title: Dennis Rader

text: Marine Hedge, aged 53, was found on May 5, 1985, at East 53rd Street North between North Webb Road and North Greenwich Road in Wichita. Rader killed her on April 27, and took her dead body to his church, Christ Lutheran Church, where he was the president of the church council. There, he photographed her body in various bondage positions. Rader had previously stored black plastic sheets and other materials at the church in preparation for the murder and then later dumped the body in a remote ditch. He had called his plan "Project Cookie".


title: Dennis Rader

text: In 1988, after the murders of three members of the Fager family in Wichita, a letter was received from someone claiming to be the BTK killer, in which the author of the letter denied being the perpetrator of the Fager murders. The author credited the killer with having done "admirable work." It was not proven until 2005 that this letter was, in fact, written by Rader. He is not considered by police to have committed this crime.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Two women Rader stalked in the 1980s and one whom he stalked in the mid-1990s filed restraining orders against him. One of them also changed her address to avoid him.


title: Dennis Rader

text: His final victim, Dolores E. Davis, was found on February 1, 1991, at West 117th Street North and North Meridian Street in Park City. Rader killed her on January 19.


title: Dennis Rader

text: By 2004, the investigation of the BTK Killer was considered a cold case. Then, Rader initiated a series of 11 communications to the local media. This activity led directly to his arrest in February 2005.


title: Dennis Rader

text: In March 2004, "The Wichita Eagle" received a letter from someone using the name Bill Thomas Killman. The author of the letter claimed that he had murdered Vicki Wegerle on September 16, 1986, and enclosed photographs of the crime scene and a photocopy of her driver's license, which had been stolen at the time of the crime. Before this, it had not been definitively established that Wegerle was killed by BTK. DNA collected from under Wegerle's fingernails provided police with previously unknown evidence. They then began DNA testing hundreds of men in an effort to find the serial killer. Altogether, more than 1,300 DNA samples were taken and later destroyed by court order.


title: Dennis Rader

text: In May 2004, television station KAKE in Wichita received a letter with chapter headings for the "BTK Story", fake IDs, and a word puzzle. On June 9, a package was found taped to a stop sign at the corner of First and Kansas roads in Wichita. It had graphic descriptions of the Otero murders and a sketch labeled "The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill." Also enclosed was a chapter list for a proposed book titled "The BTK Story", which mimicked a story written in 1999 by Court TV crime writer David Lohr. Chapter One was titled "A Serial Killer Is Born." In July, a package dropped into the return slot at a public library contained more bizarre material, including the claim that he was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas, earlier that month. This claim was false, and the death was ruled a suicide.


title: Dennis Rader

text: After his capture, Rader admitted in his interrogation that he had been planning to kill again and he had set a date, October 2004, and was stalking his intended victim. In October 2004, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita. It had many cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them, a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr, and a false autobiography with many details about Rader's life. These details were later released to the public. In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the BTK killer. This time, the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It had the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen from the crime scene, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet, and had a plastic bag tied over its head.


title: Dennis Rader

text: In January 2005, Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck at a Home Depot in Wichita, but the box was discarded by the truck's owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader asked what had become of it in a later message. Surveillance tape of the parking lot from that date revealed a distant figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the box in the pickup. In February 2005, more postcards were sent to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location was found to contain another bound doll.


title: Dennis Rader

text: In his letters to police, Rader asked if his writings, if put on a floppy disk, could be traced or not. The police answered his question in a newspaper ad posted in "The Wichita Eagle", saying it would be safe to use the disk. On February 16, 2005, Rader sent a purple 1.44-Megabyte Memorex floppy disk to Fox affiliate KSAS-TV in Wichita. Also enclosed were a letter, a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion, and a photocopy of the cover of "Rules of Prey", a 1989 novel by John Sandford about a serial killer.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Police found metadata embedded in a deleted Microsoft Word document that was, unknown to Rader, still stored on the floppy disk. The metadata contained the words "Christ Lutheran Church", and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis". An Internet search determined that a "Dennis Rader" was president of the church council. When investigators drove by Rader's house, a black Jeep Cherokee—the type of vehicle seen in the Home Depot surveillance footage—was parked outside.


title: Dennis Rader

text: This was strong circumstantial evidence against Rader, but they needed more direct evidence to detain him.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Police obtained a warrant to test a pap smear taken from Rader's daughter at the Kansas State University medical clinic. DNA tests showed a "familial match" between the pap smear and the sample from Wegerle's fingernails; this indicated that the killer was closely related to Rader's daughter, and combined with the other evidence was enough for police to arrest Rader.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Rader was arrested while driving near his home in Park City shortly after noon on February 25, 2005. An officer asked, "Mr. Rader, do you know why you're going downtown?" Rader replied, "Oh, I have suspicions why." Wichita Police, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and ATF agents searched Rader's home and vehicle, seizing evidence including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed, and a cylindrical container. The church he attended, his office at City Hall, and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched. At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announced, "the bottom line: BTK is arrested."


title: Dennis Rader

text: On February 28, 2005, Rader was charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. Soon after his arrest, the Associated Press cited an anonymous source alleging that Rader had confessed to other murders in addition to those with which he had been connected. However, the Sedgwick County district attorney denied the story, yet refused to say whether Rader had made any confessions, or if investigators were looking into Rader's possible involvement in more unsolved killings. On March 5, news sources claimed to have verified by multiple sources that Rader had confessed to the 10 murders he was charged with, but no other ones.


