skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NM Has Role in NASA's Next-Generation Space Telescope

play audio
Play

Wednesday, December 22, 2021   

A NASA mission 25 years in development is finally ready for launch, and contributors from the Land of Enchantment are eager to join its search for life beyond Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope took the effort of thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians from 29 states and 14 countries. Tony Hull, an adjunct astronomy and physics professor at the University of Northern New Mexico, led a team that polished all of the telescope's 18 primary mirrors and additional optics.

"We're going to see things we never dreamed of before, and we're going to even understand more about planets in our solar system," he said. "We're going to understand more about exoplanets."

James Webb is viewed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, but 100 times more powerful.

The Webb telescope is so large in its full configuration that it had to be folded origami-style into the rocket in preparation for launch. To work properly, Hull said, it must accomplish complex choreography when it reaches its destination 1 million miles from Earth.

"We've never deployed a sunshield of this efficiency in this number of layers at the size of a tennis court before in space," he said. "We've never unfolded a mirror in space - so there's so many things that were done for the first time."

UNM assistant professor Diana Dragomir will be one of several astronomers around the globe who study data delivered from the Webb telescope.

"Understanding how the very first galaxies formed," she said, "and then seeing these galaxies kind of how they evolved through time since 14 billion years ago to today."

Once it launches, the telescope will travel for about a month until it reaches its destination. James Webb is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021