New Revelations Raise Pressure on NASA to Rename the James Webb Space Telescope

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April 07, 2022

Dear Reader,   This week’s top story is about the James Webb Space Telescope—or, rather, about NASA’s internal debate over possibly renaming this $10-billion flagship observatory due to allegations of misconduct by its namesake, the space agency’s former administrator James Webb. Do you think the telescope should get a new name? Feel free to let me know on Twitter. Elsewhere, we have stories about the rise of women in astronomy, a skeptical take on black-hole swarms at the Milky Way’s heart, novel searches for dark matter, our galaxy’s deep history, hidden figures of science and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Astronomy New Revelations Raise Pressure on NASA to Rename the James Webb Space Telescope E-mailed exchanges show the space agency’s internal struggle to address pleas to change the controversial name of its latest, greatest observatory By Adam Mann

Diversity Women Are Creating a New Culture for Astronomy A new generation of scientists are challenging the biased, hierarchical status quo By Ann Finkbeiner

Black Holes Swarms of Black Holes at the Milky Way's Heart? Maybe Not Revisiting a controversial claim, astronomers are laying bare deep uncertainties about our understanding of galactic centers By Lyndie Chiou

Computing Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2: Women Needed Klára Dán von Neumann arrives in Princeton, N.J., just as war breaks out in Europe By Katie Hafner,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Astrophysics Are Telescopes the Only Way to Find Dark Matter? If the invisible matter does not appear in experiments or particle colliders, we may have to find it in space By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Astrophysics The History of the Milky Way Comes into Focus By dating nearly a quarter-million stars, astronomers were able to reconstruct the history of our galaxy—and they say it has lived an “enormously sheltered life.” By Christopher Intagliata | 02:21

Mathematics Math in 3-D: Q&A with Abel Prize Winner Dennis Sullivan His groundbreaking work combined the mathematical field of topology with string theory By Joanna Thompson

Archaeology Space Archaeology Takes Off An International Space Station project is “one small step” for off-world fieldwork By Megan I. Gannon

Pollution The U.S. Must Take Responsibility for Nuclear Fallout in the Marshall Islands Congress needs to fund independent research on radioactive contamination and how to clean it up By Hart Rapaport,Ivana Nikolić Hughes

Animals How Migrating Birds Use Quantum Effects to Navigate New research hints at the biophysical underpinnings of their ability to use Earth’s magnetic field lines to find their way to their breeding and wintering grounds By Peter J. Hore,Henrik Mouritsen

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QUOTE OF THE DAY "It is alluring to want to search for monsters. But I think monsters are a myth that we tell ourselves about how prejudice and discrimination is enacted. We're too focused on a cartoonish idea of what discrimination looks like rather than how discrimination is a multilevel policy decision enacted by many people." Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer and advocate for renaming the James Webb Space Telescope

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Astronomers Spy Swarms of Black Holes at Our Galaxy's Core Anticipated but never before seen, the existence of tens of thousands of these dark objects at the galactic center could have far-reaching implications for astrophysics By Lee Billings | April 2018

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