September 17, 2024
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Book Review: A Bold Profile of the James Webb Space Telescope
in Pillars of CreationRichard Panek approaches JWST
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Pillars of Creation: James Webb Telescope Unlocks Secrets of the Universe
By Richard Panek.
Little, Brown, 2024 ($29)
He already documented the history of the telescope in a book published in 1998. See and believeIn 2005, science writer Richard Panek boldly penned one of the first books about the James Webb Space Telescope. Like any good profiler, Panek gets intimate with his subject, describing each layer of its solar shield as “the length of a tennis ball and the width of a tissue.” Woven into the story is the importance of the public in shaping the mission’s trajectory, from electing the leaders who fund the nation’s space agency to the spread of the Internet as JWST’s first images of other planets went viral.
