Viewing of first James Webb Space Telescope pictures scheduled at J.F. Webb High

Jun. 18—OXFORD — A prominent Granville County family name will once again be in focus when the first full-color pictures shot by the James Webb Space Telescope are viewed at J.F. Webb High School on July 12.

Although the pictures transmitted by the $10 billion telescope will be viewed at locations around the globe, nowhere but in Oxford, North Carolina, can they be claimed as "family photos."

James E. Webb, the Kennedy-era NASA administrator, grew up in Granville County where his father, J.F. Webb, served as superintendent of schools. Now the telescope bears the name of the son; the school bears the name of the father.

Granville County Public Schools is just one of numerous "hosts" around the nation that will receive pictures transmitted by the Webb Space Telescope on July 12.

Amy Capps Rice, testing and accountability coordinator for GCPS, described plans to give the public an opportunity to view the pictures.

J.F. Webb High School will open at 10 a.m. on July 12, she said. The first images are scheduled to be released at 10:30 a.m.

"We will have several rooms in the building set up streaming the live release of the photos," Rice said. "We will also have some interactive activities for younger individuals provided by science interns from Shaw University related to the space telescope and STEM projects."

At 5:30 p.m., the J.F. Webb media center will livestream a panel of National Aeronautics and Space Administration experts, who will discuss the telescope and the pictures it captured.

The event will be the first time full-color images and spectroscopic data of the James Webb Space Telescope have been seen publicly.

The release of the Webb Space Telescope pictures is the result of a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency. the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

James E. Webb headed NASA from 1961 until 1969, laying the groundwork for Neil Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind," the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was placed in Earth orbit where it could peer into space without the distracting glare created by human activity below.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas Day, 2021, to travel to a position a million miles from earth, far deeper in space than Hubble.

Using infrared technology, it will be able to "see" objects farther away and more clearly than the Hubble Space Telescope, perhaps providing glimpses of the early universe, the evolution of galaxies and the lifecycle of stars.