MEDIA ADVISORY: MU’s “Cosmic Conversations” Continues with Importance of Famous Space Telescopes

Story Contact(s):
Christian Basi, BasiC@missouri.edu, 573-882-4430

By Jerett Rion

WHAT:

The University of Missouri “Cosmic Conversations” lecture series continues with a lecture from Haojing Yan, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at MU, who will discuss the importance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Hubble Space Telescope was carried into orbit by a space shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. It is responsible for some of the most detailed, visible-light images ever made of the universe’s most distant objects. The James Webb Space Telescope is a space telescope optimized for observations in the infrared, and officials plan to launch it in 2018.

The University of Missouri Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Science and the Central Missouri Astronomical Association host the lecture series.

Lectures take place on the first Wednesday of each month. Laws Observatory, an observatory deck on the fifth floor of the physics building, will be open after each lecture to view the stars.

WHO:

Haojing Yan, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at MU.

WHEN:

7 p.m., Wednesday, March 7

Observatory hours: 8 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday

WHERE:

Physics Building Room 120, MU campus

NOTE:

The event is free and open to the public.