weeks
of this year

305
00:13:18.481 --> 00:13:21.984
and those large unfolding
motions that got the mirrors out

306
00:13:21.984 --> 00:13:25.371
to about within a millimeter or
so of their desired locations.

307
00:13:25.371 --> 00:13:28.607
But in order to have the mirrors
all actors as one, they need

308
00:13:28.607 --> 00:13:31.677
to be lined up to just within
a few nanometers of one another.

309
00:13:31.677 --> 00:13:34.480
That ends up being it's
a few hundred atomic diameters,

310
00:13:34.513 --> 00:13:36.615
the level of precision
that we need here.

311
00:13:36.615 --> 00:13:38.851
So to do that,

312
00:13:38.851 --> 00:13:40.736
we step through a long process.

313
00:13:40.736 --> 00:13:43.489
The team has been preparing and
practicing for many, many years

314
00:13:43.823 --> 00:13:47.426
in which we begin by finding
the 18 spots of light,

315
00:13:48.260 --> 00:13:50.429
that one
from each of the mirrors.

316
00:13:50.429 --> 00:13:52.848
And we gather those together.

317
00:13:52.848 --> 00:13:54.950
We begin by aligning them all

318
00:13:55.284 --> 00:13:57.503
as if
they were separate telescopes.

319
00:13:57.503 --> 00:13:59.271
We have 18 telescopes
basically at this point.

320
00:13:59.271 --> 00:14:01.757
We're going to focus in align
each of those telescopes

321
00:14:01.974 --> 00:14:04.643
one by one, using deep
focused images to work out

322
00:14:04.643 --> 00:14:07.012
the misalignments of the mirrors
and bring them to the point

323
00:14:07.012 --> 00:14:10.649
that each of these 18 telescopes
are sharp on their own.

324
00:14:11.300 --> 00:14:13.619
Once we do that,
we begin to stack together.

325
00:14:13.886 --> 00:14:16.138
The spots of light

326
00:14:16.138 --> 00:14:18.474
in this
we call image stacking produces

327
00:14:18.474 --> 00:14:20.042
something that has the light
gathering power

328
00:14:20.042 --> 00:14:22.044
of the full telescope,
but not yet the sharpness.

329
00:14:23.162 --> 00:14:24.713
We still
have the mirrors misaligned

330
00:14:24.713 --> 00:14:27.900
by some hundreds of microns
at this point in the process.

331
00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.085
And we need to refine
that alignment

332
00:14:30.085 --> 00:14:32.037
through a series of additional
measurement steps and measure.

333
00:14:32.037 --> 00:14:33.505
Correct. Measure, correct.

334
00:14:33.505 --> 00:14:35.507
We use several different
measurement techniques.

335
00:14:35.524 --> 00:14:37.977
We move the pattern of spots
around the different parts

336
00:14:37.977 --> 00:14:39.295
of the telescope

337
00:14:39.295 --> 00:14:40.713
in order
to measure the secondary mirror

338
00:14:40.713 --> 00:14:42.481
alignment between the center
in the corners

339
00:14:42.481 --> 00:14:44.099
of the field of view.

340
00:14:44.099 --> 00:14:47.219
We use a prism to split
the light

341
00:14:47.219 --> 00:14:50.906
from pairs of segments
and measure the piston offsets.

342
00:14:51.123 --> 00:14:52.675
We can then correct
those piston offsets

343
00:14:52.675 --> 00:14:54.960
to bring the mirrors
in interphase with one another.

344
00:14:55.494 --> 00:14:58.547
And at the end of the process
we use a set of the focused

345
00:14:58.847 --> 00:15:01.550
images that we take using lenses
we put in the beam.

346
00:15:01.867 --> 00:15:03.719
This is sort of
like being at the eye doctor

347
00:15:03.719 --> 00:15:05.537
and you test
different lenses and see how

348
00:15:06.572 --> 00:15:09.091
they work
And here we're using computer

349
00:15:09.091 --> 00:15:12.111
and mathematical analysis
to use those defocus images

350
00:15:12.895 --> 00:15:15.898
to measure the mirror positions
with the precision

351
00:15:15.898 --> 00:15:17.583
of just nanometers.

352
00:15:17.583 --> 00:15:21.020
And we use that to dial in these
these very fine adjustments

353
00:15:22.554 --> 00:15:24.173
that bring the telescope
into it.

354
00:15:24.173 --> 00:15:27.026
Just an exquisite sharpness.

355
00:15:27.026 --> 00:15:28.877
This is a process
that we've prepared

356
00:15:28.877 --> 00:15:31.647
and practiced for years

357
00:15:31.647 --> 00:15:32.281
and and

358
00:15:32.281 --> 00:15:34.049
we've rehearsed
over the last few years,

359
00:15:34.049 --> 00:15:36.118
and now we've had a chance
to run that plan.

360
00:15:36.118 --> 00:15:38.570
And it's just an absolute
thrill to be able to say

361
00:15:38.871 --> 00:15:40.022
that everything worked.

362
00:15:40.022 --> 00:15:43.492
And the telescope,
at no point in that process

363
00:15:43.492 --> 00:15:44.910
did we have any significant

364
00:15:44.910 --> 00:15:47.363
technical issues
with the telescope.

365
00:15:47.363 --> 00:15:49.465
Everything's performing at
or above the expectations.

366
00:15:49.465 --> 00:15:50.783
As we said,

367
00:15:50.883 --> 00:15:51.717
there were a couple of places

368
00:15:51.717 --> 00:15:54.236
with some surprises in the data,
but little surprises.

369
00:15:54.386 --> 00:15:55.738
The biggest one,
honestly, has been

370
00:15:55.738 --> 00:15:59.041
just how closely it matched
the models and the predictions

371
00:15:59.491 --> 00:16:00.209
from the ground.

372
00:16:00.209 --> 00:16:02.962
It has been far closer
to those predictions than than

373
00:16:02.962 --> 00:16:04.413
a lot of us had dared to hope.

374
00:16:04.413 --> 00:16:06.949
And we now have achieved
what's called diffraction

375
00:16:06.949 --> 00:16:08.450
limited alignment
of the telescope.

376
00:16:08.450 --> 00:16:10.502
The images are focused together

377
00:16:10.803 --> 00:16:13.522
as finely as the laws of physics
allow.

378
00:16:13.739 --> 00:16:14.540
This is a sharpened

379
00:16:14.540 --> 00:16:17.126
image as you can get
from a telescope of this size.

380
00:16:18.027 --> 00:16:20.062
And as we were focusing
the telescope,

381
00:16:20.062 --> 00:16:22.581
we were using typically one
or Bright Star at a time,

382
00:16:22.614 --> 00:16:24.717
a handful of different stars
we used on the sky.

383
00:16:24.717 --> 00:16:26.869
But as we were focusing on those
bright stars, we couldn't help

384
00:16:26.869 --> 00:16:30.322
but see the rest of the universe
coming into focus behind them

385
00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:33.709
to see the more distant stars
and galaxies coming into view.

386
00:16:33.959 --> 00:16:36.061
And honestly,
the team was giddy at times

387
00:16:36.061 --> 00:16:37.262
just seeing this happen.

388
00:16:37.262 --> 00:16:38.847
There's
no way to look at these data

389
00:16:38.847 --> 00:16:41.100
and not be excited
at the scientific possibilities

390
00:16:41.300 --> 00:16:43.102
that are opening up here.

391
00:16:43.102 --> 00:16:45.954
We've done this over
the last several months.

392
00:16:46.622 --> 00:16:49.008
Within
almost exactly on schedule.

393
00:16:49.008 --> 00:16:50.492
There is a few things

394
00:16:50.492 --> 00:16:52.127
that took a little bit longer
than we thought.

395
00:16:52.127 --> 00:16:53.846
There are some steps that went
faster than we thought.

396
00:16:53.846 --> 00:16:54.863
And so overall,

397
00:16:54.863 --> 00:16:56.215
we're really within
just a few days

398
00:16:56.215 --> 00:16:58.217
of exactly where we thought
we'd be at this point

399
00:16:58.217 --> 00:16:59.451
about three months after launch.

400
00:16:59.451 --> 00:17:01.620
And that sets us up
to be on track

401
00:17:01.770 --> 00:17:03.088
for completing
the rest of commissioning

402
00:17:03.088 --> 00:17:04.490
within the six months
after launch

403
00:17:04.490 --> 00:17:06.842
and turning over to science
starting that summer.

404
00:17:07.443 --> 00:17:08.694
So it's an amazing place to be.

405
00:17:10.679 --> 00:17:11.997
Thank you so much, Marshall.

406
00:17:11.997 --> 00:17:14.033
We have one more speaker
to talk a little bit

407
00:17:14.033 --> 00:17:16.101
about that science
that Marshall was discussing.

408
00:17:16.101 --> 00:17:18.687
But just a reminder, after that,
we will be taking questions

409
00:17:18.921 --> 00:17:20.072
from media on the line.

410
00:17:20.072 --> 00:17:22.674
You can press star
one to get into the queue

411
00:17:22.858 --> 00:17:25.944
and for social media, post
your questions with the hashtag

412
00:17:26.311 --> 00:17:27.830
unfold the universe.

413
00:17:27.830 --> 00:17:28.764
Thank you so much.

414
00:17:28.764 --> 00:17:32.151
Next, we have Jane
Rigby from NASA's Goddard.

415
00:17:32.418 --> 00:17:33.752
Thank you, Karen.

416
00:17:33.752 --> 00:17:36.355
So you've you've heard
from the other speakers,

417
00:17:36.355 --> 00:17:37.439
but I'm just going to say it
again.

418
00:17:37.439 --> 00:17:39.058
The telescope performance

419
00:17:39.058 --> 00:17:41.660
so far is everything
that we dared hope.

420
00:17:42.061 --> 00:17:43.712
The optics work.

421
00:17:43.712 --> 00:17:46.799
The goal here was to build
a telescope 100 times

422
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:49.468
more powerful
than anything we've had before

423
00:17:49.952 --> 00:17:53.422
from the early engineering data
that we have seen so far.

424
00:17:53.455 --> 00:17:56.091
We know that we're on track
to meet

425
00:17:56.091 --> 00:17:58.277
those very demanding science
requirements.

426
00:17:58.977 --> 00:18:01.697
The engineering images
that we saw today

427
00:18:02.631 --> 00:18:05.400
are as sharp and as crisp

428
00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:07.519
as the images
that Hubble can take,

429
00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:10.289
but are at a wavelength of light
that is totally invisible

430
00:18:10.289 --> 00:18:11.123
to Hubble.

431
00:18:11.123 --> 00:18:13.308
So this is making the invisible
universe

432
00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:16.345
snap into very,
very sharp focus.