title: Dennis Rader

text: On March 1, Rader's bail was set at US$10 million, and a public defender was appointed to represent him. On May 3, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Rader's behalf, as Rader did not speak at his arraignment; however, on June 27, the scheduled trial date, Rader changed his plea to guilty. He described the murders in detail, and made no apologies.


title: Dennis Rader

text: At Rader's August 18 sentencing, victims' families made statements, after which Rader apologized in a rambling 30-minute monologue that the prosecutor likened to an Academy Awards acceptance speech. His statement has been described as an example of an often-observed phenomenon among psychopaths: their inability to understand the emotional content of language. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, with a minimum of 175 years. Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders. On August 19, he was moved to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Rader talked about innocuous topics such as the weather during the 40-minute drive to El Dorado, but began to cry when the victims' families' statements from the court proceedings came on the radio. He is now in solitary confinement for his protection (with one hour of exercise per day, and showers three times per week). This will likely continue indefinitely. Beginning in 2006, he was allowed access to television and radio, to read magazines, and other privileges for good behavior.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Following Rader's arrest, police in Wichita, Park City and several surrounding cities looked into unsolved cases with the cooperation of the state police and the FBI. They particularly focused on cases after 1994, when the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas. Police in surrounding states such as Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas also investigated cold cases that fit Rader's pattern to some extent. The FBI and local jurisdictions at Rader's former duty stations checked into unsolved cases during Rader's time in the service.


title: Dennis Rader

text: After exhaustive investigations, none of these agencies discovered any further murders attributable to Rader, confirming early suspicions that Rader would have taken credit for any additional murders that he had committed. The ten known murders are now believed to be the only murders for which Rader is actually responsible, although Wichita police are fairly certain that Rader stalked and researched a number of other potential victims. This includes one person who was saved when Rader called off his planned attack upon his arrival near the target's home due to the presence of construction and road crews nearby. Rader stated in his police interview that "there are a lot of lucky people", meaning that he had thought about and developed various levels of murder plans for other victims.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Massachusetts psychologist Robert Mendoza was hired by Rader's court-appointed public defenders to conduct a psychological evaluation of Rader, and determine if an insanity-based defense might be viable. He conducted an interview after Rader had pleaded guilty on June 27, 2005. Mendoza diagnosed Rader with narcissistic, antisocial and obsessive–compulsive personality disorders: He observed that Rader has a grandiose sense of self, a belief that he is "special" and therefore entitled to special treatment; a pathological need for attention and admiration; a preoccupation with maintaining rigid order and structure; and a complete lack of empathy.


title: Dennis Rader

text: The videotape of Mendoza's interview ended up being used on NBC's "Dateline". NBC claimed Rader knew the interview might be televised, but this was false according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement. On October 25, 2005, the Kansas attorney general filed a petition to sue Mendoza and Tali Waters, co-owners of Cambridge Forensic Consultants, LLC, for breach of contract, claiming that they intended to benefit financially from the use of information obtained through involvement in Rader's defense. On May 10, 2007, Mendoza settled the case for US$30,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.


