WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.932 align:middle line:90% [LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING] 00:00:00.932 --> 00:00:01.432 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.432 --> 00:00:02.840 align:middle line:90% We built it. 00:00:02.840 --> 00:00:04.370 align:middle line:90% We stuck it on a rocket. 00:00:04.370 --> 00:00:05.310 align:middle line:90% It made it to space. 00:00:05.310 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:90% It opened up robotically. 00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:10.010 align:middle line:84% And it's been giving us views from the first hundreds 00:00:10.010 --> 00:00:12.140 align:middle line:84% of millions of years after the big bang. 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:15.870 align:middle line:84% So, if you think about it, since the beginning of time, 00:00:15.870 --> 00:00:20.060 align:middle line:84% every fairy tale, every myth, every story 00:00:20.060 --> 00:00:24.830 align:middle line:84% that humans have been telling or yearning to learn about 00:00:24.830 --> 00:00:27.030 align:middle line:90% is the story of origin. 00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:28.710 align:middle line:90% We've come from somewhere. 00:00:28.710 --> 00:00:31.733 align:middle line:84% There's some process that has led us here, 00:00:31.733 --> 00:00:33.900 align:middle line:84% and it has implications for where we're going to go. 00:00:33.900 --> 00:00:36.920 align:middle line:84% And so we're, we're going further and further 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:38.520 align:middle line:90% into the past over time. 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:41.360 align:middle line:84% Now we can see galaxies, and we can observe them, 00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:42.900 align:middle line:84% and we can actually analyze them. 00:00:42.900 --> 00:00:45.740 align:middle line:84% And that frontier has been pushed forward exclusively 00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:46.530 align:middle line:90% by Webb. 00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:51.530 align:middle line:84% My research kind of was spurred by a surprise, really inspired 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:55.160 align:middle line:90% by a very early result of JWST. 00:00:55.160 --> 00:00:57.750 align:middle line:84% There was this time period where we were like, 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:01.770 align:middle line:84% we are finding galaxies that are so massive. 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:04.430 align:middle line:84% So it's kind of like, you know, you 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:06.800 align:middle line:84% go look for baby pictures of your kids 00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.608 align:middle line:84% and you find, you know, they're like 8 feet tall. 00:01:09.608 --> 00:01:10.650 align:middle line:90% It's like, what the heck? 00:01:10.650 --> 00:01:12.230 align:middle line:90% What's going on here? 00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:16.580 align:middle line:84% As more data comes in and we revise our understanding, 00:01:16.580 --> 00:01:19.930 align:middle line:84% Webb hasn't changed anything in terms of our understanding 00:01:19.930 --> 00:01:21.350 align:middle line:90% of cosmology. 00:01:21.350 --> 00:01:23.230 align:middle line:90% In the very base level. 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:26.090 align:middle line:84% Our [INAUDIBLE] of cosmology still holds. 00:01:26.090 --> 00:01:29.020 align:middle line:84% One of the things that's been the most exciting 00:01:29.020 --> 00:01:34.420 align:middle line:84% so far has been the discovery of a lot of massive black holes 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.800 align:middle line:84% in galaxies in the early universe. 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:40.400 align:middle line:84% And it's exciting because we weren't quite expecting that. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.580 align:middle line:84% We see a lot of objects that contain black holes. 00:01:43.580 --> 00:01:48.610 align:middle line:84% And, in some cases, these may, may be bigger than we thought. 00:01:48.610 --> 00:01:52.460 align:middle line:84% What can make black holes that big so fast? 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:56.320 align:middle line:84% Also, how can you make a black hole that is so much more-- so 00:01:56.320 --> 00:01:58.550 align:middle line:90% massive compared to the galaxy? 00:01:58.550 --> 00:02:02.920 align:middle line:84% There's just a higher abundance of very massive black holes 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:04.190 align:middle line:90% in the early universe. 00:02:04.190 --> 00:02:07.750 align:middle line:84% And so, one thing that happened with this Webb data 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:11.057 align:middle line:84% is this flurry of scientists working on galaxies, 00:02:11.057 --> 00:02:12.640 align:middle line:84% and scientists working on black holes, 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:16.990 align:middle line:84% and coming together to try to understand what exactly we're 00:02:16.990 --> 00:02:17.720 align:middle line:90% seeing. 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:21.370 align:middle line:84% We found a bunch of objects that are incredibly difficult 00:02:21.370 --> 00:02:23.880 align:middle line:84% to explain, that there's a lot of controversy over, these, 00:02:23.880 --> 00:02:25.720 align:middle line:90% like, 'little red dots.' 00:02:25.720 --> 00:02:29.710 align:middle line:84% We called them little red dots because we're very creative. 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:33.200 align:middle line:84% They looked exactly like little red dots in the images. 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:36.050 align:middle line:84% They're so compact, but there's so much light coming from them. 00:02:36.050 --> 00:02:38.200 align:middle line:84% In the early universe, there's only so much time 00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:40.970 align:middle line:84% to build up exorbitant amounts of stellar mass. 00:02:40.970 --> 00:02:42.620 align:middle line:90% How is that physics happening? 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:46.280 align:middle line:84% We are made of things like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:52.060 align:middle line:84% and other elements, but the big bang made none of it. 00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:55.720 align:middle line:84% So, you want to find the stars that made the elements that 00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:57.230 align:middle line:90% ultimately made us. 00:02:57.230 --> 00:03:00.080 align:middle line:84% So, it's, it's part of completing the picture. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.550 align:middle line:90% It is a sea change. 00:03:01.550 --> 00:03:02.690 align:middle line:90% It is a sea change. 00:03:02.690 --> 00:03:09.550 align:middle line:84% It is-- there's no question JWST has offered a complete change 00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:11.590 align:middle line:84% to the way that we think about the first billion 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:12.910 align:middle line:90% years of the universe. 00:03:12.910 --> 00:03:15.010 align:middle line:84% There's a sense of wonder that astronomy 00:03:15.010 --> 00:03:18.470 align:middle line:84% inspires, regardless of whether or not you are a scientist. 00:03:18.470 --> 00:03:21.340 align:middle line:84% And James Webb, I think, has had a huge part 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:24.080 align:middle line:84% in bringing that sense of awe to everybody. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.890 align:middle line:84% This is just the beginning, and Webb is just getting started. 00:03:26.890 --> 00:03:29.640 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYING] 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:45.000 align:middle line:90%