Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Erick Dupuis.
I am the Director of Space Exploration Development
at the Canadian Space Agency.
Thank you for joining us for this briefing on Canada’s role in the James Webb Space Telescope mission.
I’m joined here today by colleagues and experts.
We have Sarah Gallagher, the Chief Science Advisor to the Canadian Space Agency’s President.
We have Neil Rowlands, who is the FGS and NIRISS scientist at Honeywell Aerospace.
We also have René Doyon, the Principal Investigator for the FGS/NIRISS instrument,
and Chris Willott, who is the Canadian Webb Project Scientist and Webb Archive Scientist
at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.
We are entering a truly fascinating period for us at the Space Agency,
but also for the entire international space community.
On December 18, the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched
from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.
Exploring the universe is obviously a very ambitious adventure.
And we could not have done it without the precious collaboration of all our partners.
Webb is the result of more than 25 years of planning and development with our international partners,
namely NASA and the European Space Agency,
but also with our Canadian partners including the National Research Council of Canada,
Honeywell Aerospace, formerly known as COM DEV,
the University of Montreal and the instrument team, and the Canadian science team.
Webb is the largest space science project that Canada has been involved in
since the inception of the Canadian space program 60 years ago.
It's incredible to be able to say that we are participating in a new phase in astronomy
and in our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
The Canadian Space Agency is providing two important elements to the mission:
the Fine Guidance Sensor and one of the four science instruments,
the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph.
My colleagues will get into the details of these contributions.
The important thing to remember is that, thanks to this contribution,
Canada will have observation time on the most powerful space telescope ever built.
Canadian scientists will be among the first to study the data collected with Webb.
It’s a very exciting time for astronomy, and Canada is thrilled and proud to be on this journey.
So, Sarah, why don’t you please tell us about Canada’s science objectives with Webb?
Thank you, Erick, it will be my pleasure.
The Canadian astronomy community is fully engaged in a one-in-a-generation opportunity
afforded by our participation in Webb and will play an active role in exciting scientific investigations.
Some of the first studies will include one led by Canadian astronomer Dr. Els Peeters
from Western University.
Her international team will observe the regions around very massive stars
to help learn how these powerhouses affect their environments.
And as we get closer to launch, we definitely feel the growing enthusiasm in the community,
in anticipation of Webb’s ground-breaking science.
Canadian Webb research programs will touch on a wide variety of major research topics in astronomy,
including detailed examinations of exoplanets, which are the worlds around other stars.
The search for the very first light sources in the universe,
the formation and evolution of galaxies, the life cycles of stars
and closer looks at the small bodies such as icy moons and asteroids in our own solar system.
Just to name a few specific projects, Dr. Maria Drout from the University of Toronto
and her team will be exploring the cosmic explosions known as kilonovae.
Olivia Lim and her team from the Université de Montréal
will be studying the atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 planets,
and Dr. Matthew Taylor from the NRC’s Herzberg Institute will be looking at black holes.
We are especially proud and pleased of the excellent scientific leadership
that was shown by young Canadian astronomers who will be leading projects
during the first cycle of observations.
This interest from the next generation shows the vibrancy of our community.
And really, it would be difficult to overstate just how revolutionary the space telescope is
and what it means to researchers in Canada and around the world.
Their work will help discover other worlds, learn more about the life cycles of stars,
and paint a picture of the early universe in a galactic development and evolution.
I’ll let Neil describe how important the Fine Guidance Sensor is to Webb’s operations
and how it underpins all of the telescope’s observations.
Over to you, Neil.
Okay, thanks, Sarah.
Indeed, the FGS’s function is to keep the observatory pointed at its targets
with exquisite accuracy to enable the sharpest possible images during the data collection
performed by all of Webb’s science instruments.
So I’ll begin by describing the road to the creation of FGS and then a little more about how it works.
From a technical perspective, the past of the Canadian contribution to the Webb Telescope
was not straightforward.
Canada’s contribution evolved significantly over the years.
For example, in 1999, when Webb’s three science instruments were selected,
the guiding function was to be done by the NIRCam instrument.
