83: James Webb Set For Launch (Honestly!)

 
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Go, little telescope, go!

We've been waiting. And waiting. And ... waiting. Finally — *finally!* — the James Webb Space Telescope is ready for launch on 18 December this year. Which is Chris's birthday, so things better go smoothly or he'll be pretty upset. Emily explains why this is a momentous event for astronomy, and what we hope to get from this amazing bit of astronomical engineering.

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

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Since you’re here … You might be interested in a new, sciencey podcast: Science, possibly — science-adjacent stories by Chris Stewart and James Lees.

Things we discuss in this episode:

NASA’s JWST page

ESA’s JWST page

Canadian Space Agency JWST page

The Great Observatories

Lagrange points

JWST’s 4 Science Themes

Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Heritage Images

Visible vs IR astronomy