‘Awestruck, like any person:’ With new Webb images, work begins for Purdue astronomer

Plus, a Mourdock Moment, in post-Roe real time, in the Indiana news cycle. And what you need to know about getting to the Tippecanoe County 4-H Fair.

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Q&A: PURDUE ASTRONOMY PROF DANNY MILISAVLJEVIC ON THOSE AMAZING JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES

A couple of days after the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope dropped, Danny Milisavljevic was still trying to process it all.

Milisavljevic, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Purdue, is part of a 40-member team in line to get some of the earliest data from the Webb Space Telescope, the next generation look into the universe after 30-plus years of the Hubble Space Telescope.

But like everyone else, Milisavljevic said he found himself still marveling at fresh pictures that captured looks at galaxies and stars in entirely new ways.

Released by NASA this week, this image shows NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula, as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. (Photo: NASA)

“I’ve had to stop myself a few times and just say, ‘Look. Look at that,’” Milisavljevic said this week.

Milisavljevic’s team, which includes researchers from 30 institutions, will study Webb data on Cassiopeia A, a supernova remnant 11,000 light years away, in the constellation Cassiopeia. This week, aside from marveling at Webb’s first looks, has been consumed with getting ready to make use of data that come once in a generation in the field.

Question: I guess you’ve had yourself a week.

Danny Milisavljevic: It's been tremendously exciting, but equally exhausting, as the images have been released and I do this balance of scrambling to tell people about it and give some context about why we, as astronomers, are so enthralled by the results. But also as a scientist trying to get some time to actually start looking at them and preparing for the science, I hope to achieve myself.

Question: OK, let’s start there. When does the work begin?