title: Dennis Rader

text: Forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland compiled "Confession of a Serial Killer" from her five-year correspondence with Rader.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This will enable investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's design and development and partnered with two main agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and arrived at the Sun–Earth L Lagrange point in January 2022. The first JWST image was released to the public via a press conference on 11 July 2022.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST's primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium, which combined create a mirror, compared with Hubble's . This gives JWST a light-collecting area of about 25 square meters, about six times that of Hubble. Unlike Hubble, which observes in the near ultraviolet and visible (0.1 to 0.8 μm), and near infrared (0.8–2.5 μm) spectra, JWST observes in a lower frequency range, from long-wavelength visible light (red) through mid-infrared (0.6–28.3 μm). The telescope must be kept extremely cold, below , such that the infrared light emitted by the telescope itself does not interfere with the collected light. It is deployed in a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth L Lagrange point, about from Earth, where its five-layer sunshield protects it from warming by the Sun, Earth, and Moon.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Initial designs for the telescope, then named the Next Generation Space Telescope, began in 1996. Two concept studies were commissioned in 1999, for a potential launch in 2007 and a US$1 billion budget. The program was plagued with enormous cost overruns and delays; a major redesign in 2005 led to the current approach, with construction completed in 2016 at a total cost of US$10 billion. The high-stakes nature of the launch and the telescope's complexity were remarked upon by the media, scientists, and engineers.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The James Webb Space Telescope has a mass that is about half of Hubble Space Telescope's mass. The JWST has a -diameter gold-coated beryllium primary mirror made up of 18 separate hexagonal mirrors. The mirror has a polished area of , of which is obscured by the secondary support struts, giving a total collecting area of . This is over six times larger than the collecting area of Hubble's diameter mirror, which has a collecting area of . The mirror has a gold coating to provide infrared reflectivity and this is covered by a thin layer of glass for durability.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST is designed primarily for near-infrared astronomy, but can also see orange and red visible light, as well as the mid-infrared region, depending on the instrument. It can detect objects up to 100 times fainter than Hubble can, and objects much earlier in the history of the universe, back to redshift z≈20 (about 180 million years cosmic time after the Big Bang). For comparison, the earliest stars are thought to have formed between z≈30 and z≈20 (100–180 million years cosmic time), and the first galaxies may have formed around redshift z≈15 (about 270 million years cosmic time). Hubble is unable to see further back than very early reionization at about z≈11.1 (galaxy GN-z11, 400 million years cosmic time).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Ground-based telescopes must look through Earth's atmosphere, which is opaque in many infrared bands (see figure at right). Even where the atmosphere is transparent, many of the target chemical compounds, such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane, also exist in the Earth's atmosphere, vastly complicating analysis. Existing space telescopes such as Hubble cannot study these bands since their mirrors are insufficiently cool (the Hubble mirror is maintained at about ) which means that the telescope itself radiates strongly in the relevant infrared bands.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST can also observe objects in the Solar System at an angle of more than 85° from the Sun and having an apparent angular rate of motion less than 0.03 arc seconds per second. This includes Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, their satellites, and comets, asteroids and minor planets at or beyond the orbit of Mars. JWST has the near-IR and mid-IR sensitivity to be able to observe virtually all known Kuiper Belt Objects. In addition, it can observe opportunistic and unplanned targets within 48 hours of a decision to do so, such as supernovae and gamma ray bursts.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST operates in a halo orbit, circling around a point in space known as the Sun–Earth L Lagrange point, approximately beyond Earth's orbit around the Sun. Its actual position varies between about from L as it orbits, keeping it out of both Earth and Moon's shadow. By way of comparison, Hubble orbits above Earth's surface, and the Moon is roughly from Earth. Objects near this Sun–Earth point can orbit the Sun in synchrony with the Earth, allowing the telescope to remain at a roughly constant distance with continuous orientation of its sunshield and equipment bus toward the Sun, Earth and Moon. Combined with its wide shadow-avoiding orbit, the telescope can simultaneously block incoming heat and light from all three of these bodies and avoid even the smallest changes of temperature from Earth and Moon shadows that would affect the structure, yet still maintain uninterrupted solar power and Earth communications on its sun-facing side. This arrangement keeps the temperature of the spacecraft constant and below the necessary for faint infrared observations.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: To make observations in the infrared spectrum, JWST must be kept under ; otherwise, infrared radiation from the telescope itself would overwhelm its instruments. Its large sunshield blocks light and heat from the Sun, Earth, and Moon, and its position near the Sun–Earth keeps all three bodies on the same side of the spacecraft at all times. Its halo orbit around the L point avoids the shadow of the Earth and Moon, maintaining a constant environment for the sunshield and solar arrays. The resulting stable temperature for the structures on the dark side is critical to maintaining precise alignment of the primary mirror segments.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The five-layer sunshield, each layer as thin as a human hair, is made of Kapton E film, coated with aluminum on both sides and a layer of doped silicon on the Sun-facing side of the two hottest layers to reflect the Sun's heat back into space. Accidental tears of the delicate film structure during deployment testing in 2018 led to further delays to the telescope.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The sunshield was designed to be folded twelve times (concertina style) so that it would fit within the Ariane 5 rocket's payload fairing, which is in diameter, and long. The shield's fully deployed dimensions were planned as .


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Keeping within the shadow of the sunshield limits the field of regard of JWST at any given time. The telescope can see 40 percent of the sky from any one position, but can see all of the sky over a period of six months.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST's primary mirror is a -diameter gold-coated beryllium reflector with a collecting area of . If it had been designed as a single large mirror, it would have been too large for existing launch vehicles. The mirror is therefore composed of 18 hexagonal segments (a technique pioneered by Guido Horn d'Arturo), which unfolded after the telescope was launched. Image plane wavefront sensing through phase retrieval is used to position the mirror segments in the correct location using very precise micro-motors. Subsequent to this initial configuration, they only need occasional updates every few days to retain optimal focus. This is unlike terrestrial telescopes, for example the Keck telescopes, which continually adjust their mirror segments using active optics to overcome the effects of gravitational and wind loading. The Webb telescope uses 132 small motors (called actuators) to position and occasionally adjust the optics. The actuators can position the mirror with 10 nanometer accuracy.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST's optical design is a three-mirror anastigmat, which makes use of curved secondary and tertiary mirrors to deliver images that are free from optical aberrations over a wide field. The secondary mirror is in diameter. In addition, there is a fine steering mirror which can adjust its position many times per second to provide image stabilization. Photographs taken by the JWST have six spikes plus two fainter ones due to the spider supporting the secondary mirror.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is a framework that provides electrical power, computing resources, cooling capability as well as structural stability to the Webb telescope. It is made with bonded graphite-epoxy composite attached to the underside of Webb's telescope structure. The ISIM holds the four science instruments and a guide camera.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: NIRCam and MIRI feature starlight-blocking coronagraphs for observation of faint targets such as extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks very close to bright stars.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The spacecraft bus is the primary support component of the James Webb Space Telescope, hosting a multitude of computing, communication, electric power, propulsion, and structural parts. Along with the sunshield, it forms the spacecraft element of the space telescope. The spacecraft bus is on the Sun-facing "warm" side of the sunshield and operates at a temperature of about .


