James Webb - Unveiling the Hidden Cosmos

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is transforming our understanding of the universe with its unprecedented ability to observe the cosmos in infrared light. Webb can peer farther back in time than ever before. Its discoveries have revealed distant galaxies formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, offering a glimpse into the early stages of galaxy evolution. Closer to home, Webb has also captured intricate details of star formation, planetary atmospheres, and even the chemistry of exoplanets, providing new hints into the building blocks of life beyond Earth. This lecture will explore stunning images taken by the JWST, learn about the groundbreaking technology behind it, and understand some of the key science contained in the stunning images we see in the news from the world’s most ambitious telescope.

Prof. Sarah Rugheimer is an astrophysicist and the Allan I Carswell Chair at York University in Toronto. She works on how to detect life on an exoplanet by looking for atmospheric biosignatures. Her research interests include modelling the atmosphere and climate of extrasolar planets with a particular focus on atmospheric biosignatures in Earth-like planets as well as modelling early Earth conditions. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Calgary, and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard in Astrophysics. She then took the Simons Origins of Life Research Fellowship to St. Andrews followed by a Glasstone Research Fellowship at Oxford. In addition to research, Sarah is interested public outreach. Her TED talk “The Search for Microscopic Aliens” has 1.7 million views on TED.com. She previously has been awarded the Barrie Jones Award and the BSA Rosalind Franklin Lectureship in 2019, and the Caroline Herschel Lectureship Prize in 2018. Her new astrobiology course for the public is available on Amazon Audible Originals, called “Searching for Extraterrestrial Life.”