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What The Webb Telescope Means For W.Va. Science, Education

Last month, NASA released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Able to capture six times more light than its predecessor, the Hubble, it’s the largest and most powerful observatory in space. Shepherd Snyder sat down with Shepherd University professor and astronomer Jason Best to discuss what the telescope’s launch could mean for both the scientific and education communities in West Virginia.

Shepherd Snyder sat down with Shepherd University professor and astronomer Jason Best to discuss what the telescope’s launch could mean for both the scientific and education communities in West Virginia.

Snyder: Getting started here, I just wanted to ask: what exactly is the Webb Telescope? Can you give me some history on what it is and why it matters in the world of astronomy?

Best: Certainly. Put simply, the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space science telescope ever built. In the late 1980s, NASA recognized that there would one day need to be a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which at that time was about a year away from launching. Through numerous conversations and collaborations in 1996, it was formally decided that there would be a next-generation space telescope. Starting in the early 2000’s, construction began on the various pieces of this telescope because it was going to be an incredibly sophisticated instrument. This all came together over a roughly 18 year period. The telescope was launched in December of last year, 2021.

Snyder: A few weeks ago, the Webb Telescope and NASA released some very interesting images of outer space that have been making waves, both in the scientific community and on the news. I was wondering if you could go over what these images are and why they’re so important.

Best: Certainly. The images that were released in July, were the first full color images and some of the spectroscopic data that came from the James Webb Telescope. It was a way to announce to the world that the general science operations of the telescope had begun. What’s fantastic about these images is that the five images released actually tell the story of what Webb can do.

This image of Stephan’s Quintet shows the interaction between and among a grouping of five separate galaxies.

Snyder: Going back to the technology of the Webb Telescope, how is it an upgrade from its predecessor, the Hubble Telescope?

Best: The James Webb Space Telescope is really the successor, not only to Hubble, but in some ways to the Spitzer Telescope. The Hubble telescope, which is the space telescope that most people are familiar with, has a mirror that focuses on the radiation that comes in (to it). That mirror is approximately two meters across. The Webb Telescope, on the other hand, has a mirror that is about six and a half meters across. So that tripling in size gives you a much greater collection of radiation coming in (to it). And it allows you a greater sensitivity.

Furthermore, the Webb Telescope works in a different range of light. The Hubble Telescope works mostly in what we call optical light. It’s the type of light that we see with our eyes. The Webb Telescope works in what’s known as the infrared. The advantage of the infrared type of telescope is that it can see through the dust in space that would obscure light from Hubble. So it gives us a new window into the universe, it gives us a deeper window into the universe, it gives us greater sensitivity into the universe, it allows us to truly see farther, to see deeper and to see details that were heretofore unavailable to us.

Snyder: Now, you are an astronomy professor at Shepherd University. You’re very much involved in the school’s scientific community here. Just from your personal standpoint, as an educator, how would these images help further scientific education? Both in your local community here at Shepherd and also throughout the state, and even the country?

Best: The public has shown an interest in astronomy for decades, whether it has been the Apollo missions, the Voyagers which traveled past the edge of our solar system, the rovers such as Curiosity, which just reached its 10th anniversary on the surface of Mars. The public is interested in astronomy, because they’re interested in being able to see more deeply to understand the world around them. Whether it’s K-12 education, university level, or programs in the public, these images, and the images that will come from the Webb Telescope, will give us deeper insights into other worlds. And not only other worlds, but the worlds in our solar system. They will provide us with more detail. Webb will give us insight into the lifecycle of stars in a way that we’ve been unable to as yet understand. It will give us insight into galaxies over time, and how the large scale structure of the universe is established. And it will give us insights into the early universe, our beginnings.

The study of the Carina Nebula, shown here, gives us deeper insights into how stars are born.

So I see, at all levels of education, these images helping to engage the curiosity in each of us. In terms of research, these areas of research are each going to be expanding the scales that we’re talking about, going from planetary scales on the smallest, to the universe on the largest. We have a range of astronomers, geologists and chemists. When you’re talking about other worlds, the understanding of biological processes, we have a range of research possibilities, those research findings, which will then come into the classroom and help students learn more about how their entire universe works.

Snyder: Could we see these images and the other data we’re seeing – and we could see in the future from the Webb Telescope – be used as an education tool, maybe outside of college or higher ed classrooms?

