If you’ve seen video footage of the James Webb Space Telescope, there’s a good chance you’ve seen it through her lens.
Sophia Roberts is an astrophysics video producer at NASA Goddard in Maryland. She spent years chasing Webb around the country as one of its primary videographers, documenting its construction and crafting stories that explained why Webb was worth building.
“There were countless potential points of failure. It was up to the communications team to acknowledge those risks honestly and help the public understand why the mission still mattered,” she said.
Sophia’s incredible efforts included capturing hours-long timelapses of major operations, filming inside clean rooms (special facilities where space mission components are assembled and tested), and editing these moments together, bringing the public on Webb’s journey with her. Sophia also tracked down the origins of many of the elements used to create Webb. She was even able to visit and film a beryllium mine, home to the rare metal from which Webb’s mirrors originated.
“Seeing this raw, elemental starting point for something as refined as a space telescope was unforgettable,” Sophia said.
What kept her going was her own curiosity, wondering: Why are the mirrors exposed? Why are they gold? What makes beryllium special? Why is the radiator black?
When Webb was transported via boat from the Port of Los Angeles to French Guiana (the telescope was too heavy to travel by bridge and too large for a plane), Sophia was there too! She rented a chase boat to follow Webb and film its journey.
“Chasing Webb down the California coast at full speed felt like an action movie; and it was the last time we’d ever see it on U.S. soil,” she said.
Leading up to the telescope’s launch, the necessary work became more and more intense…and then launch! and it was done. It took a while to shake the “void” that the job had left behind.
Sophia and her team won several Webbys for their work, recognizing them for their social media campaigns, live broadcasts covering the launch, deployment, and first images, as well as a short film called 29 Days on the Edge, diving into the arduous process of unfolding Webb in space over a month after launch.
Sophia is one of the stars of our newest NASA+ documentary, Cosmic Dawn, which takes you behind the scenes of the world’s most powerful space telescope. See the story through her lens: https://www.nasa.gov/cosmicdawn/.
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An aquarium in Japan was closed for renovations, and their resident sunfish got depressed not seeing visitors. So the staff put some uniforms with printed faces against the tank, and it immediately recovered.
That’s a unique and special characteristic of only these particular cuttlefish! Look at how they use two flaps of tissue like “hind legs,” with little protrusions that even act like TOES! No other cephalopod has those at all, and no other cuttlefish use their outer arms like front legs, either!
These are cephalopods evolving into “quadrupeds!!”
They do this to conserve swimming energy while they hunt, which has worked out so well for them they’re pretty poor swimmers, like a bird on its way to flightlessness.
The stripes flowing down their skin make it difficult for their prey to discern which way they’re walking or how fast. Then the “flamboyant cuttlefish” gets close enough to shoot out the two specialized arms cuttlefish use like a chameleon’s tongue 😀
little peets for maximum efficiency stalking and killing :)
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