The James Webb Space Telescope with Giovanna Giardino

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the public's imagination in a way we haven't seen in decades - the world has fallen in love with space again. We're delighted to have spoken to Giovanna Giardino - an astronomer and instrument scientist at the European Space Agency - about the telescope's incredible capabilities, what she's excited about so far, and what we might learn - from spectroscopy to cosmic rays to the dawn of time itself.

Giovanna’s currents scientific interests are connected with the astrophysical research that will be enabled by the NIRSpec instrument on board the JWST, with a particular focus to the studies of the formation and evolution of galaxies and the preparation of spectroscopic observations of the atmospheres of extra-solar planets. The JWST is a collaboration between NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency.

You can email us at DataFest@thedatalab.com or keep up to date with DataFest at https://datafest.global and on Twitter @datafest_

Your hosts are Gordon Johnstone - Head of DataFest at The Data Lab, Scotland's innovation centre for data and artificial intelligence hosted by the University of Edinburgh - and Lily Higham, Senior Automation Engineer at the BBC World Service.

Music provided by Post Coal Prom Queen.