433
00:18:16.795 --> 00:18:19.014
The requirement
was to get to the diffraction

434
00:18:19.014 --> 00:18:20.282
limit at two microns.

435
00:18:20.282 --> 00:18:24.403
We nailed it for the astronomers
who are listening to microns,

436
00:18:24.419 --> 00:18:24.770
the point

437
00:18:24.770 --> 00:18:28.657
spread function has a full width
at half max of 2.3 pixels.

438
00:18:28.941 --> 00:18:31.009
That's 70 billion arcseconds.

439
00:18:31.009 --> 00:18:33.779
The only way to make
those images sharper is to just

440
00:18:34.046 --> 00:18:34.997
make a bigger mirror.

441
00:18:36.331 --> 00:18:37.049
Now, we took this

442
00:18:37.049 --> 00:18:39.301
image
to characterize the sharpness,

443
00:18:39.568 --> 00:18:42.838
but you can't help but
see those thousands of galaxies

444
00:18:42.838 --> 00:18:43.889
behind it, right?

445
00:18:43.889 --> 00:18:45.958
They're really gorgeous.

446
00:18:45.958 --> 00:18:47.726
Webb can't.

447
00:18:47.726 --> 00:18:50.062
There's no way that Webb
can look for 12 seconds

448
00:18:50.062 --> 00:18:53.148
at any point in the sky
and not go incredibly deep.

449
00:18:53.782 --> 00:18:56.969
So this is going to be
the future from now on, wherever

450
00:18:56.969 --> 00:18:57.503
we look.

451
00:18:57.503 --> 00:18:59.188
It's a deep field

452
00:18:59.271 --> 00:19:02.274
where Webb is seeing back
in time to galaxies

453
00:19:02.274 --> 00:19:05.511
that we're seeing that light as
it looked billions of years ago

454
00:19:05.761 --> 00:19:08.397
without even really
breaking a sweat.

455
00:19:08.397 --> 00:19:11.416
So where we are right now,
we have not taken any science

456
00:19:11.416 --> 00:19:12.234
data yet.

457
00:19:12.234 --> 00:19:14.186
We are still commissioning.

458
00:19:14.186 --> 00:19:16.188
And so what does that mean
and what's next?

459
00:19:16.188 --> 00:19:18.707
So right now,
the telescope is aligned to near

460
00:19:19.224 --> 00:19:20.959
one of the science instruments.

461
00:19:20.959 --> 00:19:23.629
We now have to align
the telescope to all four

462
00:19:23.629 --> 00:19:24.780
of the science instruments.

463
00:19:24.780 --> 00:19:25.614
So every one

464
00:19:25.614 --> 00:19:28.500
of those four instruments
is getting a crisp image.

465
00:19:29.034 --> 00:19:30.452
And these four science
instruments,

466
00:19:30.452 --> 00:19:32.421
we have to get ready for prime
time.

467
00:19:32.421 --> 00:19:34.106
We're getting them
ready for science.

468
00:19:34.106 --> 00:19:35.507
One of those four science

469
00:19:35.507 --> 00:19:37.826
instruments, Mary,
which eventually is going to be

470
00:19:37.826 --> 00:19:39.661
the coldest thing
on the observatory.

471
00:19:39.661 --> 00:19:41.997
It's seven degrees
above absolute zero.

472
00:19:42.181 --> 00:19:43.282
It's still cooling.

473
00:19:43.282 --> 00:19:46.018
So we're cooling that instrument
and we are taking

474
00:19:46.018 --> 00:19:48.387
the science instruments
through their checkout period.

475
00:19:48.737 --> 00:19:51.773
And so, you know,
this is the process that we

476
00:19:52.291 --> 00:19:55.344
this is the process
where we know that, yes, this is

477
00:19:55.344 --> 00:19:57.296
these instruments are working

478
00:19:57.296 --> 00:19:59.631
to do the science
that we need them to do.

479
00:19:59.631 --> 00:20:03.468
So the transition to science
will happen in July

480
00:20:03.468 --> 00:20:06.355
where we finished commissioning
and we move into

481
00:20:06.355 --> 00:20:10.108
a very demanding year
of science operations.

482
00:20:10.108 --> 00:20:13.195
We have already selected
it's prepared and ready to go.

483
00:20:13.462 --> 00:20:15.981
A year of really compelling,

484
00:20:15.981 --> 00:20:18.300
demanding science
with this telescope.

485
00:20:18.800 --> 00:20:21.770
And I'm just so excited
to see the science which was

486
00:20:21.770 --> 00:20:23.522
competitively selected. Right.

487
00:20:23.522 --> 00:20:25.908
We received more than a thousand
proposals.

488
00:20:26.124 --> 00:20:28.343
We picked the very best ones

489
00:20:28.343 --> 00:20:31.463
so that science
is going to be studying galaxies

490
00:20:31.797 --> 00:20:33.799
that where we're seeing
the light

491
00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:36.451
as we're seeing these galaxies,
they're so far away

492
00:20:36.868 --> 00:20:39.588
that we see them as they looked
only a couple hundred

493
00:20:39.588 --> 00:20:43.592
million years after the Big Bang
So we're seeing back in time.

494
00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:44.610
This is what we're going to be

495
00:20:44.610 --> 00:20:48.063
doing in Cycle
one to understand how

496
00:20:48.830 --> 00:20:50.599
how galaxies like our own

497
00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.852
Milky Way formed
and then evolved over

498
00:20:53.869 --> 00:20:56.421
13.7 billion years of cosmic
time.

499
00:20:57.155 --> 00:21:00.892
Webb will be studying planets
that orbit other stars

500
00:21:01.460 --> 00:21:03.679
And more than that,
we'll be able to study

501
00:21:03.679 --> 00:21:07.099
the atmospheres of those planets
to understand

502
00:21:07.099 --> 00:21:08.200
what they're made of.

503
00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:11.036
You know, a lot of our science
is going to be understood

504
00:21:11.603 --> 00:21:14.539
What stuff is made out through
a process called spectroscopy?

505
00:21:14.990 --> 00:21:16.675
What are the atmospheres
made of?

506
00:21:16.675 --> 00:21:18.660
What are galaxies made of?

507
00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:21.263
Fundamentally, this telescope
is going to explore

508
00:21:21.513 --> 00:21:23.732
how we got here
and what's out there

509
00:21:24.499 --> 00:21:27.252
and what's out there
in our gorgeous universe.

510
00:21:27.269 --> 00:21:29.388
And that's just starting
to come into view now.

511
00:21:33.475 --> 00:21:35.360
Thank you so much, Jane.

512
00:21:35.360 --> 00:21:38.096
We are going to move on to
the question and answer portion.

513
00:21:38.397 --> 00:21:41.433
We're going to open up the mikes

514
00:21:41.433 --> 00:21:43.769
for the first question, please

515
00:21:51.410 --> 00:21:52.828
If we don't have
our first question,

516
00:21:52.828 --> 00:21:55.163
I can pull up a social media
question, but let me know

517
00:22:00.686 --> 00:22:01.136
I'm going to go

518
00:22:01.136 --> 00:22:03.171
to social media question
while we work that out.

519
00:22:03.989 --> 00:22:06.658
We have a question
from Peter on Facebook.

520
00:22:07.042 --> 00:22:07.826
Who is asking,

521
00:22:07.826 --> 00:22:11.480
what about pointing the
telescope at different stars?

522
00:22:11.747 --> 00:22:12.831
How is it going to rotate?

523
00:22:12.831 --> 00:22:14.966
Are there actuate
or is to facilitate this?

524
00:22:14.966 --> 00:22:17.069
Or does the entire spacecraft
move?

525
00:22:18.754 --> 00:22:21.890
You won't take it or say yeah or

526
00:22:21.890 --> 00:22:23.508
so the way Webb moves

527
00:22:23.508 --> 00:22:25.344
that some people think
the telescope moves

528
00:22:25.344 --> 00:22:27.179
with respect to the sunshield,
but that's not the case.

529
00:22:27.179 --> 00:22:29.931
The telescope and the sunshield
all move as a single object.

530
00:22:29.931 --> 00:22:31.500
So the whole observatory

531
00:22:31.500 --> 00:22:33.719
tips and tilts
to move across the sky.

532
00:22:33.952 --> 00:22:35.270
The way that happens
is there's a thing

533
00:22:35.270 --> 00:22:37.105
called reaction
wheels these are, in essence,

534
00:22:37.105 --> 00:22:39.708
big spinning wheels,
like a gyroscope within the body

535
00:22:39.708 --> 00:22:40.709
of the observatory,

536
00:22:40.709 --> 00:22:41.760
and they spin one way

537
00:22:41.760 --> 00:22:43.879
to spin the whole telescope
the other way,

538
00:22:43.879 --> 00:22:46.348
and that lets the telescope
track across the sky.

539
00:22:46.498 --> 00:22:48.083
We then
have a fine guidance sensor.

540
00:22:49.051 --> 00:22:51.169
That was the contribution
from the Canadian Space Agency

541
00:22:51.169 --> 00:22:53.722
that locks on stars
and stabilizes the images,

542
00:22:53.972 --> 00:22:57.809
moving a mirror that adjusts
within the third mirror, within

543
00:22:59.094 --> 00:23:01.346
the fourth mirror,
within the telescope,

544
00:23:01.346 --> 00:23:03.031
tips and tilts
in response to the signals

545
00:23:03.031 --> 00:23:05.333
in the fine guidance sensor
to lock onto the different stars

546
00:23:05.634 --> 00:23:08.103
And that's also something
we've tested out over the last

547
00:23:08.103 --> 00:23:10.589
few weeks, and it's working
very well at this point.

548
00:23:11.273 --> 00:23:12.741
Great. Thank you so much.

549
00:23:12.741 --> 00:23:14.993
We seem to have worked out
the problem

550
00:23:14.993 --> 00:23:16.878
with the phone lines,
but they should be on now.

551
00:23:16.878 --> 00:23:19.047
So we'll take
the first question.

552
00:23:19.347 --> 00:23:20.999
And our first question
comes from

553
00:23:20.999 --> 00:23:23.668
Seth Bornstein
from the Associated Press.

554
00:23:23.702 --> 00:23:25.737
Your line is now open

555
00:23:26.121 --> 00:23:27.923
Yes. Thank you for doing this.

556
00:23:27.923 --> 00:23:30.075
I guess this is for James

557
00:23:31.126 --> 00:23:32.277
first image.

558
00:23:32.277 --> 00:23:34.946
Can you
tell us what star is this?

559
00:23:34.946 --> 00:23:36.748
How far away is this?

560
00:23:36.748 --> 00:23:39.050
Is this as this star been seen

561
00:23:39.050 --> 00:23:41.103
with Hubble
or any other telescope?

