![]() This streamlining was crucial because it didn't weigh down the JWST with the huge amount of extra mass a tube of this size would have required. While scientists were developing JWST, it was Bely who came up with the concept of using a parasol to block unwanted light, instead of the tube most people associate with a telescope - making it a “naked telescope,” as Smith describes the James Webb. When he joined the project, he had already worked on designing the Canada France Hawaii Telescope, a ground-based instrument operational on the Big Island since 1979. Out of all the scientists on this list, Bely is perhaps most responsible for the way JWST looks today. Pierre Bely isn’t an astronomer, but an optical engineer. ![]() In particular, the report focused on the need for an ultraviolet optical infrared telescope that could take our knowledge of space far deeper than we'd ever ventured before. Meanwhile, at the Carnegie Observatories, astronomer Alan Dressler had written a report called “ HST and Beyond ,” talking about the next major projects NASA should be tackling. Later, as NASA started to seriously think about their next big telescope, Mather began to work with Stockman to develop the proposal for the JWST. Peter Stockman wrote a proposal for building a telescope that would succeed the Hubble Space Telescope over 20 years ago, but his idea wasn’t accepted at first. Read More: Why Do The Stars Look Pointy in Images From the James Webb Space Telescope? “He was able to bring both communities who don’t always speak the same language together.” “John’s specialty is just that he is really freaking smart,” Smith says. During his work with COBE, Mather developed skills at negotiating between what the scientists want and what the engineers and technicians can feasibly accomplish. Mather became the senior project scientist on the JWST project in 1995. Mather won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2006, along with George Smoot, for his work using the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), a satellite that operated from 1989 to 1993, to map the electromagnetic radiation produced by the Big Bang. Mather is the senior project scientist emeritus involved in the development of the James Webb Space Telescope. “I thought it would be a fun little project and here I am one career later,” says Smith, who previously served as the program director for JWST. Smith was the second astronomer hired on the project by John Mather in 1996. To highlight some of the scientists and engineers that made key contributions to the project, Discover spoke to Eric Smith, the associate director for research in the Astrophysics Division and the program scientist for JWST. NASA operates the telescope jointly alongside the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Who exactly was involved in developing the science and technology behind the telescope and its operation? NASA says there are currently more than 1,200 scientists, engineers and technicians that work on the project from 14 countries, but many thousands more worked on its development. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.Read More: How the James Webb Space Telescope Takes Such Stunning Pictures Hanneke joined the team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at.
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