Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Gregory Robinson. Mr Robinson's welcome
Speaker 1: to the Daily Show. I'm glad to be here, excited
Speaker 1: to have you here because this is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest stories. You know, everyone saw it on social media.
Speaker 1: There was a picture of like it seemed like the
Speaker 1: universe everything, and then it was like, here's the old one,
Speaker 1: here's the new one. And then we all had to
Speaker 1: act like we knew why that was important. But you're
Speaker 1: actually the person behind why it happened and howard how
Speaker 1: it got together. So let's start with this for everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody to be on the same page. Mostly me, um,
Speaker 1: why is this jump in telescope technology so impressive and
Speaker 1: why is it so importance? So we compared were compared
Speaker 1: to Hubble, which was state of the art thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: and Web gives us a much bigger mirror at six
Speaker 1: and a half meters versus two point four for Hubble.
Speaker 1: And the infra rear technology. If you think about looking
Speaker 1: like night vision, you can see heat through something, so
Speaker 1: it gives us infray capability, so we can look through
Speaker 1: the dust and clouds and gulk of space and look
Speaker 1: much further back. Of course, our science and instruments are
Speaker 1: a lot more complex too, So the clarity is a
Speaker 1: lot better and the depth is a lot better. What
Speaker 1: I know is really confusing sometimes we're talking about anything
Speaker 1: in space, is that sometimes they say things in terms
Speaker 1: of time, and sometimes they say things in terms of distance,
Speaker 1: and it gets it. You know, they'll be like, we're
Speaker 1: seeing something from thirteen billion years ago. I'm like, I'm sorry, what, what?
Speaker 1: What does that even mean? Well? Sometimes I say what
Speaker 1: as well? So we're looking at a light traveling d
Speaker 1: eight six thousand miles per second? I could imagine that.
Speaker 1: So we're looking at light something that happened billions of
Speaker 1: years ago and it's just reaching us now. So it's
Speaker 1: it's the time distance travel of light and that's actually
Speaker 1: what we're looking at. And so we can see what
Speaker 1: happened a really long time ago somewhere else out there.
Speaker 1: What do we use this information for? Like, will it
Speaker 1: tell us that aliens like left along time now they're
Speaker 1: already here? Does it does it tell us where we're
Speaker 1: gonna go after we destroy Earth? What is it telling us? Well?
Speaker 1: You know, and after physics and astronomy, we're always looking
Speaker 1: to answer questions, where do we come from how do
Speaker 1: we fit into this universe or we alone, which is
Speaker 1: another one we're looking for. So it helps inform us
Speaker 1: on how we fit into the universe. And as far
Speaker 1: as light travel, I remember growing up in the country
Speaker 1: and shout in the flashlight up in the sky and said,
Speaker 1: I wonder how how long has taken it to get
Speaker 1: to certain points, which is the same kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It's light travel, that's what you're looking for. It's interesting
Speaker 1: you say that growing up in the country, because I've
Speaker 1: read your story and you have one of the most
Speaker 1: fascinating journeys I've ever come across. Because you grew up
Speaker 1: your parents were air croppers in rural Virginia, all right,
Speaker 1: You went to a segregated school, you didn't have the
Speaker 1: education that you wanted to, and then here you are,
Speaker 1: the man who was brought in to basically get this
Speaker 1: ten billion dollar telescope up and run. It was failing
Speaker 1: before you stepped in. They called you and they're like,
Speaker 1: we need to do this, and you did it. What
Speaker 1: is that meaning? Temeform? And how did you get into
Speaker 1: this world? So? Uh, A couple of things. One is
Speaker 1: um that education and the segregated schools was excellent. We
Speaker 1: had some of the best teachers in the world. Many
Speaker 1: of them were far more educated than the teachers and
Speaker 1: other schools because they couldn't get jobs in industry like
Speaker 1: they can today. So we had great teachers who really
Speaker 1: innurtured us and cared about us. So my beginnings were
Speaker 1: very strong, and so of course I lived through the
Speaker 1: Apollo time. I was a little kid then, which excited me,
Speaker 1: but that still didn't get my interests in space. So
Speaker 1: I was in college and and friends of mine actually
Speaker 1: did internships at at NASA, and they made it sound
Speaker 1: sound so interesting. And a few years later I've started
Speaker 1: my Korean industry. But a few years later actually joined NASA.
Speaker 1: And uh, four and a half years ago there were
Speaker 1: some issues. Um My boss asked me to try to
Speaker 1: get her over goal on. Now I will say a
Speaker 1: lot of the work was already done, already completed, So
Speaker 1: thanks to the team for that. And this team is
Speaker 1: an incredibly, incredibly smart team of people. If you could
Speaker 1: imagine that, NASA so smart is never shortage and NASA
Speaker 1: and certainly not for this team. And then this team
Speaker 1: is not just NASA's our whole industrial base. UH. Plus
Speaker 1: the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency to about
Speaker 1: our big partners. Let me ask you a question. I
Speaker 1: believe that you're retiring soon. Yes, I'm retiring soon when
Speaker 1: life comes at me fast, because I mean, you've been
Speaker 1: around for so long. You've been you've been doing such
Speaker 1: a great job, so that's what's going to miss you.