562
00:23:41.453 --> 00:23:44.606
And what is the difference
between the image you're showing

563
00:23:44.606 --> 00:23:47.309
and whatever knowledge
we've had in the past

564
00:23:48.727 --> 00:23:50.362
year or so?

565
00:23:50.362 --> 00:23:55.250
Is that that and how much
in the past is this star

566
00:23:55.550 --> 00:23:57.986
and how many galaxies
are we seeing in the background?

567
00:23:58.286 --> 00:23:58.970
Sure.

568
00:23:58.970 --> 00:24:02.007
So we sort of plucked
this star out of obscurity,

569
00:24:02.607 --> 00:24:04.409
minding its own business.

570
00:24:04.409 --> 00:24:05.160
It is point.

571
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.730
It is up looking out of
the plane of our solar system.

572
00:24:09.047 --> 00:24:11.032
And we picked it
because it was convenient

573
00:24:11.032 --> 00:24:12.467
for the wavefront folks.

574
00:24:12.467 --> 00:24:15.704
It is a nice, boring star
of about the right brightness

575
00:24:15.954 --> 00:24:17.606
brightness.
And it's off by itself

576
00:24:17.606 --> 00:24:19.374
with no other bright stars
nearby.

577
00:24:19.374 --> 00:24:21.927
It's a pretty much generic
anonymous star in the sky.

578
00:24:22.227 --> 00:24:22.978
That worked

579
00:24:22.978 --> 00:24:24.362
well for the kind of
sensing measurements

580
00:24:24.362 --> 00:24:26.915
we needed to do the brightness
of that star.

581
00:24:26.932 --> 00:24:30.469
It's about a hundred times
fainter than the visible

582
00:24:30.569 --> 00:24:31.937
than the human eye could see.

583
00:24:31.937 --> 00:24:32.721
And that's the one that looks

584
00:24:32.721 --> 00:24:34.256
so blindingly bright
in this image

585
00:24:34.256 --> 00:24:36.391
to get a sense of how sensitive
the telescope is.

586
00:24:37.225 --> 00:24:37.909
I don't know.

587
00:24:37.909 --> 00:24:40.312
I can get back to you on
how far away that that star is,

588
00:24:40.312 --> 00:24:42.931
but we think it's sort of
just a generic

589
00:24:42.931 --> 00:24:45.167
average star
in our inner galaxy.

590
00:24:45.567 --> 00:24:47.853
And then the the
what was known behind that,

591
00:24:47.853 --> 00:24:49.971
because this isn't a famous
deep field.

592
00:24:49.971 --> 00:24:53.241
This is just we've made we've
made it a fairly deep field,

593
00:24:53.241 --> 00:24:54.543
but it was just a star.

594
00:24:54.543 --> 00:24:56.995
So the brightest stars
in that image are known in

595
00:24:56.995 --> 00:24:58.079
previous study

596
00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.283
surveys, the brightest galaxies,
everything else there is new

597
00:25:02.350 --> 00:25:03.718
So I'll just add once again,

598
00:25:03.718 --> 00:25:06.087
this star is one of many stars
we used throughout

599
00:25:06.087 --> 00:25:08.190
the commissioning process of
of Webb.

600
00:25:08.423 --> 00:25:10.458
We've gotten a lot of questions
about the stars we're using.

601
00:25:10.825 --> 00:25:12.410
They're generally picked out

602
00:25:12.410 --> 00:25:13.879
not because
they're special stars,

603
00:25:13.879 --> 00:25:15.830
but because they're
the right brightness

604
00:25:15.830 --> 00:25:18.750
in the right parts of sky
for our engineering tests.

605
00:25:19.017 --> 00:25:21.803
They're intentionally, at this
point, not special stars.

606
00:25:21.803 --> 00:25:22.137
They're just

607
00:25:22.137 --> 00:25:24.272
here's a generic star we can use
to focus the telescope.

608
00:25:25.407 --> 00:25:26.591
Thank you very much.

609
00:25:26.591 --> 00:25:29.477
We will go on
to our next question, please.

610
00:25:29.477 --> 00:25:31.796
Our next question is from
Chris Jabour.

611
00:25:31.846 --> 00:25:33.448
From NASA's space flight.

612
00:25:33.448 --> 00:25:35.483
Your line is now open.

613
00:25:35.901 --> 00:25:37.402
I can. Yes.

614
00:25:37.402 --> 00:25:38.169
Thank you so much.

615
00:25:38.169 --> 00:25:40.672
I'm wondering,
looking out a little bit ahead

616
00:25:41.122 --> 00:25:43.608
to the rest
of the Mira alignment,

617
00:25:43.625 --> 00:25:45.627
you mentioned that
you have to align it

618
00:25:45.627 --> 00:25:47.062
to each of the instruments.

619
00:25:47.062 --> 00:25:49.014
So I'm wondering

620
00:25:50.899 --> 00:25:53.451
if each time the
telescope observes something,

621
00:25:53.451 --> 00:25:56.988
do you have to basically realign
it to each of the instruments,

622
00:25:56.988 --> 00:26:01.309
or are you trying to find a one
alignment that works for them?

623
00:26:01.409 --> 00:26:04.479
All. And in particular,

624
00:26:04.479 --> 00:26:07.132
like how would that work
going forward with practical

625
00:26:07.132 --> 00:26:09.834
observations in terms
of seeing all the way back

626
00:26:10.352 --> 00:26:13.255
and seeing very, very close
objects in our own solar system?

627
00:26:14.155 --> 00:26:15.574
Thank you. Question.

628
00:26:15.574 --> 00:26:16.408
Yeah, I can answer that.

629
00:26:16.408 --> 00:26:17.909
That's a good question.

630
00:26:18.293 --> 00:26:20.428
You know, we
we initially lines to near Cam

631
00:26:21.029 --> 00:26:23.181
as an instrument
because it has that's

632
00:26:23.481 --> 00:26:26.151
some of those special optics
in their filter wheel

633
00:26:26.151 --> 00:26:28.853
that Marshall mentioned
just for our alignment process.

634
00:26:28.970 --> 00:26:29.971
Now that we've gone through

635
00:26:29.971 --> 00:26:32.274
that fine
alignment process with your cam,

636
00:26:32.641 --> 00:26:35.910
we will take a look
at the other instruments

637
00:26:35.910 --> 00:26:39.497
across the field of view
and we'll balance the alignment

638
00:26:39.497 --> 00:26:43.768
of the entire telescope up
to all four of the instruments

639
00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:45.587
so that they're

640
00:26:45.587 --> 00:26:47.939
all in focus
and they're all nice and sharp.

641
00:26:48.657 --> 00:26:50.809
But once we're done
with that process,

642
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:53.428
then we leave it alone
basically.

643
00:26:53.428 --> 00:26:56.548
And we only do maintenance
operations is what we call them.

644
00:26:56.698 --> 00:26:58.617
So every couple of days
we'll take a measurement

645
00:26:58.617 --> 00:27:01.519
and see how the alignment looks
see how the wavefront looks,

646
00:27:01.770 --> 00:27:05.156
and if it's drifted a little
bit, maybe for thermal drifts

647
00:27:05.156 --> 00:27:06.207
or other reasons,

648
00:27:06.207 --> 00:27:09.327
then we can make a tiny
correction we'll still be making

649
00:27:09.327 --> 00:27:12.147
on the nanometer
size moves at that point.

650
00:27:12.147 --> 00:27:14.783
So we won't be realigning
the telescope.

651
00:27:15.383 --> 00:27:18.053
We'll just keep it in focus
and maintain it

652
00:27:18.153 --> 00:27:20.005
throughout mission life.

653
00:27:21.473 --> 00:27:22.107
Thanks.

654
00:27:22.107 --> 00:27:25.043
We are ready
for our next question.

655
00:27:25.143 --> 00:27:25.493
Thank you.

656
00:27:25.493 --> 00:27:29.331
Our next question comes from
Alisha Belzer from Mashable.

657
00:27:29.364 --> 00:27:30.332
Your line is now open.

658
00:27:31.916 --> 00:27:34.469
Hi. Thank
you for doing this and congrats.

659
00:27:35.337 --> 00:27:37.889
I was hoping
just for the general public,

660
00:27:37.889 --> 00:27:41.359
could you explain the features
of the image?

661
00:27:42.027 --> 00:27:45.780
In other words, what's causing
those big, bright lights,

662
00:27:45.830 --> 00:27:49.100
structures and what's giving
the image its red color?

663
00:27:49.517 --> 00:27:50.251
Thanks.

664
00:27:50.452 --> 00:27:50.985
Yeah.

665
00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:52.921
So I can help you a little bit.

666
00:27:52.921 --> 00:27:54.422
So first of all,

667
00:27:54.673 --> 00:27:57.509
the the color that's actually
the colors that we used.

668
00:27:57.709 --> 00:28:00.211
The engineers
use to to display it.

669
00:28:00.211 --> 00:28:02.030
But the actual light
that's coming in

670
00:28:02.030 --> 00:28:02.897
is infrared light,

671
00:28:02.897 --> 00:28:05.266
which you would not normally
be able to see with your eye.

672
00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:07.769
So we wound up using red

673
00:28:08.336 --> 00:28:10.622
to help us
see the contrast in the image.

674
00:28:10.822 --> 00:28:13.074
And that's
what we're displaying here.

675
00:28:13.074 --> 00:28:15.677
But in terms of what you're that
the spikes that you see

676
00:28:15.677 --> 00:28:17.479
coming out of the star,

677
00:28:17.479 --> 00:28:20.281
any telescope
that has special structures

678
00:28:20.281 --> 00:28:22.200
like this,
the shape of our mirrors

679
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:24.469
will have
that kind of spikes in it.

680
00:28:24.803 --> 00:28:25.403
Those are actually

681
00:28:25.403 --> 00:28:28.323
the result of, in this case,
having hexagonal segments

682
00:28:28.673 --> 00:28:30.442
So we have
these six sided mirrors

683
00:28:30.442 --> 00:28:33.328
and we also have our struts
are the things that hold

684
00:28:33.328 --> 00:28:34.612
the secondary mirror up.

685
00:28:34.612 --> 00:28:38.516
And because of the sort
of the way that light travels

686
00:28:38.516 --> 00:28:41.102
and that actually causes
something called diffraction

687
00:28:41.336 --> 00:28:42.387
that makes those spikes.

688
00:28:42.387 --> 00:28:44.372
And you see that most intensely

689
00:28:44.372 --> 00:28:45.890
when you have a very bright star

690
00:28:45.890 --> 00:28:47.192
and the other stars
in the field,

691
00:28:47.192 --> 00:28:49.427
you don't see it as much
because they're dimmer.