Best: Most definitely. We will see these images engaging the public. We have already seen these images engage the public through various outreach programs, both formal and informal. The public hungers to understand its world around it. We can look back to 2017, the first total solar eclipse that was visible in the continental United States in a generation and the public engaged. They traveled across the country so that they could be in that relatively narrow path where the eclipse could be seen. The public cares about its world, the public cares about seeing what’s happening around it. So not only within classrooms, scientists, educators of all sorts are extending the outreach mission that astronomy is known for. Historically, astronomy has been about research, it has been about teaching, it has been about outreach. Those avenues are simply going to be enhanced by being able to show these types of images, to be able to talk about the data coming from the James Webb Space Telescope, the analyses that are going to be conducted and that are already being conducted. We will see this as a larger part of our science, education mission.

These pictures of the Southern Ring Nebula display what will happen when stars of certain sizes are about to transition into the end of their life.

The public in the United States pays for science. That’s important to remember. NASA is a government agency. It’s funded by you, by me. It’s a public trust. And astronomers have always believed that it’s important to show the public what this investment means. Because in truth, discovery has no roadmap. Not only the data coming from the James Webb Space Telescope, but the technologies that will go into things like helping people with better eye correction, to be able to help with other resources that heretofore we haven’t thought about yet. Since discovery has no roadmap, it’s important for us, as astronomers, to engage with the public to show them what their investment means and why it matters so much to them.

Snyder: Do you think this is a stepping stone for more in depth astronomy research in the future? What sort of programs or initiatives could we potentially see being explored as a result of these images?

Best: In terms of how we look at astronomy research, we always build upon what it is we’ve seen before so that we can understand more in the future. Hubble, for a generation of scientists, has provided an incredible platform in terms of our understanding the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope builds upon that platform for planetary scientists, stellar astrophysicists, extragalactic astronomers, cosmologists, astrochemists, astrogeologists, across the spectrum of our science. The discoveries that we are making and will continue to make will allow our science to continue to grow, will allow our discoveries to continue to be understood within the greater context of what it is we know. And in truth, this tool will help us be smarter tomorrow than we are today. But that’s what science is really all about. We know something today. We hope to know more tomorrow.

Snyder: Just finishing up here, did you have any closing remarks before we go ahead and end this interview?

Best: I often tell my students that the first three words that any astronomer says are, “I don’t know.” The three words after that are, “Let’s find out.” The James Webb Space Telescope is going to help us find out much more than we knew. It will make the next generation of astronomers smarter than the current generation. And that’s how it’s supposed to work. Because then that generation will help the public know more, and appreciate more. And that’s how, as a society, we continue to grow positively in our knowledge.

West Virginia Site Designated Dark Sky Park

West Virginia’s Watoga State Park has been designated as a Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association.

It is the first site in West Virginia to get the designation, which comes with opportunities for astronomy tourism and nocturnal wildlife observation, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

The Watoga State Park Foundation’s board of directors had been seeking the designation since 2018. They replaced 150 outdoor light fixtures, installed telescopes and added stargazing events as well as educational events on wildlife that benefits from a dark sky environment, officials said.

The parks “not only represent the state of West Virginia in our Dark Sky Parks program, but are also raising awareness for one of the largest and darkest skysheds within the eastern United States, “said Ruskin Hartley, Director of the International Dark Sky Association.

Calvin Price State Forest and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, which are managed by Watoga, are included in the designation.

“Many new opportunities now exist to study the heavens and nocturnal creatures,” park foundation board President John Goodwin said in a statement. “This is a new and exciting time for the park and its visitors. Not only can the park offer activities during the day but now they can offer activities at night.”

Astronomers At W.Va. Telescope Discover Largest Neutron Star In Universe

Astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope in Pocahontas County have discovered a massive neutron star. Scientists believe this is the largest neutron star ever discovered.

Neutron stars, sometimes called pulsars, are the compressed remains of stars that have exploded into a supernova. Supernovas occur when stars reach the end of their life and explode into a powerful burst of light and energy.

Neutron stars are one of the most dense objects in the universe, second only to black holes. But little else is known about the interior of one of these stars. Just a single sugar-cube worth of neutron star material would weigh 100 million tons on earth. That’s about the same as the entire human population.

The recently discovered star is about 4,600 light years from earth. According to a press release from the Green Bank Observatory, this neutron star approaches “the limits of how massive and compact a single object can become without crushing itself down into a black hole.”

Astronomers at the W.Va. telescope plan to continue studying this particular neutron star, and what it might reveal about the nature of spacetime.

Calhoun County's Darkness May Be Worth A Lot of Money

Amateur astronomers are seeking nice dark places where they can watch the nighttime sky. They just might find it in Calhoun County.

Saturday night stargazers will set up their equipment in a park near Grantsville to see just how dark it is.

