September 9, 2021, via Zoom Since its launch and deployment by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized astronomy with its crystal-clear view of the universe. Scientists have used Hubble to observe some of the most distant stars and galaxies yet seen, as well as the planets in our solar system. Scheduled for launch in late 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest, most powerful, and complex space telescope ever built. It will be the premier space observatory for astronomers worldwide with the power to fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe. The Webb will be an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity, which will enable the telescope to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies where stars and planetary systems are forming today. In this presentation, Drs. Jonathan Gardner and Jennifer Wiseman from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center give an insider’s look at the scientific legacy of Hubble and the future possibilities of the James Webb. The speakers: Dr. Jonathan Gardner is the Deputy Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope and also serves as the Chief of the Laboratory for Observational Cosmology in the Astrophysics Science Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He has worked at Goddard since 1996, except for a brief term as a Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. in 2004. He earned a BS in astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard University and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where she serves as the Senior Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that the Hubble mission is as scientifically productive as possible. Previously, Wiseman headed Goddard’s Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics. She started her career at NASA in 2003 as the program scientist for Hubble and several other astrophysics missions at NASA Headquarters. As an undergraduate, Wiseman studied physics at MIT, where she discovered the comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. She then earned a PhD in astronomy at Harvard University, and continued her research as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and as a Hubble Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University.

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