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The structure of the spacecraft bus has a mass of , and must support the space telescope. It is made primarily of graphite composite material. It was assembled in California, assembly was completed in 2015, and then it had to be integrated with the rest of the space telescope leading up to its 2021 launch. The spacecraft bus can rotate the telescope with a pointing precision of one arcsecond, and isolates vibration down to two milliarcseconds.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Webb has two pairs of rocket engines (one pair for redundancy) to make course corrections on the way to L and for station keepingmaintaining the correct position in the halo orbit. Eight smaller thrusters are used for attitude controlthe correct pointing of the spacecraft. The engines use hydrazine fuel ( at launch) and dinitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer ( at launch).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST is not intended to be serviced in space. A crewed mission to repair or upgrade the observatory, as was done for Hubble, would not currently be possible, and according to NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, despite best efforts, an uncrewed remote mission was found to be beyond current technology at the time JWST was designed. During the long JWST testing period, NASA officials referred to the idea of a servicing mission, but no plans were announced. Since the successful launch, NASA has stated that nevertheless limited accommodation was made to facilitate future servicing missions. These accommodations included precise guidance markers in the form of crosses on the surface of JWST, for use by remote servicing missions, as well as refillable fuel tanks, removable heat protectors, and accessible attachment points.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Ilana Dashevsky and Vicki Balzano write that JWST uses modified version of JavaScript, called Nombas ScriptEase 5.00e, for its operations; it follows the ECMAScript standard and "allows for a modular design flow, where on-board scripts call lower-level scripts that are defined as functions". "The JWST science operations will be driven by ASCII (instead of binary command blocks) on-board scripts, written in a customized version of JavaScript. The script interpreter is run by the flight software, which is written in C++. The flight software operates the spacecraft and the science instruments."


