Scientist For The Webb Telescope Matt Mountain of ‘DEEP SKY’ On The Message He Hopes Viewers Take From The IMAX Documentary

Science is about discovery, about exploring the universe. It’s not just about people in white coats doing funny things; it’s about saying, “Hey, this universe is ours, and we can explore it together. Join us on this journey.”

I had the pleasure of interviewing the Scientist For The Webb Telescope, Matt Mountain.

Dr. Charles Mattias (“Matt”) Mountain was the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland from 2005–2015. Currently he is the president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). He is also the Telescope Scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a member of the Webb Science Working Group, a Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Visiting Professor, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford (U.K.). Matt’s background is in physics and astronomy, and his principal research interests include star formation in galaxies (including our own), advanced infrared instrumentation, and the capabilities of advanced telescopes.

DEEP SKY brings the awe-inspiring images captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope to IMAX® on April 19th 2024— taking audiences on a journey to the beginning of time and space, to never-before-seen cosmic landscapes, and to recently discovered exoplanets, planets around other stars. Directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect) and narrated by Oscar®- nominated actress Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), DEEP SKY follows the high-stakes global mission to build the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and to launch it into orbit a million miles from Earth, in an attempt to answer questions that have haunted us since the beginning of time: Where did we come from? How did the universe begin? Are we alone? Thirteen billion years in the making, DEEP SKY reveals the universe as we have never seen it before, immersing audiences in the stunning pictures beamed back to earth by NASA’s new telescope — and capturing their vast beauty at a scale that can only be experienced on the giant IMAX screen.

Can you share with our readers a little bit about your backstory, Matt?

I was trained in physics and I have a PhD in astrophysics. I went on to build instruments and telescopes. Some of those telescopes were the Gemini telescopes, which are eight-meter telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.

After completing that, NASA asked me if I wanted to be the telescope scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope in the future, back in 2003. It was an advisory role where I was asked to work with the people building the telescope, including scientists, engineers, and companies at NASA, to ensure the telescope would fulfill its science requirements.

I think the reason they asked me is that Gemini had been built as a fully infrared telescope for the ground, and they thought that experience would be useful when trying to build a fully infrared telescope for space. It turns out I had to learn an awful lot. Building in space is considerably more difficult than building on the ground, but it was a very rewarding experience from 2003 until 2023.

How does DEEP SKY contribute to public understanding of space exploration, particularly in light of your role as Telescope Scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope?

I think it shows people why we get so excited about these telescopes. It makes it more accessible. Scientists and engineers also get wowed when you switch on a telescope like the James Webb and see those incredible images flow forward. That’s what I found powerful about Deep Sky. We’re human beings too. And we get just as wowed by the incredible things that we see, even though in the back of our minds, there are calculations, simulations, and modeling we’ve done, yes, of course, but to actually see and experience it is amazing.

We wanted to ensure that sharing that experience with the public was a very important part of why I thought it was worth committing to this documentary. In IMAX, when you see this whole thing spread out in front of you, remember, we are not in space either. Most of the time, we’ve seen images and things like this on screens, but to see it blown up around you like that, even we are brought to tears.

As a leader in astronomical observatories, how do you envision DEEP SKY enhancing public engagement with space science and technology?

We’re hoping that other people will be excited about what telescopes like the James Webb do. It takes 20 years to build a telescope like that. We spend an awful lot of public money on the James Webb. The cost in the U.S. was over 9 billion dollars. That’s a lot of money.

We want to make sure that people feel that it was worth the investment, not only the 9 billion, but also the 20 percent over time. We want people to share the excitement that we see and feel, investing in these one-off science missions to show the universe in a completely new way, to answer questions about where do we come from, where are we going, and are we alone? We hope that people get as excited about those ideas as we are, and that will translate into an interest in the science and engineering involved. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Maybe we can inspire a new generation who are not quite as taken with the 1960s moon landing, but are interested in 21st-century advancements, creating massive images that show us an expanding universe, galaxies forming, or looking for life around other planets. Can we bring the excitement of Star Trek and Star Wars into your living room through a real experience like the James Webb?

What impact do you think DEEP SKY will have on public awareness of the significant research and discoveries facilitated by instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope?

I’m hoping that the impact will be that people understand why people do science, why we explore, why we make discoveries. For millennia, we have sat around and looked at the night sky, pondering the universe’s size, our origins, and whether we are alone in this vast cosmos. Those are the kinds of questions that James Webb was designed to tackle.

By being open and transparent and sharing these questions with everybody, I hope other people will be excited. Science is about discovery, about exploring the universe. It’s not just about people in white coats doing funny things; it’s about saying, “Hey, this universe is ours, and we can explore it together. Join us on this journey.”

Can you share how DEEP SKY aligns with your research interests, especially in star formation and advanced telescopes?

