01/31/2022
By Lynne Schaufenbil

All are welcome to attend a talk by H. Philip Stahl, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, AL on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m.

The Webb Space Telescope (WST) 10-year mission is to search for the first luminous objects of the universe to help answer fundamental questions about how the Universe came to look like it does today, including formation of galaxies and protoplanetary systems. At 6.5 meters in diameter, WST is the world’s largest space telescope. This talk reviews science objectives for WST and how they drive the WST architecture, e.g. aperture, wavelength range and operating temperature. Additionally, the talk provides an overview of the WST primary mirror technology development and fabrication status.

H. Philip Stahl is a Senior Optical Physicist at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center currently leading a study to mature mirror technologies for a new large aperture UV/Optical/IR telescope to replace Hubble. Previously, he was responsible for developing candidate primary mirror technologies for the Webb Space Telescope.

Stahl is a leading authority in optical metrology, optical engineering, and phase-measuring interferometry. Many of the world's largest telescopes have been made with the aid of high-speed and infrared phase-measuring Interferometers developed by him. He is a Fellow of SPIE and OSA, past ICO Vice President and was SPIE’s 2014 President. He earned his PhD in Optical Science at the University of Arizona in 1985.

For the Zoom link, please contact Lynne_Schaufenbil@uml.edu.