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The desire for a large infrared space telescope traces back decades. In the United States, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (later called the Spitzer Space Telescope) was planned while the Space Shuttle was in development, and the potential for infrared astronomy was acknowledged at that time. Unlike ground telescopes, space observatories were free from atmospheric absorption of infrared light. Space observatories opened up a whole "new sky" for astronomers.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: However, infrared telescopes have a disadvantage: they need to stay extremely cold, and the longer the wavelength of infrared, the colder they need to be. If not, the background heat of the device itself overwhelms the detectors, making it effectively blind. This can be overcome by careful spacecraft design, in particular by placing the telescope in a dewar with an extremely cold substance, such as liquid helium. The coolant will slowly vaporize, limiting the lifetime of the instrument from as short as a few months to a few years at most.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In some cases, it is possible to maintain a temperature low enough through the design of the spacecraft to enable near-infrared observations without a supply of coolant, such as the extended missions of Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which operated at reduced capacity after coolant depletion. Another example is Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) instrument, which started out using a block of nitrogen ice that depleted after a couple of years, but was then replaced during the STS-109 servicing mission with a cryocooler that worked continuously. The James Webb Space Telescope is designed to cool itself without a dewar, using a combination of sunshields and radiators, with the mid-infrared instrument using an additional cryocooler.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST's delays and cost increases have been compared to those of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. When Hubble formally started in 1972, it had an estimated development cost of US$300 million (or about US$1 billion in 2006 constant dollars), but by the time it was sent into orbit in 1990, the cost was about four times that. In addition, new instruments and servicing missions increased the cost to at least US$9 billion by 2006.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Discussions of a Hubble follow-on started in the 1980s, but serious planning began in the early 1990s. The "Hi-Z" telescope concept was developed between 1989 and 1994: a fully baffled aperture infrared telescope that would recede to an orbit at 3 Astronomical unit (AU). This distant orbit would have benefited from reduced light noise from zodiacal dust. Other early plans called for a NEXUS precursor telescope mission.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Correcting the flawed optics of the Hubble Space Telescope in its first years played a significant role in the birth of the JWST. In 1993, NASA conducted STS-61, the Space Shuttle mission that replaced HST's camera and a installed a retrofit for its imaging spectrograph to compensate for the spherical aberration in its primary mirror.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The HST & Beyond Committee was formed in 1994 "to study possible missions and programs for optical-ultraviolet astronomy in space for the first decades of the 21st century." Emboldened by HST's success, its 1996 report explored the concept of a larger and much colder, infrared-sensitive telescope that could reach back in cosmic time to the birth of the first galaxies. This high-priority science goal was beyond the HST's capability because, as a warm telescope, it is blinded by infrared emission from its own optical system. In addition to recommendations to extend the HST mission to 2005 and to develop technologies for finding planets around other stars, NASA embraced the chief recommendation of HST & Beyond for a large, cold space telescope (radiatively cooled far below 0 °C), and began the planning process for the future JWST.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Preparation for the 2000 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (a literature review produced by the United States National Research Council that includes identifying research priorities and making recommendations for the upcoming decade) included further development of the scientific program for what became known as the Next Generation Space Telescope, and advancements in relevant technologies by NASA. As it matured, studying the birth of galaxies in the young universe, and searching for planets around other starsthe prime goals coalesced as "Origins" by HST & Beyond became prominent.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: An administrator of NASA, Dan Goldin, coined the phrase "faster, better, cheaper", and opted for the next big paradigm shift for astronomy, namely, breaking the barrier of a single mirror. That meant going from "eliminate moving parts" to "learn to live with moving parts" (i.e. segmented optics). With the goal to reduce mass density tenfold, silicon carbide with a very thin layer of glass on top was first looked at, but beryllium was selected at the end.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The mid-1990s era of "faster, better, cheaper" produced the NGST concept, with an aperture to be flown to , roughly estimated to cost US$500 million. In 1997, NASA worked with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, and TRW to conduct technical requirement and cost studies of the three different concepts, and in 1999 selected Lockheed Martin and TRW for preliminary concept studies. Launch was at that time planned for 2007, but the launch date was pushed back many times (see table further down).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In 2002, the project was renamed after NASA's second administrator (1961–1968), James E. Webb (1906–1992). Webb led the agency during the Apollo program and established scientific research as a core NASA activity.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In 2003, NASA awarded TRW the US$824.8 million prime contract for JWST. The design called for a de-scoped primary mirror and a launch date of 2010. Later that year, TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman in a hostile bid and became Northrop Grumman Space Technology.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Development was managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with John C. Mather as its project scientist. The primary contractor was Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, responsible for developing and building the spacecraft element, which included the satellite bus, sunshield, Deployable Tower Assembly (DTA) which connects the Optical Telescope Element to the spacecraft bus, and the Mid Boom Assembly (MBA) which helps to deploy the large sunshields on orbit, while Ball Aerospace & Technologies has been subcontracted to develop and build the OTE itself, and the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Cost growth revealed in spring 2005 led to an August 2005 re-planning. The primary technical outcomes of the re-planning were significant changes in the integration and test plans, a 22-month launch delay (from 2011 to 2013), and elimination of system-level testing for observatory modes at wavelength shorter than 1.7 μm. Other major features of the observatory were unchanged. Following the re-planning, the project was independently reviewed in April 2006.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In the 2005 re-plan, the life-cycle cost of the project was estimated at US$4.5 billion. This comprised approximately US$3.5 billion for design, development, launch and commissioning, and approximately US$1.0 billion for ten years of operations. The ESA agreed in 2004 to contributing about €300 million, including the launch. The Canadian Space Agency pledged CA$39 million in 2007 and in 2012 delivered its contributions in equipment to point the telescope and detect atmospheric conditions on distant planets.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In January 2007, nine of the ten technology development items in the project successfully passed a Non-Advocate Review. These technologies were deemed sufficiently mature to retire significant risks in the project. The remaining technology development item (the MIRI cryocooler) completed its technology maturation milestone in April 2007. This technology review represented the beginning step in the process that ultimately moved the project into its detailed design phase (Phase C). By May 2007, costs were still on target. In March 2008, the project successfully completed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR). In April 2008, the project passed the Non-Advocate Review. Other passed reviews include the Integrated Science Instrument Module review in March 2009, the Optical Telescope Element review completed in October 2009, and the Sunshield review completed in January 2010.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In April 2010, the telescope passed the technical portion of its Mission Critical Design Review (MCDR). Passing the MCDR signified the integrated observatory can meet all science and engineering requirements for its mission. The MCDR encompassed all previous design reviews. The project schedule underwent review during the months following the MCDR, in a process called the Independent Comprehensive Review Panel, which led to a re-plan of the mission aiming for a 2015 launch, but as late as 2018. By 2010, cost over-runs were impacting other projects, though JWST itself remained on schedule.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Assembly of the hexagonal segments of the primary mirror, which was done via robotic arm, began in November 2015 and was completed on 3 February 2016. The secondary mirror was installed on 3 March 2016. Final construction of the Webb telescope was completed in November 2016, after which extensive testing procedures began.