WEBVTT

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[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm a cosmologist,

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so I study dark
matter, dark energy,

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the nature of the universe.

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I'm a Ph.D. student.

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And so, I'm hoping that one
of the major questions that I

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attempt to answer over my
Ph.D. is to say something

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about the role of massive
stars and UV radiation on star

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formation.

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We study the formation
of young stars

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in galaxies that are nearby.

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And it's incredibly important
because star formation

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is one of the things that
changes galaxies over the time.

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Most ordinary stars are
forming near massive stars,

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and the massive stars
are dominating how

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the entire region is evolving.

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Stars are what create all
the metals in the universe;

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they have an outsized impact
on the structure of galaxies.

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And the impact, it's not only
the stars that are forming,

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but the way they interact with
the gas and dust around them.

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So, for the work
that I'm doing, Webb

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is much better than what
we could get with Hubble,

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particularly in the
near infrared, where

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it has just much better
resolution and greater

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sensitivity.

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So it is allowing us to get
just more precise measurements

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without some of the
noise that we've

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had in previous measurements.

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When stars are
forming, they're very

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hard to see because
they are engulfed

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in a cloud of material.

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You need to be very
sensitive to be able to see

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any signature of the star.

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James Webb gives us that
sensitivity for the first time.

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Not only does JWST allow us
to see through the dust –

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because it's less
affected by the dust –

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but, more importantly –
especially in the nearby galaxy

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imaging that we're seeing at the
longer infrared wavelengths –

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it's the dust
emission that we see.

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I'm particularly
intrigued by some

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of these very massive galaxies
that have formed shortly

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after the Big Bang.

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Trying to understand how they
got so massive so early, how

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they got so evolved so early.

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It's sort of like, you
know, looking back in time

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and seeing still quite
evolved creatures

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and trying to understand
how did they evolve so fast?

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I just feel very lucky to be
an astronomer studying the Webb

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data at this time.