And two years later, it was realized that a separate guider would be required.
So, in part due to previous Canadian work done providing a fine aerosensor to Lyman/FUSE mission,
NASA’s Lyman/FUSE telescope, NASA agreed in 2001 that the Canadian contribution to Webb
could be a fine guidance sensor and a science contribution to the NIRCam instrument.
But in 2003–4, a replan at the mission level: the science contribution,
the Canadian science contribution, was moved into the Fine Guidance Sensor,
and this eventually became the instrument we have today, FGS/NIRISS.
The development of NIRISS, FGS/NIRISS, took place over the years 2006 to 2012
and required many diverse and capable suppliers from Canada and the US.
The flight model was delivered to NASA in July 2012 after extensive testing at David Florida Labs in Ottawa,
and that’s shown in the picture here.
This testing required cooling the instrument to around minus 230 degrees Celsius.
So it was not straightforward, but we accomplished it and got the instrument delivered.
After delivery, the FGS/NIRISS was also tested with our support at NASA Goddard,
at NASA Johnson and then at Northrop Grumman in California.
So FGS is crucial to all the observations.
In fact, FGS will be used in fine-guiding mode for almost all of the science images to be taken by Webb.
FGS allows Webb to latch precisely onto guide stars, and this locking on helps offset any movement
in the telescope and capture clear and detailed images.
The guider takes up about 25% of the total telescope field of view
because of the need to always have a suitable guide star available in the view.
So FGS has two independent imaging detectors that are fed by common optics,
and using these large infrared detector arrays for the guiding function
requires some sophisticated image processing which takes place in the FGS flight software.
So the Fine Guidance Sensor is incredibly precise.
It can detect tiny angular displacements of the telescope equivalent to the thickness of a human hair
as seen from a kilometre away or, if you prefer, the equivalent of seeing somebody blinking in Toronto
all the way from Montreal.
So the FGS can sense these tiny movements by staring at one star and measuring its position,
transferring that data to Webb’s computers at 16 times a second.
These measurements are then used to send commands to a small mirror
inside the observatory that can be moved to correct for any vibration or drifts.
So the FGS isn’t just used for deep-space observations,
it’ll also track guide stars as the telescope moves to observe objects within our solar system like planets,
asteroids and comets.
So now I’d like to invite René Doyon to talk about NIRISS
and the observations that we can expect.
Thank you, Neil, and good afternoon everyone.
I’m so excited to talk to you about the NIRISS, which is a Canadian-built instrument that will do,
in fact, three things.
We will study exoplanet atmospheres, study distant galaxies,
and try to find very faint companions around very bright stars.
So NIRISS is basically a spectroscopic instrument,
and astronomers like to use images, of course,
but one important information is actually a spectroscopy.
And the way we do it is that we disperse the light with a small prism
or some other very specialized dispersive element, and this allows us
to actually see the distribution of light of the different colours.
This gives us a lot of information about the chemical composition of the objects
we observe and also about their distance and speed.
So, it is absolutely precious and very important information.
And how we do it is that, in the instrument,
we have a filter wheel that allows us to shift different optical elements, either wires, masses, or prisms,
and this is how we can change the different modes of observation.
So here we see a small orange prism.
All the light of the telescope will be concentrated in this small prism of about two centimetres wide,
and with this prism, we will be able to study the atmosphere of other planets.
This is one of the major programs of our scientific team.
We are going to use... we are going to study transiting exoplanets, that is to say planets that,
from our perspective, transit in front of their star and, in doing so, the stars will wink at it.
We can measure the decrease in luminosity of the stars,
but what is more difficult is to detect the thin layer of atmosphere that surrounds them.
And that's one of the things that Webb will do very, very accurately.
So, we plan to observe a wide variety of exoplanets, planets like Jupiter,
which are the same size as Jupiter, but very close to their star – planets that will be very, very hot.
They are called hot Jupiters, but also, of course,
we are going to use systems like the famous TRAPPIST-1 system that Sarah mentioned,
which includes seven planets that transit around a small star,
three of which are in the habitable zone.