692
00:28:49.427 --> 00:28:52.046
And those effects
are much harder to see.

693
00:28:52.046 --> 00:28:54.032
And that's why you only see
it in that very bright star.

694
00:28:55.950 --> 00:28:58.286
Thank you so much, Marshall.

695
00:28:58.286 --> 00:29:00.805
We are going to continue
with some more media questions.

696
00:29:00.805 --> 00:29:04.058
Next ones up All right.

697
00:29:04.075 --> 00:29:07.262
And our next question is from
Bill Harwood from CBS News.

698
00:29:07.278 --> 00:29:09.197
Your line is open.

699
00:29:09.380 --> 00:29:11.132
Hey, thank you very much.

700
00:29:11.132 --> 00:29:13.051
Yeah, I just want to follow up
on an earlier question

701
00:29:13.051 --> 00:29:15.170
because I'm still a little bit
confused about

702
00:29:16.521 --> 00:29:19.140
the alignment to date
and then what has to be done

703
00:29:19.140 --> 00:29:20.425
for the other instruments.

704
00:29:20.425 --> 00:29:23.061
So I'm taking it
that you're perfectly aligned

705
00:29:23.311 --> 00:29:25.764
there have been
the focus is a sharp,

706
00:29:27.031 --> 00:29:29.117
sharp as you can get it.

707
00:29:29.634 --> 00:29:31.286
But are you moving?

708
00:29:31.286 --> 00:29:31.970
I don't understand.

709
00:29:31.970 --> 00:29:32.971
If it's the secondary

710
00:29:32.971 --> 00:29:36.357
that you remove at this point
or individual segments to it

711
00:29:36.508 --> 00:29:38.543
to achieve that focus
for everybody.

712
00:29:39.527 --> 00:29:41.996
I guess I'm just not visualizing
how that works

713
00:29:42.380 --> 00:29:46.501
or how the internal mirrors
and will play into all of that.

714
00:29:47.569 --> 00:29:48.236
Thanks.

715
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:48.887
So the

716
00:29:48.887 --> 00:29:51.890
primary things we're doing
that are still in front of us.

717
00:29:52.257 --> 00:29:55.193
The secondary mirror right now
is actually fairly well aligned.

718
00:29:55.860 --> 00:29:59.514
And we know not we know that
not just because of the star

719
00:29:59.514 --> 00:30:00.348
that we just showed you,

720
00:30:00.348 --> 00:30:02.417
but the other stars
in that field

721
00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:04.319
tell us it's pretty
well aligned.

722
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:06.237
But we want to
we want to make it

723
00:30:06.237 --> 00:30:07.405
as good as possible

724
00:30:07.405 --> 00:30:09.174
so that it's balance
for all four instruments.

725
00:30:09.174 --> 00:30:11.659
So we do
we do have to do a little bit of

726
00:30:12.744 --> 00:30:15.063
very small tweaks to
the secondary mirror alignment

727
00:30:15.363 --> 00:30:17.065
and then also the instruments
themselves.

728
00:30:17.065 --> 00:30:17.966
Several of the instruments

729
00:30:17.966 --> 00:30:20.602
have the ability to focus
internally to the instrument,

730
00:30:20.852 --> 00:30:21.452
and that's something

731
00:30:21.452 --> 00:30:23.521
we still need to do
is to get them focused

732
00:30:23.721 --> 00:30:25.523
once the telescope itself

733
00:30:25.523 --> 00:30:27.592
is fully aligned
and fully focused in a way

734
00:30:27.592 --> 00:30:29.460
that balances off
our instruments.

735
00:30:29.460 --> 00:30:31.646
It's a very minor change
that's in front of us.

736
00:30:31.646 --> 00:30:34.349
But when you're trying to do
sort of transformative science,

737
00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:37.218
you have to really get
to the ultimate performance.

738
00:30:37.218 --> 00:30:40.471
And it'll be a few weeks
to do this, but we will be able

739
00:30:40.471 --> 00:30:43.258
to leave the telescope
from that time forward.

740
00:30:46.010 --> 00:30:47.762
Thank you so much.

741
00:30:49.163 --> 00:30:50.398
And we will move on to our next

742
00:30:50.398 --> 00:30:52.951
question, please,
from the media.

743
00:30:52.951 --> 00:30:56.671
Our next question comes
from Eileen Woodward from WSJ.

744
00:30:56.688 --> 00:30:58.857
Your line is now open.

745
00:30:59.357 --> 00:31:00.859
Hi. Thank you so much for this.

746
00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:03.511
I just wanted to ask,

747
00:31:03.511 --> 00:31:06.231
do you think that you have
sort of passed the performance

748
00:31:06.231 --> 00:31:09.751
Rubicon
in terms of between now and June

749
00:31:09.751 --> 00:31:12.503
and July, when you expect
to start scientific observations

750
00:31:12.503 --> 00:31:15.840
and see first imagery of that
deep universe?

751
00:31:16.307 --> 00:31:18.943
Do you anticipate any problems
between then and now?

752
00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:21.746
It seems to me like coarse
and fine phrasing were sort of

753
00:31:22.530 --> 00:31:26.084
the big thing that we wanted
to achieve, and you've done so.

754
00:31:26.167 --> 00:31:29.220
I'm curious if you anticipate
any issues between now and then.

755
00:31:29.971 --> 00:31:32.574
We'll start out with Thomas
for that question.

756
00:31:32.574 --> 00:31:35.043
So I'm really interested
in other answers Actually,

757
00:31:35.276 --> 00:31:38.997
I just want to tell you,
of all the sleepless nights

758
00:31:38.997 --> 00:31:41.132
I've had and kind of the worries
I've had

759
00:31:41.249 --> 00:31:42.984
that are all behind us now,

760
00:31:42.984 --> 00:31:45.453
and it's not
because there is no path ahead.

761
00:31:45.453 --> 00:31:47.005
There's
still a mountain to climb.

762
00:31:47.005 --> 00:31:49.607
There are important tasks
that need to be done

763
00:31:49.791 --> 00:31:51.593
and important things
that need to be proven,

764
00:31:51.593 --> 00:31:54.979
such as the alignment, as I was
also all the modalities in each

765
00:31:54.979 --> 00:31:58.549
one of the instruments needs
to be tested and calibrated.

766
00:31:58.850 --> 00:32:01.252
So there's important stuff
ahead.

767
00:32:01.252 --> 00:32:05.573
But I want to tell you, you you
know, kind of what's behind us.

768
00:32:05.757 --> 00:32:07.592
We're way up that mountain now.

769
00:32:07.592 --> 00:32:08.860
We're way up that mountain.

770
00:32:08.860 --> 00:32:10.111
Yes. There's a path that

771
00:32:10.111 --> 00:32:13.047
and you know, in our world,
there's always a path ahead.

772
00:32:13.197 --> 00:32:15.500
We never go say we're done.

773
00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:16.818
We can take it easy now.

774
00:32:16.818 --> 00:32:19.337
So so kind of the way we create
success is by,

775
00:32:19.337 --> 00:32:22.256
frankly, focusing on the issues
that are still ahead.

776
00:32:22.256 --> 00:32:23.491
And we're worrying about

777
00:32:23.491 --> 00:32:25.576
But I'm interested
in other opinions or other

778
00:32:25.576 --> 00:32:26.427
statements to that.

779
00:32:28.012 --> 00:32:30.231
Well,
I I do want to say one thing is,

780
00:32:30.231 --> 00:32:33.468
you know, we do know now that
we built the right telescope

781
00:32:33.468 --> 00:32:35.820
in terms of the optics,
that is not going to change.

782
00:32:36.587 --> 00:32:37.922
And that's something
that the fine

783
00:32:37.922 --> 00:32:39.207
phasing process is brought out.

784
00:32:39.207 --> 00:32:41.459
We've been able
to analyze those images

785
00:32:41.459 --> 00:32:43.378
and we know we built the right
telescope.

786
00:32:43.378 --> 00:32:45.747
And, of course,
you know, that's a big deal.

787
00:32:45.780 --> 00:32:48.566
And so so that's partially
why we're here today.

788
00:32:49.167 --> 00:32:51.686
But but as Thomas said
and others have said,

789
00:32:51.686 --> 00:32:52.854
you know, there is work to go.

790
00:32:52.854 --> 00:32:55.406
So we're not there
on the entire observatory.

791
00:32:55.940 --> 00:32:58.459
But just to take that image,
you know, that was a 2100

792
00:32:58.509 --> 00:33:00.411
second image.
A lot of things had to work.

793
00:33:00.411 --> 00:33:01.379
We had to be able to point,

794
00:33:01.379 --> 00:33:02.363
we had to be able to,

795
00:33:02.363 --> 00:33:05.133
you know, guide, which means
kind of track on that star.

796
00:33:05.133 --> 00:33:06.117
Precisely.

797
00:33:06.117 --> 00:33:09.237
It was a fairly long period
of time that we took that image.

798
00:33:09.237 --> 00:33:11.239
So there's a lot of things
that are working really well,

799
00:33:11.572 --> 00:33:12.774
but there is more work to go.

800
00:33:14.392 --> 00:33:14.842
All right.

801
00:33:14.842 --> 00:33:15.777
Thank you.

802
00:33:15.777 --> 00:33:19.197
We will go to the next question
from the phone lines.

803
00:33:19.197 --> 00:33:20.331
And our next question comes

804
00:33:20.331 --> 00:33:23.217
from Alexandria
with from Nature magazine.

805
00:33:23.251 --> 00:33:25.286
Your line is now open.

806
00:33:25.470 --> 00:33:26.304
Great. Thank you.

807
00:33:26.304 --> 00:33:28.489
My question is for Jane Rigby.

808
00:33:28.489 --> 00:33:29.424
Can you just

809
00:33:29.424 --> 00:33:32.477
pass forward a little bit more
to sort of first science again?

810
00:33:33.111 --> 00:33:35.313
We hear dates of June, July.

811
00:33:35.313 --> 00:33:35.630
Can you

812
00:33:35.630 --> 00:33:38.332
be a little bit more precise on
when we'll have more timing

813
00:33:38.332 --> 00:33:41.786
on which of those dates, which
of those months is accurate?

814
00:33:41.786 --> 00:33:45.056
And also, what do we know
about kind of the super secret

815
00:33:45.056 --> 00:33:47.658
first science observations
that are going to be made?

816
00:33:47.658 --> 00:33:49.494
Have those targets been chosen?

817
00:33:49.494 --> 00:33:50.128
I know you can't

818
00:33:50.128 --> 00:33:52.380
tell us what they are, but
have those targets been chosen?

819
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:54.032
Okay. In reverse order?

