On July 11, in front of the entire planet, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, unveiled the first official images of the James Webb Space Telescope. Among the earthlings most interested in this historic moment, a Beauceron awaited this day with excitement. Claude-André Faucher-Giguère is an associate professor at Northwestern University, a suburb of Chicago.
The James Webb Telescope, following more than 25 years of waiting, has finally downgraded its Hubble predecessor. More efficient and more precise, this technological device was built by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) at a cost of 10 US$ billion. “The telescope shows us images of the beginning, just following the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago,” exclaims Mr. Faucher-Giguère.
Positioned 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, this space telescope has four main missions: to detect the light of the first post-Big Bang galaxies, to study their formation and evolution, to better understand the birth of stars and learn more regarding exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). In addition, he will even be able to define what elements these planets are composed of and know if life forms are possible there.
Beauceron astrophysicist
Originally from Sainte-Aurélie, Claude-André Faucher-Giguère has been teaching at Northwestern University in Illinois for almost nine years. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in astronomy from Harvard University (USA), one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from McGill University (Canada). Mr. Faucher-Giguère did his college studies at Cégep Beauce-Appalaches, in Saint-Georges.
His academic research focuses on the study of the formation of galaxies since the creation of the Universe, by modeling its evolution, from the Big Bang to today. He and his team, a research group made up of doctoral and postdoctoral students, carry out simulations on supercomputers. Their data make it possible to compare their hypotheses with concrete observations made by telescopes.
Among the pictures revealed by NASA, two challenge him more directly. The image of the Carina Nebula (Carina Nebula) shows hundreds of stars, never seen before, and that of SMACS 0723 illustrates a cluster of galaxies. These images will help him in his research and allow him to compare his data with concrete observations. “This powerful telescope will allow us to observe the evolution of galaxies over time,” says the astrophysicist.
It should be noted that Canada provided the James Webb Telescope with a scientific instrument and a guiding detector that will be used to make groundbreaking advances in astronomy. This participation guarantees us a share of the observation time by our scientists and researchers.
