VIDEO: Rep. Stansbury Highlights New Mexico’s Contributions to James Webb Space Telescope

VIDEO LINK: Watch here.  

WASHINGTON – During a House Committee of Science, Space and Technology hearing this morning that examined the initial findings and discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01)highlighted New Mexico’s contributions to the fields of aerospace, science, and technology, and the critical learning opportunities the James Webb Space Telescope provides for New Mexico’s students.   

Rep. Stansbury’s remarks touched on the work of University of New Mexico professors who helped construct elements of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and emphasized how the telescope is creating critical opportunities for scientists and students across New Mexico to learn and pioneer new fields. Rep. Stansbury spoke to the importance of collaboration and student input in STEM fields before questioning the witness panel which included Dr. Mark Clampin, Astrophysics Division Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Division (NASA), Dr. Steven L. Finkelstein, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Houston, and Dr. Natalie Batalha, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Director of Astrobiology at the University of California Santa Cruz.  

“In my home state of New Mexico, which is a powerhouse in science, technology, and aerospace, we could not be more excited about Webb,” said Rep. Stansbury. “The discoveries of this telescope not only will tell us more about the universe and our place in it, but are helping to excite and energize a whole new generation of aerospace engineers, scientists, and thinkers about the universe.”  

Rep. Stansbury continued by questioning the witness panel on the scientific discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope. “What are you personally most excited about and surprised about what we're learning from the telescope? What is the next chapter of exploration, and what are we learning from the Webb project that is telling us where we need to extend the frontiers of science and knowledge?” 

Dr. Clampin responded, stating, “I think the next big challenge is the search for life, and I spoke briefly in my initial remarks about how we will address the National Academies Decadal Survey by trying to build a six meter or more space telescope, that will look for habitable exoplanets around solar type stars.” 

Rep. Stansbury’s remarks as delivered can be found below: 

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee for letting me participate today. As folks have noted already on this hearing this morning, we're not only celebrating the findings of the Webb telescope, but also the successful launch of Artemis One, and as a woman in STEM, I want to just note that it's being led by an amazing group of women, including Charlie Blackwell Thompson, who is the first woman ever in American history to oversee a NASA countdown and launch, and so this is long overdue in history making along with all of the scientific discoveries that we're talking about this morning.  

And I too want to add to the chorus of everyone who's been working on the Webb telescope, and the science that's coming out of it. After three decades of bipartisan work, dedicated collaboration by our extraordinary scientists and engineers at NASA, our space industries, and of course, scientists across the world, this amazing telescope launched last December and I want to say on a personal note, I was among the millions of people who stayed up late through the night and into the morning on Christmas morning to watch the launch of this telescope, and had the extraordinary opportunity when I was working on Space Policy at OMB as a staffer to actually see the assembly of the telescope at Goddard.  

And so it's really been an exciting journey to see the telescope launch and everything that's coming out of it. In my home state of New Mexico, which is a powerhouse in science, technology and aerospace, we could not be more excited about the Webb telescope, and what it's teaching us about the origins of the universe and our place in it, but also helping to inspire the next generation of scientists and researchers, who are not only engaged in this work, but also the students who we've been talking about this morning, who are inspired by what we're finding from this project.  

In particular, Professor Tony Hull, who's a professor at the University of New Mexico, was part of the team that helped to polish the telescope's mirrors, which are bringing these extraordinary images back to us, and other scientists at our major flagship university, including Professor Dragomir is working as part of a team to explore exoplanets and unique phenomenon outside of our solar system. 

As we've been discussing this morning, the discoveries of this telescope not only will tell us more about the universe and our place in it, but are helping to excite and energize a whole new generation of aerospace engineers and scientists and thinkers about the universe, and so I want to use the remainder of my time to ask each of our three panelists two questions.  

The first is, what are you personally most excited about and surprised about what we're learning from the telescope? And the second is what is the next chapter of exploration, what are we learning from the Webb project that is telling us where we need to extend the frontiers of science and knowledge? So starting with Dr. Clampin? Maybe could you share your thoughts on what are you personally most excited and surprised about and what the next chapter is? 

So I've been most excited by the transmission spectra from exoplanets that Dr. Batalha showed. I think they're really excitingand I'm looking forward to seeing observations that the TRAPPIST-1 system come in. As far as what where we go next, I think the next big challenge is the search for life, and they talked briefly in my initial remarks about how we will address the National Academies Decadal Survey by trying to build a six meter or more space telescope, that will look for habitable exoplanets around solar type stars, and then characterize them to look for evidence of life. So that's kind of where I think we're going next. 

Thank you. And Dr. Finkelstein?  

So I think for the near future, what I'm most excited about is to look even deeper. The early release science images I've shown you they're very shallow, they're less than an hour of exposure time. And in cycle one, there are a number of deeper programs including a public deep field called NG Deep that will be observed at the beginning of February. And so soon we will have the Debussy equivalent of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Into the future, in the not-too-distant future. I'm extremely excited about the potential of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. One of the exciting things we're finding is that the early universe has big bright galaxies and that telescope although it has a smaller mirror, has a much larger camera. It's optimized for finding these massive, rare beasts in the early universe and it's going to be fantastic to have that capability very soon. 

Amazing. And Dr. Batalha? 

Yeah, I will echo what Dr. Clampin said but I wanted to add one thing about the exoplanets. The most common type of planet known to humanity right now is a kind of planet we don't even have in our own solar system. It's intermediate to the rocky terrestrials and the big gas giants. We call them Super Earths but actually we don't really understand their nature. Is this more real estate for life? That's a big question on our mind. And this is a class of planets that JWST will be able to characterize and shed light on exactly their nature. Very excited to see that happen. 

Amazing. Well, thank you all and again, congratulations to NASA and to all of the teams who worked on this amazing project, and for all of the exciting scientific discoveries yet to come. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.