18 Oct 2021 Faulkner County Library joins NASA in celebration of telescope launch

CONWAY — The Faulkner County Library has joined almost 500 sites across the country to celebrate the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s next great space science observatory. The free community event will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Friday Oct. 22, at the library at 1900 Tyler Street.

The library will offer a range of public programs to bring the excitement of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to all ages.

“We are thrilled that the Faulkner County Library is an official host site for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch community events,” said Mary Spears Polk, the Children’s Services Librarian. “We have partnered with Arkansas Space Grant Consortium and Arkansas Natural Sky Association to help our community celebrate this amazing feat of science and engineering. People of all ages and backgrounds will find inspiration in the Webb mission, which will fundamentally change our understanding of the universe for this generation and many to come.”

Webb is the largest and most complex space science telescope ever built — the premier observatory of the next decade. This international mission, led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies, will launch in December.

The observatory will provide a new view of the cosmos and push the field of astronomy into a new era. The telescope will observe the universe in the infrared, peering inside dust clouds to study light from distant parts of the universe for the very first time. It will also explore distant worlds in other solar systems, as well as objects in our solar system. Webb will extend the scientific discoveries of other NASA missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

For a full schedule of library events, visit fcl.org or call  501.327.7482. To learn more about the Webb telescope, visit webb.nasa.gov.