Unveiling the Secrets of Stars Formation across the Universe with the Webb Space Telescope

NASA’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, is astonishing the astronomical community with its exceptional eyesight. JWST was designed to complement and extend the discovering power of the Hubble Space Telescope. During this talk, we will learn some of the most important results astronomers achieved during the telescope’s first year of operation and how JWST’s infrared capabilities are finally allowing astronomers to look back in time to see the first stars and galaxies emerging out of the dark ages of the Universe. With JWST we now have the opportunity to follow the evolution of the galaxies over time to become the majestic grand spirals we can see today. At the same time, we can witness the formation of stars and planets within thick clouds of gas and dust, and we can study in detail the atmosphere of planets in other solar systems.

INSTRUCTOR:
Elena Sabbi is the Deputy Mission Head of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Science Mission Office. Before that she led a team of astronomers and scientists through the development and commissioning of JWST Near-Infrared Spectrograph, and for several years was responsible for the Hubble Wide Field Camera 3. She uses the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes to study how stars form and evolve in the most massive clusters of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. She is interested in understanding how local and global conditions shape the early evolution of stars and clusters, the properties of primordial binaries, and the stellar initial mass function. She is the Principal Investigator of several Hubble programs, including the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) and GULP: Galaxy Legacy UV Project.