820
00:33:54.032 --> 00:33:56.818
Yes. The targets have been
chosen for the super secret

821
00:33:57.151 --> 00:33:58.970
first
images that will be released.

822
00:33:59.937 --> 00:34:02.323
The science targets, of course,
have all been chosen.

823
00:34:02.340 --> 00:34:05.126
We've selected more
than a full year of science,

824
00:34:05.393 --> 00:34:07.795
and those operate
those targets have been chosen

825
00:34:07.795 --> 00:34:10.248
and those programs
have been fully specified.

826
00:34:10.431 --> 00:34:13.501
The computer files
that tell the little Web

827
00:34:13.501 --> 00:34:16.137
how to take the data,
we have all those in hat in hand

828
00:34:16.521 --> 00:34:18.322
As far as the specifics,
we are going.

829
00:34:18.322 --> 00:34:20.091
We will start science operations

830
00:34:20.091 --> 00:34:21.709
when we are done
with commissioning.

831
00:34:21.709 --> 00:34:24.078
Commissioning
is nominally six months long.

832
00:34:24.262 --> 00:34:28.132
We launched on Christmas Day
So that would be the end of June

833
00:34:31.619 --> 00:34:31.886
Great.

834
00:34:31.886 --> 00:34:32.970
Thank you.

835
00:34:33.654 --> 00:34:36.741
Moving on to the next question,
please.

836
00:34:36.741 --> 00:34:36.991
Right.

837
00:34:36.991 --> 00:34:40.378
And our next question comes
from Passant Bobby from Inverse.

838
00:34:40.411 --> 00:34:42.447
Your line is now open.

839
00:34:43.097 --> 00:34:44.849
Thank you. Yes.

840
00:34:44.849 --> 00:34:46.584
I'm wondering, you know,

841
00:34:46.584 --> 00:34:49.771
how have was seen all of these
stunning images, images

842
00:34:49.771 --> 00:34:54.025
but with James Webb just looking
at more distant objects?

843
00:34:54.509 --> 00:34:57.261
Is there a esthetic value
or sort of visual value?

844
00:34:57.562 --> 00:35:01.099
Less important is more about
the data with these images

845
00:35:03.868 --> 00:35:04.218
both.

846
00:35:04.218 --> 00:35:08.222
And like
I mean, they're gorgeous.

847
00:35:08.823 --> 00:35:12.110
Like, you can't help
but enjoy the seeing that this

848
00:35:12.326 --> 00:35:12.977
is part of why

849
00:35:12.977 --> 00:35:15.897
we're all astronomers
is to study the stars,

850
00:35:15.897 --> 00:35:18.049
because many of us
up here on stage,

851
00:35:18.049 --> 00:35:20.001
you know, looked at the sky
as kids or looked at pictures

852
00:35:20.001 --> 00:35:22.436
from Hubble or other telescopes
and said, that's amazing.

853
00:35:23.371 --> 00:35:26.057
But in addition,
we want to make the technical

854
00:35:26.057 --> 00:35:27.141
scientific measurements

855
00:35:27.141 --> 00:35:30.144
and some of the measurements
we make with Web will be,

856
00:35:30.862 --> 00:35:31.129
you know,

857
00:35:31.129 --> 00:35:33.831
not as visually stunning
that will be series of lines.

858
00:35:34.098 --> 00:35:36.501
There will be this the spectra,

859
00:35:36.501 --> 00:35:38.486
some of the measurements
with Webb will be, I think,

860
00:35:38.486 --> 00:35:41.072
even more stunning
multicolor imagery.

861
00:35:41.072 --> 00:35:42.473
We're going to have
there's two instruments in Webb

862
00:35:42.473 --> 00:35:44.192
that have what's called
the Integral Field Spectrograph

863
00:35:44.192 --> 00:35:45.259
that gives you an image,

864
00:35:45.259 --> 00:35:48.179
but not in three colors, but
in thousands of colors at once.

865
00:35:48.179 --> 00:35:50.214
And those are going to be some
some really neat data to see.

866
00:35:50.581 --> 00:35:51.933
And that's part
of the complexity

867
00:35:51.933 --> 00:35:53.000
with calibrating
the instruments.

868
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:54.001
So I think

869
00:35:54.001 --> 00:35:56.337
just like with Hubble,
there are some Hubble images

870
00:35:56.654 --> 00:35:59.490
that we take
that do have deep esthetic value

871
00:35:59.724 --> 00:36:02.310
and they have scientific value
and it's always a both.

872
00:36:02.310 --> 00:36:06.080
And yeah, and some of what we're
getting from the spectroscopy,

873
00:36:06.297 --> 00:36:09.033
you know, we'll be telling you
how galaxies are rotating

874
00:36:09.317 --> 00:36:11.969
and how the gas in
those galaxies is getting blown

875
00:36:11.969 --> 00:36:15.323
out of them by supernova
and will be determining what

876
00:36:15.373 --> 00:36:18.709
the composition
of what the gas in galaxies is

877
00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:20.995
and the composition
of the atmospheres of planets

878
00:36:20.995 --> 00:36:23.965
so that you know,
maybe it's a little bit geekier,

879
00:36:23.965 --> 00:36:26.334
but what you get out of it
is really, really cool.

880
00:36:26.551 --> 00:36:29.487
So we will both be doing stuff
that makes us giddy and happy

881
00:36:29.487 --> 00:36:29.837
and always

882
00:36:29.837 --> 00:36:32.757
gorgeous and stuff where we say,
Oh my God, now we know what.

883
00:36:32.940 --> 00:36:35.209
Now we know what that's made
of that we never did before.

884
00:36:37.144 --> 00:36:38.763
It's a great, great answer.

885
00:36:38.763 --> 00:36:39.947
I'm looking for a lot of giddy

886
00:36:39.947 --> 00:36:42.149
and happy
as we as we go forward.

887
00:36:43.050 --> 00:36:43.367
All right.

888
00:36:43.367 --> 00:36:45.853
We'll take the next question,
please.

889
00:36:45.853 --> 00:36:48.806
Next question comes from
George Divorce from Gizmodo.

890
00:36:48.839 --> 00:36:50.875
Your line is now open.

891
00:36:51.842 --> 00:36:53.578
Hey, guys, thank you
very much for doing this.

892
00:36:53.578 --> 00:36:57.632
I just want to go back again
to any potential issues

893
00:36:57.632 --> 00:37:00.151
that may still be encountered

894
00:37:00.201 --> 00:37:02.687
as the commissioning
phase continues.

895
00:37:02.687 --> 00:37:03.271
And I'm just hoping

896
00:37:03.271 --> 00:37:06.057
that you guys could be a bit
more specific

897
00:37:06.057 --> 00:37:08.359
in particular when it comes
to the instrumentation,

898
00:37:09.543 --> 00:37:11.312
the upcoming steps,
are there any, you know,

899
00:37:11.312 --> 00:37:13.648
potential points of failure
that could really disrupt

900
00:37:14.282 --> 00:37:16.200
the unveiling of the telescope

901
00:37:16.200 --> 00:37:17.335
and I know that

902
00:37:17.418 --> 00:37:18.686
Tom has already said
that nothing's going

903
00:37:18.686 --> 00:37:19.620
to keep him up at night anymore.

904
00:37:19.620 --> 00:37:21.839
But I'm wondering, the rest
of the team agrees with that.

905
00:37:21.839 --> 00:37:22.940
Are there any steps

906
00:37:22.940 --> 00:37:25.910
or that are really still kind
of harrowing or problematic

907
00:37:25.910 --> 00:37:28.613
that could really disrupt
the process?

908
00:37:28.713 --> 00:37:29.163
Thanks, guys.

909
00:37:31.232 --> 00:37:32.300
I could take that.

910
00:37:32.333 --> 00:37:34.919
So, you know,
we've had days on this project

911
00:37:34.919 --> 00:37:37.638
where if it didn't work,
we were going to go home, right?

912
00:37:37.638 --> 00:37:39.390
If the sunshield hadn't
come out,

913
00:37:39.390 --> 00:37:41.242
well,
then we don't have a mission.

914
00:37:41.242 --> 00:37:43.527
If the secondary mirror
hadn't deployed,

915
00:37:43.761 --> 00:37:45.596
we call it secondary now
because it's not important,

916
00:37:45.596 --> 00:37:47.665
but because it's the second
after the primary,

917
00:37:47.665 --> 00:37:49.367
if the secondary hadn't
come out,

918
00:37:49.367 --> 00:37:51.619
all that beautiful light
coming into the primary

919
00:37:51.636 --> 00:37:53.721
was just going to bounce off
into space forever.

920
00:37:54.839 --> 00:37:56.057
And we wouldn't detect it.

921
00:37:56.057 --> 00:37:56.841
So there were parts

922
00:37:56.841 --> 00:37:58.009
on this mission
where it's like, well,

923
00:37:58.009 --> 00:38:00.361
this is going to work
or we're done.

924
00:38:00.361 --> 00:38:01.529
We're past those points.

925
00:38:01.529 --> 00:38:02.997
Now, that's
what Thomas was getting at.

926
00:38:02.997 --> 00:38:05.666
And we're now to the stage where
if things don't work,

927
00:38:05.666 --> 00:38:07.401
we're looking at degrade.

928
00:38:07.401 --> 00:38:07.618
You know,

929
00:38:07.618 --> 00:38:08.069
we're looking at

930
00:38:08.069 --> 00:38:10.671
partial degradation
of the total science return.

931
00:38:11.038 --> 00:38:12.690
We have four science
instruments.

932
00:38:12.690 --> 00:38:14.992
All four of them have turned on
and said,

933
00:38:15.326 --> 00:38:18.446
hi, our aliveness check says
we're okay for some of those.

934
00:38:18.446 --> 00:38:20.331
For three of those instruments,
we have data.

935
00:38:20.331 --> 00:38:22.450
They're coming back. Yes.
This is looking okay.

936
00:38:22.466 --> 00:38:23.601
It's early days.

937
00:38:23.601 --> 00:38:24.919
Mary has to cool

938
00:38:24.919 --> 00:38:27.855
from it's in the temperatures
in the nineties right now.

939
00:38:27.872 --> 00:38:29.340
90 Kelvin.

940
00:38:29.340 --> 00:38:30.241
90 something Kelvin.

941
00:38:30.241 --> 00:38:32.159
It needs to get down to seven
Kelvin.

942
00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:34.011
So that's something
that I'm looking at right.

943
00:38:34.011 --> 00:38:37.248
This this has this closed
circuit refrigerator

944
00:38:37.531 --> 00:38:40.318
that circulates helium
to chill Murray

945
00:38:40.318 --> 00:38:42.887
much colder than the rest of the
of the science instruments.