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In March 2018, NASA delayed JWST's launch an additional 2 years to May 2020 after the telescope's sunshield ripped during a practice deployment and the sunshield's cables did not sufficiently tighten. In June 2018, NASA delayed the launch by an additional 10 months to March 2021, based on the assessment of the independent review board convened after the failed March 2018 test deployment. The review identified that JWST launch and deployment had 344 potential single-point failures – tasks that had no alternative or means of recovery if unsuccessful, and therefore had to succeed for the telescope to work. In August 2019, the mechanical integration of the telescope was completed, something that was scheduled to be done 12 years before in 2007.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: After construction was completed, JWST underwent final tests at a Northrop Grumman factory in Redondo Beach, California. A ship carrying the telescope left California on 26 September 2021, passed through the Panama Canal, and arrived in French Guiana on 12 October 2021.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: NASA's lifetime cost for the project is expected to be US$9.7 billion, of which US$8.8 billion was spent on spacecraft design and development and US$861 million is planned to support five years of mission operations. Representatives from ESA and CSA stated their project contributions amount to approximately €700 million and CA$200 million, respectively.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: A study in 1984 by the Space Science Board estimated that to build a next-generation infrared observatory in orbit would cost US$4 billion (US$7B in 2006 dollars, or $10B in 2020 dollars). While this came close to the final cost of JWST, the first NASA design considered in the late 1990s was more modest, aiming for a $1 billion price tag over 10 years of construction. Over time this design expanded, added funding for contingencies, and had scheduling delays.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: By 2008, when the project entered preliminary design review and was formally confirmed for construction, over US$1 billion had already been spent on developing the telescope, and the total budget was estimated at about US$5 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ). In summer 2010, the mission passed its Critical Design Review (CDR) with excellent grades on all technical matters, but schedule and cost slips at that time prompted Maryland U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski to call for external review of the project. The Independent Comprehensive Review Panel (ICRP) chaired by J. Casani (JPL) found that the earliest possible launch date was in late 2015 at an extra cost of US$1.5 billion (for a total of US$6.5 billion). They also pointed out that this would have required extra funding in FY2011 and FY2012 and that any later launch date would lead to a higher total cost.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 6 July 2011, the United States House of Representatives' appropriations committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science moved to cancel the James Webb project by proposing an FY2012 budget that removed US$1.9 billion from NASA's overall budget, of which roughly one quarter was for JWST. US$3 billion had been spent and 75% of its hardware was in production. This budget proposal was approved by subcommittee vote the following day. The committee charged that the project was "billions of dollars over budget and plagued by poor management". In response, the American Astronomical Society issued a statement in support of JWST, as did Senator Mikulski. A number of editorials supporting JWST appeared in the international press during 2011 as well. In November 2011, Congress reversed plans to cancel JWST and instead capped additional funding to complete the project at US$8 billion.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: While similar issues had affected other major NASA projects such as the Hubble telescope, some scientists expressed concerns about growing costs and schedule delays for the Webb telescope, worrying that its budget might be competing with those of other space science programs. A 2010 "Nature" article described JWST as "the telescope that ate astronomy". NASA continued to defend the budget and timeline of the program to Congress.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In 2018, Gregory L. Robinson was appointed as the new director of the Webb program. Robinson was credited with raising the program's schedule efficiency (how many measures were completed on time) from 50% to 95%. For his role in improving the performance of the Webb program, Robinsons's supervisor, Thomas Zurbuchen, called him "the most effective leader of a mission I have ever seen in the history of NASA." In July 2022, after Webb's commissioning process was complete and it began transmitting its first data, Robinson retired following a 33-year career at NASA.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 27 March 2018, NASA pushed back the launch to May 2020 or later, with a final cost estimate to come after a new launch window was determined with the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2019, its mission cost cap was increased by US$800 million. After launch windows were paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JWST was finally launched at the end of 2021, with a total budget of just under US$10 billion.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: NASA, ESA and CSA have collaborated on the telescope since 1996. ESA's participation in construction and launch was approved by its members in 2003 and an agreement was signed between ESA and NASA in 2007. In exchange for full partnership, representation and access to the observatory for its astronomers, ESA is providing the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher, and manpower to support operations. The CSA provided the Fine Guidance Sensor and the Near-Infrared Imager Slitless Spectrograph and manpower to support operations.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Several thousand scientists, engineers, and technicians spanning 15 countries have contributed to the build, test and integration of the JWST. A total of 258 companies, government agencies, and academic institutions participated in the pre-launch project; 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European countries (including 21 from the U.K., 16 from France, 12 from Germany and 7 international), and 12 from Canada. Other countries as NASA partners, such as Australia, were involved in post-launch operation.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In 2002, NASA administrator (2001–2004) Sean O'Keefe made the decision to name the telescope after James E. Webb, the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and much of the Apollo programs.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In 2015, concerns were raised around Webb's possible role in the lavender scare, the mid-20th-century persecution by the U.S. government targeting homosexuals in federal employment. In 2022, NASA released a report of an investigation and accompanying evidence, based on an examination of more than 50,000 documents. The report found there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Webb either in his time in the State Department or at NASA. As a result, NASA did not rename the telescope.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: These goals can be accomplished more effectively by observation in near-infrared light rather than light in the visible part of the spectrum. For this reason, JWST's instruments will not measure visible or ultraviolet light like the Hubble Telescope, but will have a much greater capacity to perform infrared astronomy. JWST will be sensitive to a range of wavelengths from 0.6 to 28 μm (corresponding respectively to orange light and deep infrared radiation at about ).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST may be used to gather information on the dimming light of star KIC 8462852, which was discovered in 2015, and has some abnormal light-curve properties.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Additionally, it will be able to tell if an exoplanet has methane in its atmosphere, allowing astronomers to determine whether or not the methane is a biosignature.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST orbits the Sun near the second Lagrange point () of the Sun–Earth system, which is farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit, and about four times farther than the Moon's orbit. Normally an object circling the Sun farther out than Earth would take longer than one year to complete its orbit. But near the point, the combined gravitational pull of the Earth and the Sun allow a spacecraft to orbit the Sun in the same time that it takes the Earth. Staying close to Earth allows data rates to be much faster for a given size of antenna.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The telescope circles about the Sun–Earth point in a halo orbit, which is inclined with respect to the ecliptic, has a radius varying between about and , and takes about half a year to complete. Since is just an equilibrium point with no gravitational pull, a halo orbit is not an orbit in the usual sense: the spacecraft is actually in orbit around the Sun, and the halo orbit can be thought of as controlled drifting to remain in the vicinity of the point. This requires some station-keeping: around per year from the total ∆"v" budget of . Two sets of thrusters constitute the observatory's propulsion system. Because the thrusters are located solely on the Sun-facing side of the observatory, all station-keeping operations are designed to slightly undershoot the required amount of thrust in order to avoid pushing the JWST beyond the semi-stable point, a situation which would be unrecoverable. Randy Kimble, the Integration and Test Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, compared the precise station-keeping of the JWST to "Sisyphus [...] rolling this rock up the gentle slope near the top of the hill – we never want it to roll over the crest and get away from him".


