The opening speeches of the webinar were made by Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil and President of TÜBİTAK Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal.
“We support all kinds of scientific and technological studies to increase Türkiye's technological competence.”
Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil emphasized the importance of Matter’s sharing such a presentation. “As we know, the development of technology is possible with strong and planned macroeconomic policies and structural reforms. In today's world, countries that follow technological developments and development in the best way can add these to their policies and only in this way can they play an important role in the global economy. They acquire. "In the centennial year of the Republic of Türkiye, our top priority is to increase our country's independence in every field and improve its social welfare."
Prof. Dr. Yozgatlıgil, “In this context, we are advancing our policies with the following awareness: Advances in the field of industry and technology will significantly affect the future and survival of countries, and we support it with all kinds of scientific and technological studies in order to increase Türkiye's technological competence.”
Prof. Dr. Yozgatlıgil also said, “The National Technology Move is an important work that will ensure Türkiye's economic and technological independence and is an important tool for designing and producing our talents. We do this within a conceptual framework. We are aware that Türkiye has started a new century on its centenary. In this context, we carry out our work under five components in every necessary field. Digital technology, entrepreneurship, human capital, infrastructure and technological progress. In other words, we actually support a large technology-based infrastructure and high-technology targets with the National Space Program and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy. We support technological awareness with large events under thematic headings. We support it with events such as TEKNOFEST and sky observation events.”
“With each new image, we learn more about our universe.”
In his speech, Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal said, “The mysteries and undiscovered facts of space have attracted the attention of humanity throughout the ages. The high-resolution and high-precision instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope enable a better understanding of these mysteries. "The images, which enable the observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization, provide many answers and open the door to new questions." made his evaluations.
A new, never-before-seen feature in Jupiter's atmosphere with the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope Reminding that it was discovered. The images now allow scientists to measure how quickly Jupiter's winds change with altitude. “With each new image, we learn more about our universe.”
Prof. Dr. Mandal, introduced John C. Mather: “The scientific brains of the James Webb Space Telescope, Dr. John C. Mather is a Civil Servant and Senior Astrophysicist at NASA's Observational Cosmology Laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center. He expanded the Hubble Space Telescope's scientific discoveries by enabling the James Webb Space Telescope to look farther into space and further back in time. In his youth, he was inspired by theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman, and was also interested in fields such as quantum electrodynamics. Despite this interest, his doctorate in physics at the University of California at Berkeley led him to observations of the Big Bang. At that time, no one had a doctoral thesis yet. It would later inspire the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite and Dr. He didn't know it would win John C. Mather the Nobel Prize in Physics.”
“Our young people will have the opportunity to share their great excitement for space science.”
Prof. Dr. Mandal pointing out that Mather is the chief scientist of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission, “The team confirmed the concept of the expanding universe with great accuracy by showing that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum. Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Steven Hawking has stated that measurements of hot and cold spots in thermal radiation are the greatest scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time. Dr. “John C. Mather later served as Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope from 1995 to 2023, directly managing the science team.”
Dr. John C. Mather's COBE satellite with George F. Smoot of the University of California to measure heat radiation from the Big Bang Underlining that he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on space science, Mandal said, "Thanks to our Nobel Prize-winning guest speaker, our young people and our people had the opportunity to share his great excitement for space science."
“Increasing space awareness, developing human capital and Science Mission are also important pillars of the Turkish National Space Program.” Mandal said, “We bring together leading international scientists and our people in these meetings that are open to the public. Such meetings are important to us. This webinar is of course a part of the National Space Program and serves the same purpose. “We aim to increase interest in astrophysics.”
“The most important capital is people”
Referring to TÜBİTAK's space studies in closing, Mandal mentioned satellite studies and reminded that Türkiye's first domestic and national communication satellite will be launched into space next year.
Emphasizing the importance of the moon mission, Mandal said, “We will land on the moon, for this "We also make our own vehicle,"
Emphasizing that “the most important capital is people,” and Mandal said, “You can understand from the number of questions received and the quality of the questions how much importance is given to this field. “Our young people are very interested.”
Talking about the importance of TEKNOFEST, Mandal emphasized that the participation in TEKNOFESTs has increased every year since 2018 and said, “This shows us our strength, motivation and responsibility towards young people. Your participation and contributions are very valuable to us. He thanked Mather with the following words:
“20 thousand engineers worked on the James Web space telescope”
Astrophysicist Dr. John C. Mather emphasized that he was excited in his presentation and said, "We needed a telescope that detects infrared light, and we decided to open the treasure chest with the James Web space telescope." Mather emphasized that 20 thousand engineers contributed to the completion of the telescope.
"This telescope can be used by all scientists in the world," Mather said, introducing the parts of the telescope and He explained how it works.
Dr. John C. Mather “We take photographs and try to extract their meaning so we can tell you stories. “We hope some of these stories we tell are true.”
Talking about the expansion of the universe, Mather mentioned that, historically, with the development of technology, some facts such as the absence of life on Mars have come to light. Explaining the founding of NASA and noting why people want to go to the Moon, Mather explained how interest in space has developed historically and how space research has become important.
“The next step is to look for a planet with life.”
Explaining how they made calculations in space, Mather supported this with images from the James Web telescope. Explaining how the universe was formed, Mather emphasized the importance of quantum. "We were planning for the telescope to have a lifespan of 5 years, but now we realized that it could have a lifespan of 20 years," Mather, taking images from the telescope. He explained the stages. Noting how they imaged distant galaxies, Mather said, "We know that light bends in places with gravity. If this information is correct, we will direct our research accordingly."
Explaining that they examined the planets, Mather also shared impressive visuals of the planets. He also talked about chemicals on planets. Mather explained that the next step is to look for a planet with life. Noting that they carry out some experiments from time to time and observe the movements of asteroids, Mather pointed out that these observations are important to protect the world from dangers.
Mather answered questions after his presentation. There was great interest in the webinar. Hundreds of astronomy enthusiasts followed the webinar both via Zoom and on the YouTube channel. The webinar was moderated by Assoc. Prof. from TÜBİTAK. Dr. The poem was performed by Kilkış.
Dr. Who is John C. Mather?
Nobel Prize winner in Physics, architect of the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Astrophysicist Dr. John C. Mather led the science team as a Senior Project Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope between 1995 and 2023.
With Mather's COBE satellite, the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation were discovered and the heat radiation from the Big Bang was measured. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006, together with George F. Smoot from the University of California, for the scientific developments achieved with the COBE satellite. He showed that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum of the order of 50 ppm, confirming the concept of an expanding universe. In this context, it enabled the measurement of hot and cold spots in heat radiation, which is considered to be among the greatest scientific discoveries of the century.
Please click to watch the webinar on TÜBİTAK Youtube channel.
08.11.2023