Delta College Planetarium To Host Celebration of First Images From New NASA Space Telescope

    icon Jul 07, 2022
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The Delta College Planetarium is joining hundreds of sites across the country to celebrate the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s next great space science observatory, which are scheduled to be released Tuesday, July 12.  Webb is the largest and most complex space telescope ever built, and promises to reveal the far reaches of the universe in unmatched clarity.  The planetarium events will bring Webb’s discoveries to the heart of the Great Lakes Bay Region.

“We are thrilled to serve as an official host site for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope community events celebrating Webb’s first stunning images,” said Mike Murray, Planetarium Manager.  “We have partnered with NASA and Bay City’s Wirt Library to help our community celebrate this amazing feat of science and engineering.  People of all ages and backgrounds will find inspiration in Webb’s new view of the cosmos, which will fundamentally change our understanding of the universe for this generation and many to come.”

Two free events are scheduled to take place at the planetarium.  On Tuesday, July 12 at 10:30 a.m., the planetarium will carry the NASA televised broadcast in its Dome360 Theater where scientists will reveal the first images.  Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media as well as on the agency’s website at www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages.  At 6:00pm that evening, a NASA-hosted expert panel will also be live-streamed in the theater to offer detailed commentary and answer questions about the new pictures.

The major NASA Community Event will be held on Saturday, July 16 from 1-5 p.m. in the planetarium’s Grand Atrium Lobby and Dome360 Theater. Planetarium staff and volunteers, in collaboration with the Alice and Jack Wirt Library, will provide an afternoon of demonstrations, special shows, take-home guides, and displays to celebrate the Webb’s first images.  The event will include two livestream panel discussions with NASA experts: a Spanish language panel at 2:00 p.m. and an English language panel at 3:30 p.m. The event will also feature a display of Webb Student Art Contest winners.

The James Webb Space Telescope is an international mission, led by NASA in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, launched Dec. 25, 2021.  After unfolding in space into its final form, Webb successfully arrived at its destination nearly 1 million miles from Earth and began preparing for science operations.

The space observatory is designed to see the universe in infrared light and will push the field of astronomy into a new era.  Webb will be able to study light from distant parts of the universe for the very first time – the first galaxies that formed over 13.5 billion years ago.  It will also peer into dusty stellar nurseries to explore distant worlds orbiting other stars, as well as observe objects in our own solar system.  Webb will extend the scientific discoveries of other NASA missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

The Delta College Planetarium is located at 100 Center Avenue in downtown Bay City.  The community events are free and open to the public.  Further details and show information are available at www.delta.edu/planetarium or call 989-667-2260.

The Alice & Jack Wirt Public Library serves as the central library for the Bay County Library System, located at 500 Center Avenue in downtown Bay City.  For more information, visit www.baycountylibrary.org or call 989-893-9566.

To learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit webb.nasa.gov and webbtelescope.org

 

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