Royal Astronomical Society Reverses Course in Policies Toward James Webb Space Telescope

Royal Astronomical Society Reverses Course in Policies Toward James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope was named after a government bureaucrat who served as the second administrator of NASA during the 1960s.

Gender justice opponents of the name argue that Webb persecuted people known or suspected to belong to the LGBTQ+ community.

However, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seriously investigated the allegations and concluded there was no reason for a name change. The charges against Webb were baseless.

Activists persisted and even targeted Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, a famous American astrophysicist and author of some of the most popular children’s books on science. Oluseyi is also the president of the National Society of Black Physicists.

After his research into James Webb’s professional history, Oluseyi wrote a detailed account of his investigation, concluding that Webb’s accusers failed to be rigorous in their research in attempting to tie him to the “Lavender Scare,” which was similar to the Red Scare. But instead of Communists, it targeted homosexuals. His analysis is brilliant and damning to everyone who has mindlessly called for renaming the space telescope.

Now professional astronomical organizations are coming to the same conclusion as NASA and Oluseyi.

The Royal Astronomical Society has reversed its position on scientists mentioning the James Webb Space Telescope by name.

NASA has now published the findings of an investigation into Webb by its official historian.

The [Royal Astronomical] Society welcomes this report, and notes that it finds no evidence that Webb took an active part in the ‘Lavender Scare’, the purges of gay men from the United States federal workforce in the 1940s and 1950s. NASA has also written to our sister organisation, the American Astronomical Society, stating that it will update its process for naming missions and buildings, which we also welcome in line with our earlier call for a more transparent approach.

In the light of this, the RAS will now allow authors submitting scientific papers to its journals to use either James Webb Space Telescope or the acronym JWST to refer to the observatory, should they wish to do so. Authors can spell out the acronym at first mention if they wish.

It’s a win for both science and free speech.

Thank you for defending #science.

— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) January 11, 2023

Meanwhile, scientists have just announced that they’ve detected what might be some of the earliest galaxies to form in the universe via the space telescope.

“This is the first large sample of candidate galaxies beyond the reach of the Hubble Space Telescope,” astronomer Haojing Yan said yesterday at a press conference at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. Yan, who is at the University of Missouri, led the newly published study.

Because the more sensitive JWST can see further into deep space than its predecessor Hubble does, it essentially sees further back in time. In the new catalog of 87 galaxies astronomers have spotted using it, some could date back to about 13.6 billion years ago, just 200 million years after the Big Bang. That’s when the galaxies emitted the light that we’re seeing today—although those systems of stars, gas, and dust would have changed dramatically since then, if they still exist at all.

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