NASA Invites Public To Q&A Session With Women Working On Webb Telescope

GREENBELT, Md., Sept. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is inviting the general public to participate in a question and answer session with women working on the agency's next generation of a space-based telescope as part of a Reddit.com event on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. EDT.

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The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The most powerful space telescope ever built, the Webb telescope will provide images of the first galaxies ever formed, and explore planets around distant stars. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Reddit, a popular on-line community where users vote on content they find interesting, has many sub-forums. This particular Q&A session will be take place on the TwoXChromosomes subreddit, which is intended for "thoughtful content - serious or silly - related to gender, and intended for women's perspectives."

The Webb telescope project has gathered women with diverse and interesting jobs to answer questions about their experiences working on a NASA flagship mission. The following women will participate:

-       Allison Barto: Program Manager, previously Webb optical systems engineer

-       Christine Chen: Associate Astronomer, Webb MIRI Instrument Scientist

-       Pam Harris: Senior Resource Analyst

-       Stephanie Hopkins, Project Support Specialist

-       Amy Lo: Webb Alignments Thread Lead

-       Maggie Masetti: Webb social media/website lead

-       Stefanie Milam: Planetary Scientist

-       Nikki Rawlings: Senior Resources Analyst

-       Marcia Rieke: Professor of Astronomy & NIRCam Principal Investigator

-       Desiree Stover: Photographer

-       Amber Straughn: Astrophysicist

-       Shannon Valley: Legislative Affairs Specialist

-       Julie Van Campen: Webb ISIM Deputy Systems Engineer

-       Tracy Vogel: Editor/Writer

Those interested in asking these women questions about their experiences working on the Webb telescope will be able to do so starting at approximately 1 p.m. EDT, when the Q&A thread will be posted. They will answer questions for approximately 2 hours, beginning at 2 p.m. EDT on the Reddit "TwoXChromosomes" subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/

Once created, the Q&A thread will be posted to Webb telescope's various social media presences; see the following for more information:

http://twitter.com/NASAWebbTelescp
https://www.facebook.com/WebbTelescope
http://gplus.to/NASAWebbTelescope

SOURCE NASA