946
00:38:43.187 --> 00:38:44.872
So that's something we're okay.

947
00:38:44.872 --> 00:38:45.656
That's a big deal.

948
00:38:45.656 --> 00:38:49.276
We want to get very cold,
but we're now looking at where

949
00:38:49.276 --> 00:38:49.877
I mean, yes,

950
00:38:49.877 --> 00:38:53.514
space is a dangerous environment
and Webb is up there in space

951
00:38:53.514 --> 00:38:55.349
and every day
we have to keep it safe

952
00:38:55.349 --> 00:38:57.501
and there's work
to do to do that.

953
00:38:57.501 --> 00:38:59.937
But most of what we're
looking at going forward is

954
00:38:59.937 --> 00:39:02.957
if things don't work, we're
looking at gradual degradation

955
00:39:02.957 --> 00:39:05.810
of the total return
rather than shows over folks.

956
00:39:06.277 --> 00:39:09.230
And the key thing about
the telescope is the telescope

957
00:39:09.230 --> 00:39:10.614
feeds all four instruments.

958
00:39:10.614 --> 00:39:12.483
So when the telescope
doesn't work,

959
00:39:12.483 --> 00:39:14.668
then that really affects
the entire mission.

960
00:39:14.668 --> 00:39:16.103
And we're now beyond that point.

961
00:39:16.103 --> 00:39:19.707
Now, there's always the
potential that some subsystem

962
00:39:19.740 --> 00:39:21.992
might not work at some point.

963
00:39:22.309 --> 00:39:23.027
That happens

964
00:39:23.027 --> 00:39:25.162
but we have a lot of redundancy
in all

965
00:39:25.162 --> 00:39:26.664
of our electrical systems.

966
00:39:26.664 --> 00:39:29.417
So from the point of view
of having a working observatory,

967
00:39:29.717 --> 00:39:32.636
as Jane said, you know,
we're in very good shape

968
00:39:32.636 --> 00:39:34.472
and so now we're really going
to be focusing

969
00:39:34.472 --> 00:39:36.891
more on individual instruments
and bringing them online

970
00:39:39.560 --> 00:39:41.429
Thank you so much.

971
00:39:41.579 --> 00:39:43.697
We will take the next question
from the phone lines, please.

972
00:39:44.815 --> 00:39:48.119
Our next question comes from
Marina Warren from Atlantic.

973
00:39:48.152 --> 00:39:50.071
Your line is now open.

974
00:39:50.838 --> 00:39:52.289
Hi, everyone.

975
00:39:52.440 --> 00:39:54.809
Can you tell us
more about the group that chose

976
00:39:54.809 --> 00:39:57.678
the top secret targets
for the first big image release?

977
00:39:58.345 --> 00:39:58.763
How big

978
00:39:58.763 --> 00:40:01.882
is the group who was involved
and from which institutions,

979
00:40:02.216 --> 00:40:04.802
and what exactly was
the list of targets finalized?

980
00:40:05.302 --> 00:40:07.438
You get back to them.

981
00:40:07.438 --> 00:40:10.458
What I am hearing in the room
is that we will get back to you

982
00:40:10.458 --> 00:40:11.125
on that Marina.

983
00:40:11.125 --> 00:40:11.609
I don't know that

984
00:40:11.609 --> 00:40:15.563
we have the exact size
and people at our fingertips,

985
00:40:15.563 --> 00:40:17.748
but I will follow up with you
when this is over.

986
00:40:17.748 --> 00:40:20.000
You can drop me an email and I
will get you what I can on that.

987
00:40:21.152 --> 00:40:22.286
Do you like the second

988
00:40:22.286 --> 00:40:25.706
question, given that we couldn't
answer your first?

989
00:40:25.706 --> 00:40:26.490
I do.

990
00:40:26.490 --> 00:40:28.225
Thank you for it.

991
00:40:29.460 --> 00:40:30.628
Can you tell us so we've

992
00:40:30.628 --> 00:40:33.647
heard a bit about the start
at the center of this image.

993
00:40:34.048 --> 00:40:35.966
Can you tell us
more about the galaxies

994
00:40:35.966 --> 00:40:38.068
that are in the background
you know, what, how,

995
00:40:38.552 --> 00:40:41.572
how far they are
and how does this compare to how

996
00:40:42.022 --> 00:40:45.893
well we'll see galaxies
in the future in a closer.

997
00:40:46.110 --> 00:40:47.812
Well, again, it's all right.

998
00:40:47.812 --> 00:40:49.830
Well, I guess I'm
the galaxy geek in this crowd.

999
00:40:50.448 --> 00:40:50.915
Okay.

1000
00:40:50.915 --> 00:40:53.717
So as we said,
this wasn't a famous deep field.

1001
00:40:53.717 --> 00:40:54.752
This isn't a place where

1002
00:40:54.752 --> 00:40:57.872
we studied, where we've known
what's out there.

1003
00:40:58.772 --> 00:40:59.907
Just eyeballing it.

1004
00:40:59.907 --> 00:41:01.592
I mean, we got those data.

1005
00:41:01.592 --> 00:41:02.943
They came down Saturday night.

1006
00:41:02.943 --> 00:41:06.797
So I was eyeballing them
Sunday morning in my pajamas and

1007
00:41:07.498 --> 00:41:09.583
and, yeah, they're like,
you know,

1008
00:41:09.583 --> 00:41:12.153
they're several billion
light years away,

1009
00:41:12.153 --> 00:41:14.121
but we actually have to take
some spectroscopy

1010
00:41:14.121 --> 00:41:16.457
to get you a better
answer than that.

1011
00:41:16.457 --> 00:41:19.076
We can do spectroscopy
once we get the science

1012
00:41:19.076 --> 00:41:20.427
instruments ready to go.

1013
00:41:20.427 --> 00:41:22.796
And so that's the sort of thing
that Webb will be able to do

1014
00:41:22.830 --> 00:41:25.082
once we get into normal science
operations

1015
00:41:25.399 --> 00:41:26.901
of the Near Speck instrument.

1016
00:41:26.901 --> 00:41:29.487
Which was made
by the European Space Agency,

1017
00:41:29.753 --> 00:41:31.405
has this really cool
micro shutter

1018
00:41:31.405 --> 00:41:32.573
array where it has a quarter

1019
00:41:32.573 --> 00:41:34.825
of a million little doors
that can open and close.

1020
00:41:35.159 --> 00:41:38.312
And so we can take spectra
of dozens of targets

1021
00:41:38.312 --> 00:41:39.647
within that field.

1022
00:41:39.647 --> 00:41:43.200
And so one of the key science
capabilities that this telescope

1023
00:41:43.200 --> 00:41:45.920
has is to target
a field like that and pick

1024
00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:49.673
the most interesting
30. 40 galaxies and say.

1025
00:41:49.673 --> 00:41:51.141
I want a spectrum of that
that that that

1026
00:41:51.141 --> 00:41:53.727
that that that's at that
that and with that, you know

1027
00:41:53.727 --> 00:41:56.931
exactly how far away
each of those galaxies are.

1028
00:41:56.931 --> 00:41:58.465
And depending how you do it,

1029
00:41:58.465 --> 00:42:00.901
you understand how much
heavy elements

1030
00:42:01.435 --> 00:42:04.855
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen
those galaxies have relative

1031
00:42:04.855 --> 00:42:05.990
to hydrogen.

1032
00:42:05.990 --> 00:42:09.777
So that tells you how many times
the gas in those galaxies

1033
00:42:09.777 --> 00:42:12.663
has gone through stars
and then exploded in supernovae.

1034
00:42:14.281 --> 00:42:14.632
It's one

1035
00:42:14.632 --> 00:42:18.085
thing to that which is that
we picked this field

1036
00:42:18.085 --> 00:42:21.322
just for the the wavefront
sensing calibration.

1037
00:42:21.322 --> 00:42:23.424
It was not chosen
for these galaxies,

1038
00:42:23.424 --> 00:42:25.676
but all the data we're taking
and commissioning

1039
00:42:25.676 --> 00:42:26.877
is going to be public

1040
00:42:26.877 --> 00:42:29.213
when we get to the end
of commissioning in June.

1041
00:42:29.580 --> 00:42:32.516
And so,
you know, scientists out there,

1042
00:42:32.750 --> 00:42:34.401
their grad students
at some university

1043
00:42:34.401 --> 00:42:36.470
can download these data in June
and start

1044
00:42:36.470 --> 00:42:39.056
answering these questions
from this and all the other data

1045
00:42:39.206 --> 00:42:41.692
that's taken during this
commissioning process.

1046
00:42:41.692 --> 00:42:44.028
June or July,
we get to where we get done.

1047
00:42:44.028 --> 00:42:44.328
Yeah.

1048
00:42:44.545 --> 00:42:48.032
When we when we get past that,
all of the calibration data,

1049
00:42:48.032 --> 00:42:48.832
including the

1050
00:42:48.832 --> 00:42:52.052
these images around the fine
phase and target

1051
00:42:52.052 --> 00:42:53.604
in multiple wavelengths,
we're just going

1052
00:42:53.604 --> 00:42:55.923
to let that data out
to the scientific community

1053
00:42:55.923 --> 00:42:57.174
along with
those other observations.

1054
00:42:58.459 --> 00:42:58.892
All right.

1055
00:42:58.892 --> 00:43:01.345
We are going to take a few of
our social media questions now.

1056
00:43:01.345 --> 00:43:02.696
We'll take two.

1057
00:43:02.696 --> 00:43:06.150
The first one is to guarantee
on Instagram asks,

1058
00:43:06.383 --> 00:43:09.503
what is the precision
between the mirror segments

1059
00:43:09.737 --> 00:43:12.239
now that they are aligned
when it comes to the alignment

1060
00:43:14.608 --> 00:43:15.542
Well,
do you want to talk to that?

1061
00:43:15.542 --> 00:43:17.711
We in your presentation.

1062
00:43:19.146 --> 00:43:22.916
Oh, so our actuators
have a resolution.

1063
00:43:22.916 --> 00:43:25.819
We can move and maintain
a motor position

1064
00:43:26.370 --> 00:43:28.372
to about nine to ten nanometers.

1065
00:43:28.706 --> 00:43:31.191
So that's our capability

1066
00:43:32.042 --> 00:43:33.711
and our sensing requirements.

1067
00:43:33.711 --> 00:43:36.480
And our sensing budget
means that our we aren't

1068
00:43:36.480 --> 00:43:38.899
actually within ten nanometer
segment to segment,

1069
00:43:40.284 --> 00:43:42.603
but we're
I think we're down to 40

1070
00:43:43.437 --> 00:43:45.739
where we're below
100 meters easily.

1071
00:43:45.756 --> 00:43:45.956
Yeah.