Speaker 1: But because you're retiring, I feel like you could you
Speaker 1: could probably tell me a few things you wouldn't be allowed.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know when when you're leaving, like, so
Speaker 1: have you have you taken any pictures and then seeing
Speaker 1: something that you like they don't tell us about, like
Speaker 1: you know what I I like. Let me put it this way.
Speaker 1: In New York, if you have like a superpowered telescope
Speaker 1: and you shine at another person's apartment, you might see
Speaker 1: some things. And I'm wondering if you've seen some things
Speaker 1: out there, But then you don't tell us all these
Speaker 1: all the pictures you can just wink. If I'm close,
Speaker 1: you can well. I think your telescope in New York example,
Speaker 1: you probably see something you've already seen before. I think
Speaker 1: in our case, we have a certainty things we haven't
Speaker 1: seen before, but a lot clearer and we will we
Speaker 1: will learn things that we can never even imagine. So
Speaker 1: as we answer questions, we also will create new questions
Speaker 1: for the future. What are we using the answers to
Speaker 1: these questions to do? You know, I understand there is
Speaker 1: some importance to it, but how does it help what
Speaker 1: happens on Earth? Or what are people hoping we will
Speaker 1: learn from these telescopes and what they're revealing. Where one,
Speaker 1: we learn a lot about physics. And if you think
Speaker 1: about it, if you go back many many years, uh,
Speaker 1: and you think of the physics textbooks, Um, we have
Speaker 1: information today that wasn't there then. And if you think
Speaker 1: about just a hundred years ago, we thought that was
Speaker 1: just one galaxy in the whole universe ours and uh
Speaker 1: Hubble uh Hubble telescope plaimed after him, discovered more galaxies.
Speaker 1: So we know a lot more about who we are,
Speaker 1: where we are, where we come from. And so that's
Speaker 1: on the astrophysics stamp side. But other science missions tell
Speaker 1: us a lot about the Earth, our interaction with the
Speaker 1: Sun impact, so the Earth as a system, with our
Speaker 1: own solar system. I see. So now that you have
Speaker 1: the James Webb telescope, I mean Hubble was until a
Speaker 1: few months ago, you know, was everybody's bay in space,
Speaker 1: you know, and then I just felt a little you know,
Speaker 1: I felt a little sad on Hubble's behalf. Everyone's just like, man,
Speaker 1: I look at ship Hubble's pictures. What happens to Hubble now?
Speaker 1: So Hubble has been operating more than thirty years um
Speaker 1: and again it was the state of the art. It's
Speaker 1: going to continue operating. Okay, okay, there are still things,
Speaker 1: uh we benefit from Hubble. So we're still looking forward
Speaker 1: to a long time operation. Is there something Hubble can
Speaker 1: do that that the Web telescope can't do? Uh? Not
Speaker 1: at the level we're talking about, not at all. And
Speaker 1: just three months well two or three months ago, m
Speaker 1: Hubble discovered a star that was nine hundred million years
Speaker 1: after the Big Bang. So wrap that around your head.
Speaker 1: Nine hundred million years UM after the Big Bank now
Speaker 1: and and space. That's still a long time. But when
Speaker 1: you're talking billions, that's looking back quite a bit. That
Speaker 1: is really fascinating. I mean, I mean, I just love
Speaker 1: the idea that you know, you're part of this mission.
Speaker 1: You get this telescope, you know, you have to shoot
Speaker 1: it up into space and then you start taking the pictures.
Speaker 1: Who whose job is it to stitch the pictures together
Speaker 1: and to get to unblur the pictures because when you
Speaker 1: when you take the picture, it's I've heard it base.
Speaker 1: It looks like nothing. That's what I've been told. It's
Speaker 1: just it just looks like somebody has shown you a
Speaker 1: picture of night and then somebody sits there and they
Speaker 1: go like, oh no, I see something, like who's doing that?
Speaker 1: And how do you do it? And how do you
Speaker 1: know that you're Actually it's like so the scientists actually
Speaker 1: they know what they're looking at um and so they
Speaker 1: do some what we call processing to make the pictures
Speaker 1: look more presentable to human eye. You can say, you can,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those humans do know. So so the
Speaker 1: scientists process that, they use the science instruments, and then
Speaker 1: they have some post processing beyond the instruments to make
Speaker 1: it look like what we've seen recently. But they actually
Speaker 1: know what they're looking at when they received they so
Speaker 1: they get it. They just they make it simpler for us. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: So I would love to know where your journey goes
Speaker 1: from here. I mean, you've been part of NASA for
Speaker 1: such a long time. You've been part of the biggest
Speaker 1: you know, discovery or invention that humans have ever created.
Speaker 1: We're too from here, you retire and then and then
Speaker 1: what do you do? So so certainly web is done
Speaker 1: from a development standpoint, So now it's the scientist job
Speaker 1: for the next twenty plus years. I know they would
Speaker 1: do well. Um, So it's um, it's just that time
Speaker 1: for me. I'm not running from a to anything. It's
Speaker 1: just time. Um. But if, as often say, don't let
Speaker 1: the good looks fool you. I'm still a young man.
Speaker 1: But but but I'm getting up there, so so I
Speaker 1: still plan to do some some other things, still exploring
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do when I grow up. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for Thank you so much for being on the show.
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