Looking for Life Beyond our Solar System with the Webb Telescope 

February 17, 2022 at 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. PST 

We made a last-minute change to the event in order to accommodate more participants!
Email paulines@visitthereach.us for a link to join.

UPDATE: Registration to this event has closed. If you would like to access a recording after the event, please contact Pauline Schafer, Education Manager at paulines@visitthereach.us.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is getting ready to look far into the universe and help us learn how stars and planets form. How will we know whether those distant worlds are earth-like enough to possibly support life? Dr. Thomas Beatty and Dr. Megan Manfield will join us online from University of Arizona and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope, for an interactive presentation about the telescope and how it will detect exoplanets around stars.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built. It will allow scientists to capture images of some of the first galaxies ever formed, and will be able to look inside dust clouds to see where new stars and planets are forming. Webb will also help study the atmospheres of planets around other stars. We will talk about how the Webb telescope works and what it’s doing right now to get ready for its first observations. We’ll also describe how Webb can measure the atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars, and what we might expect to see if one of these planets was like the Earth.

About our Guest Speakers

Dr. Thomas Beatty, James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam Team and Assistant Research Professor at University of Arizona will be joining us from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, mission operations center for the JWST. Dr. Beatty will be using the telescope this summer to look for planets outside of our solar system.

Dr. Megan Mansfield, NASA Sagan Fellow at University of Arizona and a member of NASA-supported Alien Earth team will join from Tuscon. Dr. Mansfield studies the atmospheres of exoplanets to determine whether they could host alien life.

Co-organizing with the REACH Museum on this event is Dr. Serena Kim, Associate Astronomer/Associate Research Professor at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona and co-investigator of the NASA-supported astrobiology programs Earth in Other Solar Systems and Alien Earth. Learn more at https://alienearths.space

This free virtual event from the REACH Museum is especially for students in grades 5 and up, but all are invited to participate. You may join online from school, home, or wherever you are for this event on Zoom. Registration is required at https://bit.ly/3fXuiB6

You may also schedule a classroom program on the STEAM of the Webb Space Telescope, offered in-person for the Tri-Cities, Washington area or virtually for your class or group wherever you are. This interactive program is designed for one class group at a time for grades 5 through 8. More information at https://visitthereach.us/education/minimobile-museum/steam-of-the-webb-space-telescope/

Contact REACH Museum’s Education Manager for more information at paulines@visitthereach.us.

You may also schedule a classroom program on the STEAM of the Webb Space Telescope, offered in-person for the Tri-Cities, Washington area or virtually for your class or group wherever you are. This interactive program is designed for one class group at a time for grades 5 through 8. More information at https://visitthereach.us/education/minimobile-museum/steam-of-the-webb-space-telescope/ 

Contact REACH Museum’s Education Manager for more information at paulines@visitthereach.us.