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST is the formal successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and since its primary emphasis is on infrared astronomy, it is also a successor to the Spitzer Space Telescope. JWST will far surpass both those telescopes, being able to see many more and much older stars and galaxies. Observing in the infrared spectrum is a key technique for achieving this, because of cosmological redshift, and because it better penetrates obscuring dust and gas. This allows observation of dimmer, cooler objects. Since water vapor and carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere strongly absorbs most infrared, ground-based infrared astronomy is limited to narrow wavelength ranges where the atmosphere absorbs less strongly. Additionally, the atmosphere itself radiates in the infrared spectrum, often overwhelming light from the object being observed. This makes a space telescope preferable for infrared observation.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The more distant an object is, the younger it appears; its light has taken longer to reach human observers. Because the universe is expanding, as the light travels it becomes red-shifted, and objects at extreme distances are therefore easier to see if viewed in the infrared. JWST's infrared capabilities are expected to let it see back in time to the first galaxies forming just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Infrared radiation can pass more freely through regions of cosmic dust that scatter visible light. Observations in infrared allow the study of objects and regions of space which would be obscured by gas and dust in the visible spectrum, such as the molecular clouds where stars are born, the circumstellar disks that give rise to planets, and the cores of active galaxies.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Relatively cool objects (temperatures less than several thousand degrees) emit their radiation primarily in the infrared, as described by Planck's law. As a result, most objects that are cooler than stars are better studied in the infrared. This includes the clouds of the interstellar medium, brown dwarfs, planets both in our own and other solar systems, comets, and Kuiper belt objects that will be observed with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Some of the missions in infrared astronomy that impacted JWST development were Spitzer and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Spitzer showed the importance of mid-infrared, which is helpful for tasks such as observing dust disks around stars. Also, the WMAP probe showed the universe was "lit up" at redshift 17, further underscoring the importance of the mid-infrared. Both these missions were launched in the early 2000s, in time to influence JWST development.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University, was selected in 2003 as the Science and Operations Center (S&OC) for JWST with an initial budget of US$162.2 million intended to support operations through the first year after launch. In this capacity, STScI was to be responsible for the scientific operation of the telescope and delivery of data products to the astronomical community. Data was to be transmitted from JWST to the ground via the NASA Deep Space Network, processed and calibrated at STScI, and then distributed online to astronomers worldwide. Similar to how Hubble is operated, anyone, anywhere in the world, will be allowed to submit proposals for observations. Each year several committees of astronomers will peer review the submitted proposals to select the projects to observe in the coming year. The authors of the chosen proposals will typically have one year of private access to the new observations, after which the data will become publicly available for download by anyone from the online archive at STScI.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The bandwidth and digital throughput of the satellite is designed to operate at 458 gigabits of data per day for the length of the mission (equivalent to a sustained rate of 5.42 Mbps). Most of the data processing on the telescope is done by conventional single-board computers. The digitization of the analog data from the instruments is performed by the custom SIDECAR ASIC (System for Image Digitization, Enhancement, Control And Retrieval Application Specific Integrated Circuit). NASA stated that the SIDECAR ASIC will include all the functions of a instrument box in a package and consume only 11 milliwatts of power. Since this conversion must be done close to the detectors, on the cold side of the telescope, the low power dissipation is crucial for maintaining the low temperature required for optimal operation of JWST.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The C3 mirror segment suffered a micrometeoroid strike from a large dust mote-sized particle between 23 and 25 May, the fifth and largest strike since launch, reported 8 June 2022, which required engineers to compensate for the strike using a mirror actuator. Despite the strike, a NASA characterization report states "all JWST observing modes have been reviewed and confirmed to be ready for science use" as of July 10, 2022.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The launch (designated Ariane flight VA256) took place as scheduled at 12:20 UTC on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket that lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The telescope was confirmed to be receiving power, starting a two-week deployment phase of its parts and traveling to its target destination. The telescope was released from the upper stage 27 minutes 7 seconds after launch, beginning a 30-day adjustment to place the telescope in a Lissajous orbit around the Lagrange point.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The telescope was launched with slightly less speed than needed to reach its final orbit, and slowed down as it travelled away from Earth, in order to reach L with only the velocity needed to enter its orbit there. The telescope reached L on 24 January 2022. The flight included three planned course corrections to adjust its speed and direction. This is because the observatory could recover from underthrust (going too slowly), but could not recover from overthrust (going too fast) – to protect highly temperature-sensitive instruments, the sunshield must remain between telescope and Sun, so the spacecraft could not turn around or use its thrusters to slow down.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST was released from the rocket upper stage 27 minutes after a flawless launch. Starting 31 minutes after launch, and continuing for about 13 days, JWST began the process of deploying its solar array, antenna, sunshield, and mirrors. Nearly all deployment actions are commanded by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, except for two early automatic steps, solar panel unfolding and communication antenna deployment. The mission was designed to give ground controllers flexibility to change or modify the deployment sequence in case of problems.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: At 7:50p.m. EST on 25 December 2021, about 12 hours after launch, the telescope's pair of primary rockets began firing for 65 minutes to make the first of three planned mid-course corrections. On day two, the high gain communication antenna deployed automatically.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 27 December 2021, at 60 hours after launch, Webb's rockets fired for nine minutes and 27 seconds to make the second of three mid-course corrections for the telescope to arrive at its L destination. On 28 December 2021, three days after launch, mission controllers began the multi-day deployment of Webb's all-important sunshield. On 30 December 2021, controllers successfully completed two more steps in unpacking the observatory. First, commands deployed the aft "momentum flap", a device that provides balance against solar pressure on the sunshield, saving fuel by reducing the need for thruster firing to maintain Webb's orientation.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 31 December 2021, the ground team extended the two telescoping "mid booms" from the left and right sides of the observatory. The left side deployed in 3 hours and 19 minutes; the right side took 3 hours and 42 minutes. Commands to separate and tension the membranes followed between 3 and 4 January and were successful. On 5 January 2022, mission control successfully deployed the telescope's secondary mirror, which locked itself into place to a tolerance of about one and a half millimeters.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The last step of structural deployment was to unfold the wings of the primary mirror. Each panel consists of three primary mirror segments and had to be folded to allow the space telescope to be installed in the fairing of the Ariane rocket for the launch of the telescope. On 7 January 2022, NASA deployed and locked in place the port-side wing, and on 8 January, the starboard-side mirror wing. This successfully completed the structural deployment of the observatory.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 24 January 2022, at 2:00p.m. EST, nearly a month after launch, a third and final course correction took place, inserting JWST into its planned halo orbit around the Sun–Earth L point.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The MIRI instrument has four observing modes—imaging, low-resolution spectroscopy, medium-resolution spectroscopy and coronagraphic imaging. “ On Aug. 24, a mechanism that supports medium-resolution spectroscopy (MRS), exhibited what appears to be increased friction during setup for a science observation. This mechanism is a grating wheel that allows scientists to select between short, medium, and longer wavelengths when making observations using the MRS mode,” said NASA in a press statement.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 12 January 2022, while still in transit, mirror alignment began. The primary mirror segments and secondary mirror were moved away from their protective launch positions. This took about 10 days, because the 132 actuator motors are designed to fine-tune the mirror positions at microscopic accuracy (10 nanometer increments) and must each move over 1.2 million increments (12.5 mm) during initial alignment.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Mirror alignment requires each of the 18 mirror segments, and the secondary mirror, to be positioned to within 50 nanometers. NASA compares the required accuracy by analogy: "If the Webb primary mirror were the size of the United States, each [mirror] segment would be the size of Texas, and the team would need to line the height of those Texas-sized segments up with each other to an accuracy of about 1.5 inches".


