Cosmic Dawn with Nobel Laureate John Mather
Dec 19, 2025•19 min•Season 10Ep. 1
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Summary
This episode features Nobel Laureate John Mather, a senior astrophysicist at NASA, who shares insights into the James Webb Space Telescope's mission to reveal the universe's early moments, known as 'Cosmic Dawn.' Mather recounts his groundbreaking work on the COBE mission, which earned him a Nobel Prize for mapping the cosmic microwave background radiation. He also details the challenging yet rewarding journey of conceptualizing and developing the James Webb Space Telescope, emphasizing perseverance and teamwork in scientific endeavors.Episode description
The James Webb Space Telescope is doing something astronomers dreamed about for decades: peering into our universe’s early past, a period known as cosmic dawn. A new NASA documentary—also called Cosmic Dawn—chronicles the inside story of Webb’s design, construction, and launch. John Mather, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, proposed the telescope and led its science team for decades. In this interview, Mather talks about his life, his research, and the pre-dawn phone call telling him he had won the Nobel Prize.
Find more at nasa.gov/cosmicdawn
This episode was updated on Dec. 19, 2025, to provide a video version on platforms that support video.
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