On October 9, 2025, Liberty Science Center hosted Richard Panek, author of Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos, for a new Space Talk and book signing.

The James Webb Telescope (JWST), launched in 2021, still stands as the most powerful telescope ever built and has already transformed our view of the Universe around us. In his book, and during his Space Talk, Richard Panek explores the origins of the telescope, its complex launch and deployment process, and the fascinating new insights it has already provided us on the cosmos.

Using the largest planetarium in the country, we were able to see how the telescope views our solar system, from observing climate dynamics on Mars all the way out to the frigid atmosphere of Uranus and Neptune. In between we were able to see new images released of plumes of icy geysers from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, giving scientists a new way to study the ocean beneath the frozen surface of the moon.

Our journey continued by traveling to LHS 475b, a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system first discovered and further studied by JWST in 2022. From there we explored the birthplaces of stars like the Pillars of Creation. Inside of giant clouds of gas and dust like this, stars are born as gravity pulls gas together. Unlike other telescopes, though, the James Webb Space Telescope is able to see through thick layers of dust to reveal newly forming, and just recently born stars like never before.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

We then left the Milky Way entirely to view spectacular images of galaxies outside our own, from closeup looks at spiral galaxies closer to home all the way out to some of the most distant galaxies ever observed in our Universe, billions of light years away.

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, PHANGS Team, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford); Designer: Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

We want to thank Richard Panek for sharing his work with us in the country’s largest planetarium! We look forward to welcoming back Dr. Charles Liu, astrophysics professor at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island, on November 20, 2025 for his second Space Talk First Light and Beyond: New Views of the Cosmos with the Vera Rubin Observatory: Reserve tickets now!