After the photographs taken by the James Webb Space Telescope were published on July 12, several scientists will dedicate themselves to the study of the sharpest and deepest images of the universe in the infrared spectrum so far. These discoveries will be mainly focused on the creation and formation of stars, galaxies, atmospheric components of planetsand in general, discover the origins of the universe. Among the scientific community that will study the data —chosen by NASA itself for its scientific proposals— are the Colombians María Claudia Ramírez Tannus and Sofía Rojas.
The scientist Ramírez Tannus is a physicist graduated from the Universidad de los Andes, has a master’s degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Heidelberg and a doctorate in Astrophysics from the Anton Pannekoek Institute – API of the University of Amsterdam. She is currently conducting postdoctoral research on massive young stellar objects and the origin of massive binaries. She is a specialist in the study of stars and principal investigator of a group of scientists from the world of the General Observers program, that were chosen by three space agencies including NASA. Her focus of study is massive stars which led her to the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.
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Colombian Sofía Rojas Ruiz is an astronomer galaxy specialist. He lives in the city of Heidelberg in Germany and co-leads one of the projects that managed to enter the General Observers program, with which he will dedicate himself to study of the creation of the first galaxies that were formed in the universe, with data thrown by the images that James Webb delivers —and will continue to deliver.
“No more waking up and already thinking about all the great discoveries that are coming with #JWST Incredible that we are in an era in which we can observe so many wonderful things in the Cosmos, and know that we still have even more to explore,” published the scientist Sofía Rojas on her Twitter account after seeing the images of the James Webb.
On her website, Sofía says that her passion for astronomy began when she was little when she watched the Cosmos series. She wanted to be like the astronomer Carl Sagan. In Colombia she began the study of the stars with her telescope and at the age of sixteen she settled in the United States to prepare her application as an astronomer to American universities.
A year after her trip, she entered the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a degree in physics and astronomy. She now she studies the images of the James Webb, the most important telescope of the decade.
Programa General Observers
The two Colombians make history with their participation in General Observers, the program designated by NASA for the investigations that will be carried out on what the James Webb throws up in this first year. According to NASA, more than 1,000 proposals were submitted by the deadline of November 24, 2020. Of these, selected 286 investigations that address a wide variety of scientific areas and will help fulfill NASA’s overall mission of improving human understanding of the universe and our place in it. Scientists from 44 countries requested a part of the 6,000 hours of observation available in Webb’s first year, accounting for about two-thirds of all the observing time of the cycle 1 of investigations.
“The initial year of Webb observations will provide the first opportunity for a wide range of scientists around the world to observe particular targets with NASA’s Large Space Observatory,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the NASA Directorate of NASA Science Missions. “The amazing science that will be shared with the global community will be bold and profound.”
In the coming months, the researchers will study the images that were shared by the James Webb, also contrasting the information already found by other telescopes such as the Hubble and the Spitzer.