I originally started this because I was an infrared astronomer. I built an infrared telescope in Hawaii and Chile, and I was trying to understand how stars form, not just in our own galaxy, but in other galaxies too. When we started seeing these star formation regions with the James Webb, it was like, “Oh, that’s cool. Can we go deeper?” And IMAX said, “Well, we’d like to go wider and deeper.” I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Seeing this blown up on the IMAX screen gives you a sense of scale. You can zoom around inside these clouds and see where stars and planetary systems are forming. These aren’t simulations; this is what James Webb is seeing. The ability to see it on such a large screen, unlike the smaller screens we typically use, provides a whole new level of context. You can see the entire star formation region on the wall, with the planetary system forming in the middle. It gives you a sense of continuity, that everything is interconnected. We are made of stardust. You can see where we come from, the new elements being made, the stars collapsing, the planetary systems forming. That’s where we came from. We formed in such a cauldron of star formation, as we see in DEEP SKY.

How does DEEP SKY reflect the advancements and impact of cutting-edge observational technology in astronomy, considering your involvement in telescope development?

Astronomy, ever since Galileo lifted up this small handheld device to the sky 400 years ago, then called the telescope, has been technology-limited. So to move forward in astronomy, you always need new technologies. With James Webb, we invented 10 new technologies to achieve our goals. This highlights the deep interconnection between engineering and science.

Modern science relies heavily on state-of-the-art technology. The ability to go really deep and very faint to look for planets around other stars requires cutting-edge technology, the same technology that our engineering friends in big aerospace companies like Northrop Grumman Corporation, British Aerospace Systems, Harris Aerospace, as well as what NASA needs. This gives people a reason to invest in these technologies that aren’t solely focused on military applications. There’s another avenue where you can work on high-tech stuff in industry that can have outwardly positive, completely transparent benefits.

For example, when Northrop Grumman Corporation finished the James Webb, there were cues around the block of people wanting to see it. Most of those people work on classified projects they can’t discuss with their families. However, you can proudly tell everybody that you’re working on the James Webb Space Telescope. We believe it’s an attractor. Aerospace companies see it as an attractor as well. It tells people that we do cool technology that enables groundbreaking science, something to be proud of.

During the unfolding of the telescope, the team was incredibly proud that they had created the world’s largest space telescope. When we saw galaxies in the first engineering image as a background, there was no empty sky, all we could see were galaxies. The fact that engineers and computer scientists working on it got excited about that idea is a very positive thing.

In what ways do you believe DEEP SKY will inspire future generations of astronomers and scientists?

I hope it does more than inspire future generations of astronomers and scientists. I hope it inspires kids to pursue careers in science, engineering, and mathematics, to see that this field is truly exciting. If they excel in their math homework, maybe they could build the next generation of space telescopes that could answer profound questions about our universe.

I also hope it encourages more traditional astronomers to see the potential of using these amazing technologies to push boundaries further, to find planets around solar-type stars and to answer the question for the first time in human history — are we alone? We are on the cusp of a monumental breakthrough. Never before has science and engineering come together like this to enable us to answer such a fundamental question. It requires great technology and great science to merge, and hopefully, this will inspire future generations to pursue careers in science and engineering. We are embarking on an incredible journey.

With your expertise in educational outreach, what educational value does DEEP SKY offer, and how might it spark interest in astronomy and science education?

The tenor of DEEP SKY was to make it accessible, to show that we’re real people working on this. We’re not just people in white coats. You don’t just see people in white coats wandering around with keyboards doing stuff. You see real people getting emotional about their science, sometimes even crying about it. You see people scratching their heads, wondering how things work. And you get to see how exciting science can be. These images are amazing, and the people you’ve seen on the screen are actually the kind of people you could imagine yourself being, and you could be part of that. At least, that’s what we aimed to convey.

This is not some high priesthood. We’re not all wearing funny clothes and robes and doing peculiar things. These are real people doing real things, worrying about everyday stuff, like getting home to the kids, fixing the car, or deciding what to have for dinner tonight. And during the day, they’re working on the world’s largest space telescope.

How can our readers find out more about DEEP SKY and follow your work online?

The film DEEP SKY releases nationwide to IMAX theaters on Friday, April 19th 2024. You can go online and visit the James Webb website that NASA has at webtelescope.org. Or just Google “James Webb Space Telescope,” and you can find hundreds of links to NASA sites. IMAX DEEP SKY has a site you can visit, and there’s a lot of material out there. Everything the James Webb produces is available for free online. Every image we produce, just go to the NASA site, download it, print it out, stick it up on a wall, or use it as your screensaver on your iPhone like I do. It’s free because taxpayer dollars paid for this, and we feel that’s the return. Every James Webb image, spectrum, everything we create is available for everybody to download.

As for following my work, the AURA website talks about us. I’m much more of an administrator these days, so I’m not sure you want to follow my work. But if you want to follow the work of the people that work for me, that’s what I would recommend.

Thank you for your insights and expertise, Matt.