(Science Week - Final Day!)

It’s been a fulfilling week – thanks to friends who posted something and spared a moment for co-contemplation. And there’s still so much we didn’t touch.

Let’s round it out with some starry-eyed indulgence in the future of astronomy: namely the James Webb Space Telescope.

Thanks to webcams (I love webcams), I spent many a moment watching this benevolent beast and its giant gold mirrors in various states of configuration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Hopefully next year, it will take up Hubble’s torch in its sub-icy wide orbit around the sun.

There’s so much about it, but here are my links of choice, all visits to the location in question:

For a momentary indulgence, Robert Picardo and Bill Nye visit Amber Straughn to see it in person: https://youtu.be/ZYrA7RiRDFQ

For a leisurely 40 minutes, a lecture made of enthusiastic and whimsical waxings of Dr John Mather: https://youtu.be/VWeg88PTg4s

And possibly the nerdiest of all, some B-roll of the work: https://youtu.be/szruVkPzHpk