Tim Ezzell is a researcher at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He’s leading a team of other UT researchers and officials in Calhoun County to determine if this area is dark enough to become an attractive tourist destination.

“We looked at maps and charts and sure enough Calhoun was about the darkest place left in the Eastern United States,” Exell explained.

“And one of the things we did before we got too far into this project was we wanted to make sure there was a market for this type of tourism. So we did a brief survey , sent it out to a few astronomers to see what they thought and within days we had three hundred responses.”

There is little development in Calhoun County, but Ezzell and his team, which include students from Fairmont State University, see dollars in the darkness.

“Well it’s like anything once it becomes scarce it becomes more valuable. And we’re find darkness is becoming more and more scarce all over the world,” he said.

Amateur astronomers would buy food and lodging and would spend money for a place to stargaze. About 30 stakeholders will spend Saturday night at Calhoun County Park to find out if it is good enough for a dark skies park.

Blackwater Falls State Park Will Host a Free Viewing Event of the Perseid Meteor Shower

Blackwater Falls State Park is hosting a free viewing of an annual meteor shower Monday, August 11th and Tuesday, August 12th.

On clear nights from mid-July to late August, meteors from the Perseid meteor shower can be seen in the night sky, but the peak show happens around August 11th and 12th.

Meteors can be observed in the early evening sky after darkness falls; however, the number of meteors increases after midnight.

Staff members at Blackwater Falls State Park say the park is one of the darkest areas in the east and provides the perfect setting as Earth passes through the debris of Swift-Tuttle – a comet discovered in July 1862.

The free event at Blackwater Falls will begin indoors both nights at 7:30 p.m. at the Harold Walters Nature Center, and then move outdoors for the viewing. It will include a presentation with guest interpreter, Dan Costanzo, a scientist with the National Air and Space Museum with more than 40 years of experience watching meteors and the night sky.

The nature center area will be free of artificial lighting during the viewing, and it’s encouraged to bring your own lawn chairs or blankets to sit back and watch the show.

WVU astronomer calls new discovery 'a puzzle'

There’s an ongoing debate over whether funding will be able to continue for the Green Bank telescope in Pocahontas County. But the telescope is still making remarkable astronomical discoveries, including one that’s being called a “puzzle” by West Virginia University astronomers.

There’s a very unique star formation in the Milky Way galaxy that until recently was never discovered. It’s known as a triple star system—two white dwarf stars, and a pulsar. A pulsar is a star that gives off radio waves. White dwarf stars are very dense, some as massive as our sun, and they have stored thermal energy. This particular grouping is somewhat rare, according to West Virginia University physics professor Duncan Lorimer.

“It’s something of a mystery as to how it’s formed; we’re quite used to the idea of pulsars being the end products of supernova explosions. We’re comfortable with the objects being isolated and moving about the Milky Way,” he said.

This triple stellar system, where you have two white dwarf stars, is somewhat of a puzzle as to how it got there. The objects are very organized; they are all essentially on the same plane. A special set of circumstances must have occurred to produce this system. It’s probably very very rare.

But Lorimer says there are clues to help researchers track the system’s origin.

“The way we think about this is essentially, the pulsar is a clock in space. It’s sending out these regular pulses we receive. We can use it to monitor its position in the orbit, and determine to high precision, many orbital parameters,” said Lorimer.

“It’s a one of a kind system.”

The significance of this discovery is that its allowing researchers to test a scientific principle known as the Strong Equivalence Principle.

This system was discovered by a former West Virginia University student, who is now a faculty member at Western Kentucky University.

The tool used to make this important discovery is the Green Bank Telescope. Funding for the telescope is in doubt, due to the nation’s financial struggles.

Lorimer says the telescope is a vital tool in how astronomers are able to look at the universe. He fears without it, more important discoveries like this one can’t be made.

“This is not by no means the only example of what the GBT has done over the last few years. Just the pulsar finds alone! It has a whole slew of very other interesting scientific questions that it’s answering in a unique way. I’m very concerned that the future of the telescope is uncertain. The telescope is potentially getting cut off well before it’s time,” Lorimer said.

Karen O’ Neil is the site director at Green Bank. She says the facility is an open skies facility, where any astronomer from around the world can apply for time to get on the telescope.

She says when astronomers make discoveries at the telescope, there’s a little bit of luck involved. But mostly it’s hard work. And the telescope itself—which is the largest fully steerable telescope in the world—certainly helps.

“Could this discovery have been made without the GBT- possibly. But did the GBT make this discovery vastly more likely, absolutely,” she said.

O’ Neil says this particular discovery was made while astronomers were looking for related systems, but didn’t expect to find this particular one.