How to Explore Distant Galaxies Formed 13 Billion Years Ago

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Later this year, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be strapped to a French rocket and launched nearly one million miles into space to look at galaxies formed 300 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope employs new and novel technology, including a gold-covered mirror, the largest ever launched into space, and a sunshield the size of a tennis court and made of five paper-thin layers that will cool down the telescope's sensitive infrared equipment. The hope is that the telescope, which has taken 25 years to design and build at a cost of $10 billion, will shoot back images even more spectacular than the Hubble Telescope. The engineering risks are complex, but scientists hope for a grand reward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
0:05.1	At SFO, you can shop, dine, and unwind before your flight.
0:09.2	Go ahead, treat yourself.
0:10.6	Learn more about SFO restaurants and shops at flysfo.com.
0:15.8	Greetings, boomtown.
0:17.3	The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming!
0:19.5	Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile.
0:22.7	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go!
0:26.3	Learn more at Xfinity.com. Restrictions apply. Xfinity internet required. Actual speeds vary.
0:32.2	From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. The news this week has been grim. Fires, climate change, resurgent COVID. But still, humans are reaching towards understanding of our
0:55.3	universe. The James Webb Space Telescope is the next big thing in astronomy. The Hubble telescope,
1:01.3	its workhorse predecessor, has been rewriting our story of the cosmos for nearly 30 years. And now,
1:07.2	finally, the next generation space telescope is set to take flight a bit later this year.
1:11.6	It's been a long, long time coming, and we'll talk about what it took to get here, what we might see and learn peering out and back into time with this new instrument of discovery.
1:20.6	Lift your eyes up and get ready to think about the cosmos that's next on Forum after this news.
1:35.9	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:38.9	I'm of the generation that missed Apollo.
1:45.6	And for me, the most exciting moment in space came when the Hubble telescope began to send back images of giant towers of dust 7,000 light years away in the Eagle Nebula. There were the birthing grounds of new stars,
1:52.2	and NASA immediately called them the pillars of creation. That is to say, new telescope show us
1:59.6	new and on-inspiring things, and later this year,
2:02.6	NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be strapped to a French rocket and launched
2:08.1	nearly one million miles into space to look at faraway galaxies and peer into the atmospheres
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.