Official NASA event being hosted by University of North Georgia

 

The University of North Georgia (UNG) is teaming up with NASA to mark a historic achievement with a two-day event. In recognition of the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, UNG has been chosen to hold an official NASA event that will include a presentation and some hands-on activities.

Dr. Lesley Simanton-Coogan, Planetarium Director at UNG, explains why this telescope launch is so significant. “It’s basically the largest and most complex telescope that we have ever launched into space. A lot of times it’s compared to the Hubble Space Telescope and the reason for that is that, like Hubble, we expect that Webb is going to kind of revolutionize every topic across astronomy.” The telescope is expected to launch in December.

This telescope will make significant contributions by allowing scientists to see things in space from a different vantage point than even Hubble is able to offer. The Hubble sends back very clear, high-resolution photos, according to Simanton-Coogan. The Webb camera will be able to send back photos with that same kind of detail and resolution but in a different way. “Hubble looked at visible light, but Webb is looking at infrared which is heat. It’s basically going to look really clearly across the sky at a different type of light and so we will get this brand-new view of the sky that we have never had before and we hope to learn a lot of new thing,” she says.

To mark the occasion, UNG is hosting two nights with a live virtual talk by a renowned scientist and expert on the telescope. Simanton-Coogan says this is a great opportunity for the community to celebrate such a historic event and learn more. “We are doing things at both the Gainesville and Dahlonega campuses on two different nights. Two nights, two campuses, and in two languages. On  Friday night, Dahlonega will have hands-on activities. Our planetarium is on our Dahlonega campus so there are planetarium shows and then we also have telescope viewing at the observatory. We will also have a Webb expert.”

On Saturday night, there will be similar activities on the Gainesville campus. This time the presentation will be given in Spanish. Those who speak English should not shy away, as there will be an English version available as well. English speakers can experience a recorded version of the lecture. There will also be more telescope viewing with portable telescopes looking at the night sky.

The guest speaker, Dr. Rosa Diaz, is a mission engineering and science analysis branch deputy at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Diaz will be speaking remotely from Baltimore but will be live, so the audience members will be able to interact with her and ask questions during the presentation.

Simanton-Coogan says it is an honor to have Dr. Diaz as a featured guest. “She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and she has done data analysis with instruments on Hubble so she has a ton of knowledge about these instruments that go into space. It should be really cool to hear. We got connected to her through NASA. We are an official community outreach event for NASA for the Webb Telescope and they connected us to her as an expert speaker.” 

The talks will be at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday nights.

The schedule is as follows:

Friday Night, October 22: Dahlonega Campus, 5-9:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in the Health and Natural Sciences Building.

Saturday Night, October 23: Gainesville Campus, 7-9:30 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Science, Engineering, and Technology Building.

To reserve a spot at the event, go to https://ung.edu/planetarium/index.php

Both speeches will also be online with links available by filling out a form. You can find a link that to that form on the planetarium website.