1072
00:43:45.956 --> 00:43:46.790
We're nothing

1073
00:43:46.790 --> 00:43:49.710
that's over the whole whole
telescoping range instruments.

1074
00:43:49.710 --> 00:43:51.862
Whole system with a full system.
Yeah.

1075
00:43:51.962 --> 00:43:53.297
So each individual segment

1076
00:43:53.297 --> 00:43:56.300
to the other segment
is well under 100 nanometers

1077
00:43:59.253 --> 00:43:59.820
Great.

1078
00:43:59.820 --> 00:44:03.290
Our second social media question
is from Brian and

1079
00:44:04.375 --> 00:44:07.311
Brian in motion on Twitter,

1080
00:44:07.378 --> 00:44:10.948
who asks, what, if any, are
the lessons learned from Web

1081
00:44:10.948 --> 00:44:13.917
so far that we can take
into the next space telescope?

1082
00:44:14.218 --> 00:44:16.253
Are there any things
that could be done differently?

1083
00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:17.388
Yeah,

1084
00:44:18.188 --> 00:44:20.958
You know, one thing about Web,
I mean, obviously

1085
00:44:20.958 --> 00:44:22.559
it's a super cold telescope,

1086
00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:24.895
and that really drove
a lot of the design.

1087
00:44:25.462 --> 00:44:28.582
Of course, that huge sunshield
was needed to cool things down,

1088
00:44:28.982 --> 00:44:32.002
but it's also a passively
thermal telescope.

1089
00:44:32.002 --> 00:44:35.723
And what that means
is that unlike, for example,

1090
00:44:35.723 --> 00:44:36.557
the Keck telescope,

1091
00:44:36.557 --> 00:44:38.158
which is a ground
telescope in Hawaii

1092
00:44:38.158 --> 00:44:40.411
where they actively move
mirrors,

1093
00:44:40.411 --> 00:44:42.930
the web mirrors are designed
to be to always

1094
00:44:42.930 --> 00:44:44.248
just kind of be where they are.

1095
00:44:44.248 --> 00:44:46.767
And then only every few days
do we update them.

1096
00:44:47.151 --> 00:44:49.820
And that made a lot of sense
for a really cold telescope,

1097
00:44:49.820 --> 00:44:52.806
but it also made it difficult
to prove the telescope

1098
00:44:52.806 --> 00:44:53.757
was going to work

1099
00:44:53.757 --> 00:44:55.109
and to design everything

1100
00:44:55.109 --> 00:44:57.478
from the mirrors
to the structure that holds it.

1101
00:44:57.478 --> 00:44:59.279
And so one of the things
that we think

1102
00:44:59.279 --> 00:45:01.732
in the future for these large
segmented telescopes

1103
00:45:01.999 --> 00:45:04.334
is we will make use
of the types of things

1104
00:45:04.334 --> 00:45:06.537
that ground telescopes have
which are active controls

1105
00:45:06.837 --> 00:45:09.289
and that would make our ability
to test it easier

1106
00:45:09.440 --> 00:45:11.909
and it would make it
make us also be able to make it

1107
00:45:11.909 --> 00:45:15.145
even finer telescope, which
some of the future observatories

1108
00:45:15.145 --> 00:45:18.716
may want to do for example,
if you want to study exoplanets,

1109
00:45:19.383 --> 00:45:21.418
particularly Earth
like planets around stars,

1110
00:45:21.418 --> 00:45:23.387
which is one of the future
missions

1111
00:45:23.387 --> 00:45:26.490
that has been recommended
by a National Academy Committee,

1112
00:45:26.690 --> 00:45:27.207
You're going to need

1113
00:45:27.207 --> 00:45:29.960
a very precise mirror service
that's extremely stable.

1114
00:45:30.260 --> 00:45:31.612
And so we are going to probably

1115
00:45:31.612 --> 00:45:34.131
want to migrate
from this sort of approach

1116
00:45:34.131 --> 00:45:37.251
we took for this very cold teles

1117
00:45:39.470 --> 00:45:39.920
All right.

1118
00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:40.137
We are

1119
00:45:40.137 --> 00:45:42.656
going to move back to the media
questions on the phone line.

1120
00:45:42.656 --> 00:45:45.259
We'll take the next question,
please.

1121
00:45:45.259 --> 00:45:46.727
And as a reminder, to ask

1122
00:45:46.727 --> 00:45:49.012
a question over the phone,
please press star one

1123
00:45:49.263 --> 00:45:52.132
Our next question comes from Ken
Kramer from Space Up Close.

1124
00:45:52.533 --> 00:45:54.618
The line is now open

1125
00:45:55.853 --> 00:45:57.438
and vacillations

1126
00:45:57.438 --> 00:46:00.057
on the face itself so far.

1127
00:46:00.057 --> 00:46:01.442
One thing that was really good

1128
00:46:01.442 --> 00:46:03.293
to know
was about the amount of cooling,

1129
00:46:03.293 --> 00:46:06.747
how far you almost felt like
you're at 90 k now.

1130
00:46:07.281 --> 00:46:10.667
Oh, I'm going to take you
to get the seventh day,

1131
00:46:10.734 --> 00:46:14.488
which is the fall and winter

1132
00:46:15.439 --> 00:46:18.075
I want to talk about
the commissioning of the space.

1133
00:46:18.509 --> 00:46:20.878
When you get to that. Thank you.

1134
00:46:20.878 --> 00:46:21.779
I'm going to repeat that.

1135
00:46:21.779 --> 00:46:23.297
That can because
was a little hard to hear you.

1136
00:46:23.297 --> 00:46:25.532
And here I think the question
was how long to get

1137
00:46:25.532 --> 00:46:28.469
from where we are
now to the seven degrees Kelvin.

1138
00:46:29.102 --> 00:46:31.772
And also to talk a little bit
more about science

1139
00:46:31.772 --> 00:46:33.740
commissioning, commissioning
of the science instruments.

1140
00:46:33.740 --> 00:46:34.975
Correct. Yeah.

1141
00:46:34.975 --> 00:46:36.593
I mean, yes,
that's it. Thank you.

1142
00:46:36.593 --> 00:46:37.494
Great. Thank you.

1143
00:46:38.545 --> 00:46:40.948
So so the cooling process

1144
00:46:41.882 --> 00:46:44.334
takes a couple of weeks
and and so

1145
00:46:44.334 --> 00:46:45.769
and we actually will be using

1146
00:46:45.769 --> 00:46:48.572
once we have
that Mid-infrared instrument

1147
00:46:49.072 --> 00:46:52.009
fully operational,
we actually will use it

1148
00:46:52.009 --> 00:46:54.812
to make sure that the telescopes
bounce sort of the last step,

1149
00:46:55.496 --> 00:46:56.730
which, you know, our target

1150
00:46:56.730 --> 00:46:58.048
was to finish
in the end of April,

1151
00:46:58.048 --> 00:47:00.200
but it takes a couple of weeks
to do the cool down

1152
00:47:00.200 --> 00:47:01.802
roughly ten to 14 days.

1153
00:47:01.802 --> 00:47:05.122
And then as we stabilize
it, we'll start taking images

1154
00:47:05.372 --> 00:47:06.840
and make sure
everything is working right.

1155
00:47:06.840 --> 00:47:08.058
There's
a few different transitions

1156
00:47:08.058 --> 00:47:10.577
that it goes under
as it cools down. So.

1157
00:47:10.627 --> 00:47:12.746
So it's a couple of process.

1158
00:47:12.746 --> 00:47:15.065
The detail that the

1159
00:47:15.065 --> 00:47:19.203
the cooler has its own
complicated calibration process.

1160
00:47:19.203 --> 00:47:21.205
Usually the telescope
has a multistep process.

1161
00:47:21.205 --> 00:47:23.457
This is not just a refrigerator

1162
00:47:23.457 --> 00:47:24.658
that you turn on,
but has its own.

1163
00:47:24.658 --> 00:47:27.261
I think it's a six step process
and be there right now on the

1164
00:47:27.361 --> 00:47:29.363
the third stage of that
cool down process.

1165
00:47:29.363 --> 00:47:31.281
The fourth stage will begin
about a week from now.

1166
00:47:31.281 --> 00:47:33.517
And that's really going to
accelerate the cooling of memory

1167
00:47:36.503 --> 00:47:36.870
And then

1168
00:47:36.870 --> 00:47:37.638
we really address

1169
00:47:37.638 --> 00:47:39.506
the what's happening,
the science commissioning next

1170
00:47:39.506 --> 00:47:40.340
with the commissioning
instruments.

1171
00:47:40.340 --> 00:47:42.392
You want to mention
just what our next steps are.

1172
00:47:42.809 --> 00:47:44.027
Yeah, it was just
what's happening

1173
00:47:44.027 --> 00:47:46.263
next for commissioning
of the science instruments.

1174
00:47:47.848 --> 00:47:49.533
We have covered some of that.

1175
00:47:49.533 --> 00:47:50.000
Let's see.

1176
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:51.718
So science instruments

1177
00:47:51.718 --> 00:47:54.137
mirror has to get cold
that is the really big one.

1178
00:47:55.022 --> 00:47:57.958
We're walking through the
for each instrument.

1179
00:47:57.958 --> 00:48:00.227
There's a set of

1180
00:48:01.762 --> 00:48:03.146
of activities

1181
00:48:03.146 --> 00:48:05.549
that each one has to show
that it is working.

1182
00:48:05.883 --> 00:48:08.569
And it's things like stepping
through the filter wheel

1183
00:48:08.569 --> 00:48:10.320
and making sure
that you get every position,

1184
00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:13.140
the filter wheel that you want,
getting the darks because

1185
00:48:13.140 --> 00:48:16.443
when you're when to understand
the properties of the detector

1186
00:48:16.443 --> 00:48:19.346
so that we can take that out
so that we're seeing the sky

1187
00:48:19.346 --> 00:48:22.232
and not what the not
what the detectors are doing.

1188
00:48:22.916 --> 00:48:26.186
So there's doing
so we're doing every step

1189
00:48:26.186 --> 00:48:28.972
in that to get those instruments
ready for science.

1190
00:48:30.691 --> 00:48:31.191
Thank you.

1191
00:48:31.191 --> 00:48:33.060
We are
taking two more media questions.

1192
00:48:33.060 --> 00:48:35.512
We'll take the next one, please.

1193
00:48:35.696 --> 00:48:38.815
Our next question comes from
Irene Klotz from Aviation Week.

1194
00:48:38.849 --> 00:48:40.817
Your line is now open.

1195
00:48:41.184 --> 00:48:42.352
Thanks very much.

1196
00:48:42.352 --> 00:48:43.503
I have two questions.

