University Astronomers Will Be Among the First to Work on the New Space Telescope

10:14, December 14, 2021

Astrochemical Research Laboratory is included in the Ice Age project

Anton Vasyunin, head of the Astrochemical Research Laboratory at the Ural Federal University, joined the team of Ice Age Project scientists who will conduct observational studies of interstellar ice during the first five months of operation of the world's most advanced infrared telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The space telescope will be operational as early as January 2022.

"We are included in the project, because the results of the experiments from our laboratory, created as part of the Science National Project, are needed to interpret observations from JWST. Our laboratory is the only one in Russia participating in one of the first major observational projects approved for the telescope. Joining this team is a great success and hope for highly cited publications in the coming years," says Anton Vasyunin.

The Scientific Laboratory for Astrochemical Research at UrFU was created as a result of the development of a new research area at the university - theoretical research on the evolution of the molecular composition of the interstellar medium and the formation regions of stars and planets. Research conducted in the laboratory together with leading Russian and foreign scientists has already gained national and international recognition. In particular, the research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project 18-12-00351-P).

"Interstellar ice is the future oceans and atmospheres of young planets and complex organics, from which life similar to Earth life can form. The difficulty in studying interstellar ice is that its spectrum is in the infrared range, inaccessible to observations from Earth. JWST will provide the world's first detailed observations of ice in protoplanetary systems, and we will experimentally study what chemical reactions lead to the formation of the ice that JWST will see," notes Vasyunin.

Reference

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an orbiting infrared observatory that exceeds many times the sensitivity and resolution of all similar telescopes. This is a joint project of NASA, the European and Canadian space agencies. Its contribution was made by representatives of 258 commercial companies, government agencies and academic institutions from 17 countries. The telescope will be launched on December 22, and in early 2022, the first scientific studies will begin. With JWST, astronomers will study the formation of planets, the first stars and galaxies.