Utah - The National Park Service in Southwestern Utah and Northern Arizona has joined hundreds of sites across the country to celebrate the release of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s next great space science observatory. The parks and partners will offer a range of public programs to bring the excitement of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) to children, teenagers and adults.
Webb is the largest and most complex space science telescope ever built - the premier observatory of the next decade. This 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 observatory, which is designed to see the universe in the infrared, 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 - and give us insight into how our universe formed. 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 community events are free and open to the public and will be held at Zion National Park on July 13, Springdale Parks & Recreation on July 14, Cedar City Library on July 16, Ashcroft Observatory on July 25, Pipe Spring National Monument on July 29, and the St. George Astronomy Club on August 9. For a full schedule of events, visit www.nps.gov/CedarBreaks or contact the parks.
To learn more about the Webb telescope and community events visit webb.nasa.gov, webbtelescope.org, and https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/events.
About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 424 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice and Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice.
~NPS~
Tags: night sky james webb webb telescope events utah cedar breaks zion
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
