{"id":119818,"date":"2021-05-03T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=119818"},"modified":"2021-06-09T11:22:56","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T15:22:56","slug":"ucf-scientist-to-complete-100-hours-of-research-on-james-webb-space-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-scientist-to-complete-100-hours-of-research-on-james-webb-space-telescope\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Scientist to Complete 100+ Hours of Research on James Webb Space Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, UCF researcher Noemi Pinilla Alonso will be among a select group of scientists worldwide who will have more than 100 hours of observation time awarded to conduct her work.<\/p>\n

The JWST telescope, which has been described as NASA\u2019s next great space telescope, is a hot commodity. More than 1,100 proposals from 44 countries were submitted to the Telescope Allocation Committee late last year. The committee made of up of more than 200 astronomical experts from around the globe conducted complicated reviews over several weeks. A total of 286 proposals were selected. Women are leading 86 of those projects. A total of 6,031 hours of telescope time was approved from more than 24,400 proposed.<\/p>\n

The scientists will be using their telescope time to find new galaxies, explore the formation of stars and better understand the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems including our own.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Pinilla-Alonso, a planetary scientist at the UCF-based Florida Space Institute, comes in. She proposed an ambitious project to study 59 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and centaurs in our solar system. She is also a co-investigator on two other proposals that were also selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty exciting,\u201d Pinilla-Alonso says. \u201cWe put together a great global team with unique expertise, including senior researchers and post docs, for our TNO proposal. The vast collection of novel data produced by this large program will also provide the opportunity for our Ph.D. students at UCF to be trained in the use of this next generation space telescope from the very start.\u201d<\/p>\n