Beyond Hubble: Studying the Earliest Galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope - Prof. Richard Ellis

Wed 22 April

Trinity College

One hundred years ago, Edwin Hubble confirmed the presence of galaxies of various morphological forms beyond our own Milky Way. When the famous Space Telescope named in his honour was launched in 1990, astronomers began to explore how they assembled over 13 billion of years of cosmic history. Progress has accelerated with the more powerful James Webb Space Telescope sufficiently that we may soon witness the earliest galaxies emerging from darkness. The motivation is fundamental: the birth of starlight initiated the formation of the chemical elements ultimately leading to our own existence in this remarkable universe.