A group of our senior science students had the incredible opportunity to attend a talk by Dr Michelle Thaller, a renowned astrophysicist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Hosted by the Royal Society Te Apārangi and the International Science Festival, the event offered students a rare chance to hear first-hand from a scientist who has contributed to some of NASA’s most iconic space missions. Dr Thaller shared insights from her 28-year career in space science, inspiring our students with her passion for discovery and her ability to make complex concepts accessible and exciting.

Dr Thaller had a presentation showing how the James Webb telescope was built. The Webb telescope is the largest, most powerful, most complex telescope ever launched into space. Unlike previous telescopes, it does not orbit around the Earth, but rather orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth!  It has allowed astronomers to look back through time, by observing galaxies that are over 13 billion light-years away from us!

The students were inspired and awed by all they saw and heard.