1197
00:48:43.503 --> 00:48:46.790
Well, one question for Jane
and then for Thomas.

1198
00:48:47.691 --> 00:48:50.177
Are you seeing any impacts
in the GWC

1199
00:48:50.277 --> 00:48:52.796
science community?

1200
00:48:52.946 --> 00:48:55.365
Over the situation in Ukraine?

1201
00:48:55.382 --> 00:48:59.152
Are there any Russian
astronomers, astrophysicists

1202
00:48:59.152 --> 00:49:01.672
involved in any of that
first year science

1203
00:49:02.039 --> 00:49:04.458
and for Thomas, can you address
that same question

1204
00:49:04.458 --> 00:49:06.743
more generally
to the NASA science program?

1205
00:49:06.977 --> 00:49:09.429
Thanks. So thank you, Irene.

1206
00:49:09.446 --> 00:49:09.980
Unfortunately,

1207
00:49:09.980 --> 00:49:11.782
I'm going to have to circle up
with you afterwards

1208
00:49:11.782 --> 00:49:12.716
we're going to try and stick

1209
00:49:12.716 --> 00:49:14.718
to some of the science
and the alignment right now.

1210
00:49:14.901 --> 00:49:15.602
But I will get you

1211
00:49:15.602 --> 00:49:17.521
any information,
an update on statements we have.

1212
00:49:17.521 --> 00:49:19.189
So I'll circle up with you
as soon as we're done here.

1213
00:49:20.390 --> 00:49:20.691
If you

1214
00:49:20.691 --> 00:49:23.327
have another
question, I would take it,

1215
00:49:23.327 --> 00:49:26.096
otherwise
we can go to the next one.

1216
00:49:26.530 --> 00:49:27.948
Oh, couldn't Thomas not address

1217
00:49:27.948 --> 00:49:29.883
that question either?

1218
00:49:30.834 --> 00:49:31.952
Yeah, well, we'll stick to

1219
00:49:31.952 --> 00:49:34.471
to responding offline

1220
00:49:35.989 --> 00:49:36.840
Thank you.

1221
00:49:36.840 --> 00:49:39.559
And our next question
comes from Daniel

1222
00:49:40.127 --> 00:49:43.380
Lara from our drone UI.

1223
00:49:43.430 --> 00:49:46.083
Your line is now open Hi.

1224
00:49:46.083 --> 00:49:46.850
How are you doing?

1225
00:49:46.850 --> 00:49:49.703
And thank you for this
excellent relations.

1226
00:49:49.803 --> 00:49:52.622
Well, I think this question
would be for Thomas

1227
00:49:53.040 --> 00:49:55.125
and even the little time
would with

1228
00:49:55.125 --> 00:49:57.144
this beautiful telescope.

1229
00:49:57.594 --> 00:50:01.198
And it would be doing some plans

1230
00:50:01.198 --> 00:50:04.167
to review the telescope
to get more

1231
00:50:05.719 --> 00:50:08.071
lifetime on this

1232
00:50:10.607 --> 00:50:13.460
So you're you're right
that we're every time

1233
00:50:13.460 --> 00:50:16.046
we build a telescope,
we think about how long we can

1234
00:50:16.380 --> 00:50:17.064
operate it.

1235
00:50:17.064 --> 00:50:19.466
I want to tell you that
that delivery

1236
00:50:19.966 --> 00:50:23.754
by Arianespace and the European
Space Agency was just fabulous.

1237
00:50:23.754 --> 00:50:26.873
Frankly,
the lifetime of the telescope

1238
00:50:26.873 --> 00:50:31.311
that we initially said
you know, about a decade or so

1239
00:50:31.311 --> 00:50:32.913
is, we believe, exceed

1240
00:50:32.913 --> 00:50:36.383
it based on what we see
there as we're kind of learning

1241
00:50:36.383 --> 00:50:39.619
how to operate and point in sky,

1242
00:50:40.187 --> 00:50:42.239
the estimates of the lifetime

1243
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:44.057
will really become
more accurate.

1244
00:50:44.057 --> 00:50:46.193
So as we come
to the end of commissioning,

1245
00:50:46.193 --> 00:50:48.979
I'm sure we'll get far much more
accurate update.

1246
00:50:48.979 --> 00:50:51.898
I don't know whether there's
anything you can say already

1247
00:50:51.898 --> 00:50:54.201
now that you haven't
already said you were the person

1248
00:50:54.501 --> 00:50:54.985
who talked

1249
00:50:54.985 --> 00:50:57.587
about Lifetime before,
but that's what's on our mind.

1250
00:50:57.687 --> 00:50:59.790
I think that I think
Mike mentioned

1251
00:50:59.790 --> 00:51:00.807
during one of the meeting,

1252
00:51:00.807 --> 00:51:04.644
one of the press events that
he thought it would be 20 years.

1253
00:51:04.644 --> 00:51:07.714
And the one thing I can add
is that on the actuation

1254
00:51:07.864 --> 00:51:10.550
you know, we
they have a, they will last

1255
00:51:10.550 --> 00:51:13.136
as long
as the rest of the observatory.

1256
00:51:13.370 --> 00:51:15.722
They're working exactly
the way we expected.

1257
00:51:15.989 --> 00:51:17.374
They have a very long lifetime.

1258
00:51:17.374 --> 00:51:19.376
So there's, there's
no changes to anything

1259
00:51:19.426 --> 00:51:21.895
in the sense
of the lifetime of the system.

1260
00:51:22.813 --> 00:51:23.063
Yeah.

1261
00:51:23.063 --> 00:51:24.648
And I don't think
there's any new updates.

1262
00:51:24.648 --> 00:51:27.150
But as Thomas mentioned,
as we go through commissioning

1263
00:51:27.150 --> 00:51:28.819
there might be
some other additional updates

1264
00:51:28.819 --> 00:51:29.786
from the systems team

1265
00:51:31.855 --> 00:51:32.189
Okay.

1266
00:51:32.189 --> 00:51:34.341
Is this opportunity
to make a new question?

1267
00:51:35.759 --> 00:51:37.561
I think we do have time. Yes.

1268
00:51:37.561 --> 00:51:38.762
Go right ahead.

1269
00:51:39.830 --> 00:51:40.614
Okay.

1270
00:51:40.764 --> 00:51:44.868
What will be the next target
of the when science

1271
00:51:45.168 --> 00:51:48.321
starts on inside
the solar system?

1272
00:51:50.390 --> 00:51:53.009
Inside the solar system.

1273
00:51:53.009 --> 00:51:54.628
There is an early release

1274
00:51:54.628 --> 00:51:57.197
science program to study

1275
00:51:57.931 --> 00:52:00.317
either
Jupiter, Saturn to study them,

1276
00:52:00.951 --> 00:52:02.969
to study the gas giants

1277
00:52:02.969 --> 00:52:05.489
in our own solar system
and in particular, their moons.

1278
00:52:05.839 --> 00:52:09.092
So there is a program to do that
that has been competitively

1279
00:52:09.092 --> 00:52:10.944
selected and is in the queue.

1280
00:52:10.944 --> 00:52:13.113
We are doing
some commissioning activities

1281
00:52:13.313 --> 00:52:17.267
to go double check
that we can look at a target

1282
00:52:17.267 --> 00:52:21.087
as bright as a planet in our own
solar system and still be able

1283
00:52:21.087 --> 00:52:25.142
to point at and get data
on the nearby orbiting moons.

1284
00:52:26.910 --> 00:52:26.993
Well,

1285
00:52:26.993 --> 00:52:31.281
there are also some approved
programs to do Trojan asteroids,

1286
00:52:31.731 --> 00:52:34.501
and there's an approved program
to study

1287
00:52:34.668 --> 00:52:36.653
those asteroids
that are interstellar visitors

1288
00:52:36.653 --> 00:52:37.621
from our solar system,

1289
00:52:37.621 --> 00:52:40.190
from other asteroids
that have come in from outside

1290
00:52:40.190 --> 00:52:41.308
our solar system.

1291
00:52:41.308 --> 00:52:42.092
Right, Jane.

1292
00:52:42.092 --> 00:52:44.995
And of course, the reason
these are such a high priority

1293
00:52:44.995 --> 00:52:47.597
and they did so well
in the reviews is, of course,

1294
00:52:48.114 --> 00:52:50.333
as we have other missions
actually

1295
00:52:50.333 --> 00:52:52.102
exploring the solar system,

1296
00:52:52.102 --> 00:52:53.486
the information that we can get

1297
00:52:53.486 --> 00:52:56.156
from this amazing telescope,
but really help us run

1298
00:52:56.156 --> 00:52:57.390
these missions better.

1299
00:52:57.390 --> 00:53:00.093
Lucy is on its way to the very,

1300
00:53:00.093 --> 00:53:02.279
very bodies
that you just talked about.

1301
00:53:02.279 --> 00:53:05.282
And yesterday,
I met with the Clipper team

1302
00:53:05.282 --> 00:53:07.851
that of course,
is going to launch in 24,

1303
00:53:07.851 --> 00:53:09.920
that amazing mission
to go to Europe,

1304
00:53:09.920 --> 00:53:12.422
which is one of those moments
that you just talked about.

1305
00:53:14.541 --> 00:53:14.808
Thank

1306
00:53:14.808 --> 00:53:17.427
you so much to everybody
who has watched today

1307
00:53:17.427 --> 00:53:18.078
who was on the line

1308
00:53:18.078 --> 00:53:20.730
asking questions
and who has talked to us today.

1309
00:53:21.081 --> 00:53:22.949
We are going to finish up now.

1310
00:53:22.949 --> 00:53:26.486
You can follow along
and learn more about this

1311
00:53:26.486 --> 00:53:27.320
amazing telescope

1312
00:53:27.320 --> 00:53:28.488
and what's coming up this summer

1313
00:53:28.488 --> 00:53:29.873
and all of the
incredible science

1314
00:53:29.873 --> 00:53:33.360
that we have talked about here
today on nasa.gov slash web.

1315
00:53:33.360 --> 00:53:35.328
That's Web.

1316
00:53:35.328 --> 00:53:37.847
You can also follow along
on the social media conversation

1317
00:53:37.847 --> 00:53:40.367
using hashtag
unfold the universe.

1318
00:53:40.650 --> 00:53:44.371
And of course, nasa.gov is going
to tell you all about the way

1319
00:53:44.371 --> 00:53:46.289
that Web interacts
with all these other

1320
00:53:46.289 --> 00:53:47.757
incredible science missions
and all that

1321
00:53:47.757 --> 00:53:50.994
we're doing in the solar system
and beyond.

1322
00:53:51.228 --> 00:53:54.080
Thank you so much for
being here today.

1323
00:53:54.080 --> 00:53:54.497
Goodbye.