Special Author Event: Infinite Cosmos: Visions from the James Webb Space Telescope
Note: The author will be visiting in-person and will be available to sign copies of his book after his presentation. Please see below for information about purchasing a copy at the meeting.
Our meeting on November 18th will feature a speaker who has been a club favorite several times in the past. Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. theoretical cosmologist turned science communicator. We were fortunate to have Ethan in Portland for several years and he spoke to us about cosmology and two of his previous books. His current book, Infinite Cosmos, is a very nice compendium of images and infographics associated with the James Webb Space Telescope. The book tells the story of the development of the telescope, its launch, its commissioning, and the amazing science that has been done with it so far. Rather than telling the story in conventional text, it is mainly presented in images and compact, information-rich infographics with short descriptions consisting of a few paragraphs. This makes the book extremely accessible and makes it possible to open the book to a random page and enjoy an amazing image or quickly come away with an interesting fact that deepens your understanding of the mission. I was surprised and impressed with how much fun this could be.
Aside from the graphics, the book also features an introduction by physicist Brian Greene. Rather than the typical short foreword, the introduction provides a historical context, an overview of the capabilities of the telescope, and speculates about future developments.
We will have a small number of copies of the book available for purchase at the meeting. We will be matching the Amazon price, which is currently $40.56. Please email (program@rosecityastronomers.org) if you'd like to request a copy to help us know how many to order. Also, feel free to bring a copy you have purchased independently if you'd like to have it signed.
Ethan's description of his presentation is below. His visit should be a lot of fun and it would great to have you join us!
On December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched from Earth towards its ultimate destination at the L2 Lagrange Point, 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. The culmination of decades of planning, construction, execution, and transport all came down to a critical few minutes, which led to our newest flagship observatory in space. Science operations began in July of 2022, with the past 2+ years bringing about a number of scientific revolutions: both expected, such as the discovery of a number of record-breaking galaxies and other cosmic objects, and unexpected, such as new features in star and planet-formation, and big surprises about the earliest supermassive black holes in our Universe. Come learn what we've discovered and how it's altered our cosmic perspective, and pick up the author's first National Geographic book which is all about the James Webb Space Telescope: Infinite Cosmos.
About Ethan Siegel
Ethan Siegel received his PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Florida in 2006, and subsequently became a college professor before embarking on a full-time career as a science communicator. His online column, Starts With A Bang, has been running continuously since 2008, and Infinite Cosmos is his fifth book, following Beyond the Galaxy, Treknology, the Encyclopaedia Cosmologica, and his first children's book: The Littlest Girl Goes Inside an Atom. Despite only living in Portland, OR for six years, from 2008-2014, he still regards it as his home city, and always looks forward to the opportunity to bring a little bit of the Universe to Rose City.