Question & Answer
FAQs:
- Vital Facts
Fact sheet on the Webb Mission.
- FAQ Lite
The most popular questions about Webb. (General Public)
- FAQ Full
All the major aspects of the Webb Mission are covered here. (General Public)
- Technical FAQ
Technical FAQ on a variety of mission issues, aspects and capabilities. (Science/Technical)
- Solar System Observations FAQ
Technical FAQ specifically on Solar System observations. (Science/Technical)
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Q&A:
- Q & A with engineers cryo-testing the telescope. (new window)
- Lee Feinberg AMA: Optical Telescope Element Manager for Webb (new window)
Lee Feinberg talks about the top 3 things that Webb can do that Hubble cannot and more.
- Paul Geithner: Freezing NASA's Webb Telescope Is a Matter of Survival (new window)
Paul Geithner (Webb Deputy Project Manager, Technical) provides answers to questions about the kind of freezing temperatures the Webb telescope will endure in space. (General Public)
- Paul Geithner: Components & Structure of Webb (new window)
The Webb telescope is a showcase for new technologies. Recently Paul Geithner provided a closer look at the technologies on the observatory. (General Public)
- Paul Geithner: It's All About Infrared - Why Build Webb (new window)
Paul Geithner provides insight on why the Webb telescope focuses on the infrared. (General Public)
- Paul Geithner: James Webb Space Telescope Coming Together (new window)
Paul Geithner discusses progress, plans and next steps in building the Webb Telescope. (General Public)
- John Mather: "Ask Me Anything"
Dr. John Mather (Nobel Laureate and Webb Senior Project Scientist) answering questions on Reddit. (General Public)
- John Mather: Webb Q&A 1
Dr. John Mather captured on Twitter during our first Tweet Chat. (General Public)
- John Mather: Webb Q&A 2
Dr. John Mather captured on Twitter during our second Tweet Chat. (General Public)
- Mark Clampin: Exoplanets
Dr. Mark Clampin (Webb Observatory Project Scientist) answers questions about Webb and exoplanets.
- SXSW: Finding Life on Other Planets
During SXSW 2014, we held a tweet-chat with some of the scientists on the"First Signs: Finding Life on Other Planets" panel.
- Women of Webb Q&A
Women with diverse jobs on the James Webb Space Telescope answered questions about the female experience working on a NASA flagship mission in the TwoXChromosomes subreddit.
- Focus on XSTEM
During the USA Science & Engineering Festival in April 2014 and focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) topics.
- Sara Seeger: Search for Life Part 1 | Part 2
MIT's Dr. Sara Seager answered questions about exoplanets, the search for life, and the next technologies (like Webb!)
Tweet Chat on Webb and Exoplanets
with Dr. Mark Clampin
These are the answers Dr. Mark Clampin (James Webb Space Telescope observatory project scientist) gave to questions asked on Twitter during our third Tweet Chat, this time about JWST and exoplanets. The answers are very succint due to Twitter's 140 character limit (and we also added the #JWSTexoplanet hashtag to each answer). Often the questions are rephrased in the answers so that our Twitter followers would know what we were giving the answer to.
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How soon can we see photos of some exoplanets? (asked by @tushmonster)
JWST will be able to image young gas giant exoplanets with several of its instruments.
Will the possible loss of the Kepler spacecraft have a significant effect on the JWST exoplanet mission? (asked by @dougsrunning)
Kepler's effect on JWST exoplanet mission? It has successfully found thousands of transiting candidates for us to study.
What other info can be gathered through spectrography about the 3 new exoplanet candidates orbiting Gliese 667C? (asked by @dtmurphree)
What can JWST tell us about the Gliese 667C exoplanets? Spectroscopy can tell us atmospheric composition.
Spectroscopy on exoplanet atmospheres is really exciting, will they be able to do that on fairly thin atmospheres (<1 atm)? (asked by @dougsrunning)
JWST will try spectroscopy of thin atmosphere exoplanets w/ bright, cool parent stars and enough contrast.
Will JWST look at a similar part of the sky as Kepler? (asked by @ideaofhappiness)
Will JWST look at the same part of the sky as Kepler? At L2 it can see the whole sky over a year.
What discoveries do you expect to make? What surprises might you see? (asked by @rdeschambault)
New JWST discoveries? Composition of superearth atmospheres! Surprises? They are always unexpected!.
What are you most excited to investigate in relation to exoplanets? (asked by @ideaofhappiness)
What am I most excited to investigate? I would like to find more planets in the Fomalhaut system.
Is the star shade for JWST still under development? (asked by @dtmurphree)
JWST's sunshield is just starting flight hardware production. The only star it will occult is the sun!
Besides imaging of gas giants and spectroscopy, what other things will JWST be able to do w/ exoplanets? (asked by @dougsrunning)
Besides spectroscopy and gas giant imaging, JWST will search for unseen planets in transiting systems.
Kepler is not looking for the exoplanets around nearby stars,why? (asked by @nimetesra)
Why is Kepler not looking for near exoplanets? Kepler studies a dense starfield. JWST will study nearby M stars.
There were ideas 4 an autonomous star-shield which'd sit 160,000km away to obscure starlight & assist in exoplanet discovery? (asked by @dtmurphree)
No plans for a starshield for JWST. It has coronagraphs for exoplanet imaging.
Approx. how good will the resolution be when direct imaging exoplanets? (asked by @JakePeriphery)
Resolution? JWST's cameras can image gas giant planets greater than a few AU from their stars.
We've gone from looking for exoplanets to examining exoplanet atmospheres. What do you think will come next? (asked by @ideaofhappiness)
What's next in exoplanets? Next will be JWST which allows us to focus on superearth atmospheres.
When is JWST scheduled to be launched? And what is the primarily goal for the mission? (asked by @StianNordaas)
JWST launches in 2018 [Editor's note: Currently 2021.]. As well as exoplanets, it'll look for the first galaxies that formed in the universe.
It is exciting to find exoplanets, but what is the real value or significance of finding and studying them? (asked by @astronomysota)
Studying exoplanets places our solar system in context; we've all wondered if there is life on other planets.