And three of those planets may have life.
And to answer these questions, the first step is to know: do they have an atmosphere,
and what is it made of?
So, the NIRISS instrument will be able to do that.
We will be able to know: is there water? Is there CO2, methane?
So, we will have a 200-hour observation program.
This is the largest observation program of all the Webb science teams,
and it will be led by my colleague David Lafrenière from the University of Montreal.
Now we will turn the filter wheel to put in another dispersive element.
This time, we are going to the other end of the universe.
We want to study very distant galaxies.
And a characteristic of NIRISS is its ability to take spectrums of all the targets we observe.
We see here a cluster of galaxies which is one of the targets that we will observe in priority,
and we will take a spectrum of all these galaxies.
We estimate that we can see 3000 of them.
So, in a single image, NIRISS will be able to make 3000 spectrums of these galaxies.
So, first of all, we want to study these galaxies themselves in the cluster,
but the cluster of galaxies also contains dark matter, which acts as a gigantic gravitational lens
that amplifies the signal of galaxies that are much further away.
And in fact, that's how we hope to find the very first galaxies that lit up a few hundred million years
after the Big Bang.
So this is an extremely important scientific program.
We will devote 200 hours to it. This program is led by my colleague Chris Willott
from the National Research Council of Canada in Victoria.
And last but not least, in the third mode, we will insert a small mask in the filter wheel
that will block almost all the light from the telescope except for seven segments.
They are carefully chosen. This will allow us to study planets, planetary systems like the one shown here,
which are forming very close to their star.
All the telescopes on Earth, including Webb, have a kind of blind spot.
We can't see very close to the star, but with this little mask,
we will be able for the first time to probe the region very close to the stars to know: are there exoplanets?
Are there planetary systems in formation?
And this will be an element that is absolutely unique to the NIRISS instrument.
So, basically, those are the science programs that the Canadian team will be pursuing with our instrument,
and I can tell you that we can't wait. Thank you very much.
So we have a question that came in on social media from Cory on YouTube.
And he’s asking, “When will the CSA and the Canadian partners
start to observe using the telescope?
Is there anything in particular you’ll be trying to look at first?”
And I’ll ask Sarah Gallagher if she can answer this question.
Thank you, Cory, for the question because, of course, as soon as this telescope launches,
we want to get the data as soon as possible.
But it’s a very, very complicated piece of equipment, and it actually takes quite a while for it, first of all,
to get to where it’s going. It’s 1.5 million kilometres away.
And then also for it to unfold and to check out all the instruments before we start getting the science data.
So it takes about six months before – until we’re going to start getting those beautiful data
that are coming down.
Canadians are involved in some of the very first science studies,
and some of the first targets – they were chosen quite a while ago – are going to be looking
at things like Jupiter, looking at galaxies in the very early universe,
and also looking in the areas around massive stars where – and looking at the molecules
in those star-forming regions.
And there are Canadians who are involved in projects, those sorts of projects.
So we’re definitely going to be on the front ranks of getting in some of the earliest data. Thanks.
Thank you, Sarah. We have another question from YouTube
and the question is from Noah who’s asking, “What does the infrastructure plan
look like for possible servicing missions of the telescope?”
And I’ll transfer that question to Erick Dupuis.
Thank you. So thanks for your question, Noah.
You’re probably motivated by the history of Hubble for asking that question.
Hubble was serviced several times.
There is a big difference between Hubble and James Webb,
and that big difference – or one of the big differences – is where it actually lives.
Whereas Hubble was in low Earth orbit – it was serviceable.
James Webb will be at a Lagrange point very far from the Earth
and in a location that is not readily serviceable.
So at the moment, there are no plans to service Webb over its lifetime. Thanks for the question.
All right, thank you, Erick. That’s all the questions we have from social media.
All right. Thank you.
So thank you all very much. To stay informed about the mission,
please visit the Canadian Space Agency's website.
And most importantly, remember to follow us on social media
to get all the updates before the launch and after the launch.
Thank you very much, everyone.