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Mirror alignment was a complex operation split into seven phases, that had been repeatedly rehearsed using a 1:6 scale model of the telescope. Once the mirrors reached , NIRCam targeted the 6th magnitude star HD 84406 in Ursa Major. To do this, NIRCam took 1560 images of the sky and used these wide-ranging images to determine where in the sky each segment of the main mirror initially pointed. At first, the individual primary mirror segments were greatly misaligned, so the image contained 18 separate, blurry, images of the star field, each containing an image of the target star. The 18 images of HD 84406 are matched to their respective mirror segments, and the 18 segments are brought into approximate alignment centered on the star ("Segment Image Identification"). Each segment was then individually corrected of its major focusing errors, using a technique called phase retrieval, resulting in 18 separate good quality images from the 18 mirror segments ("Segment Alignment"). The 18 images from each segment, were then moved so they precisely overlap to create a single image ("Image Stacking").


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: With the mirrors now positioned for almost correct images, they had to be fine tuned to their operational accuracy of 50 nanometers, less than one wavelength of the light that will be detected. A technique called "dispersed fringe sensing" was used to compare images from 20 pairings of mirrors, allowing most of the errors to be corrected ("Coarse Phasing"), and then introduced light defocus to each segment's image, allowing detection and correction of almost all remaining errors ("Fine Phasing"). These two processes were repeated three times, and Fine Phasing will be routinely checked throughout the telescope's operation. After three rounds of Coarse and Fine Phasing, the telescope was well aligned at one place in the NIRCam field of view. Measurements will be made at various points in the captured image, across all instruments, and corrections calculated from the detected variations in intensity, giving a well-aligned outcome across all instruments ("Telescope Alignment Over Instrument Fields of View"). Finally, a last round of Fine Phasing and checks of image quality on all instruments was performed, to ensure that any small residual errors remaining from the previous steps, were corrected ("Iterate Alignment for Final Correction"). The telescope's mirror segments were then aligned and able to capture precise focused images.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In preparation for alignment, NASA announced at 19:28 UTC on 3 February 2022, that NIRCam had detected the telescope's first photons (although not yet complete images). On 11 February 2022, NASA announced the telescope had almost completed phase 1 of alignment, with every segment of its primary mirror having located and imaged the target star HD 84406, and all segments brought into approximate alignment. Phase 1 alignment was completed on 18 February 2022, and a week later, phases 2 and 3 were also completed. This meant the 18 segments were working in unison, however until all 7 phases are complete, the segments were still acting as 18 smaller telescopes rather than one larger one. At the same time as the primary mirror was being commissioned, hundreds of other instrument commissioning and calibration tasks were also ongoing.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: JWST observing time is allocated through a General Observers (GO) program, a Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) program, and a Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS) program. The GTO program provides guaranteed observing time for scientists who developed hardware and software components for the observatory. The GO program provides all astronomers the opportunity to apply for observing time and will represent the bulk of the observing time. GO programs are selected through peer review by a Time Allocation Committee (TAC), similar to the proposal review process used for the Hubble Space Telescope.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In November 2017, the Space Telescope Science Institute announced the selection of 13 Director's Discretionary Early Release Science (DD-ERS) programs, chosen through a competitive proposal process. The observations for these programs were to be obtained during the first five months of JWST science operations after the end of the commissioning period. A total of 460 hours of observing time was awarded to these 13 programs, which span science topics including the Solar System, exoplanets, stars and star formation, nearby and distant galaxies, gravitational lenses, and quasars. These 13 ERS programs were to use a total of 242.8 hours of observing time on the telescope (not including JWST observing overheads and slew time).


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: For GO Cycle 1 there were 6,000 hours of observation time available to allocate, and 1,173 proposals were submitted requesting a total of 24,500 hours of observation time. Selection of Cycle 1 GO programs was announced on 30 March 2021, with 266 programs approved. These include 13 large programs and treasury programs producing data for public access. JWST science observations are nominally scheduled in weekly increments, observation plan for every week is published on Mondays by the Space Telescope Science Institute.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: The first full-color images and spectroscopic data were released on 12 July 2022, which also marked the official beginning of Webb's general science operations; President Joe Biden revealed the first image, "Webb's First Deep Field", on 11 July 2022. NASA announced the list of observations targeted for release:


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 14 July 2022, NASA presented images of Jupiter and related areas captured, for the first time, and including infrared views, by the James Webb Space Telescope.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: In a preprint released around the same time, NASA, ESA and CSA scientists stated that "almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected". The document described a series of observations during the commissioning, when the instruments captured spectra of transiting exoplanets with a precision better than 1000 ppm per data point and tracked moving objects with speeds up to 67 milliarcseconds/second, more than twice as fast as the requirement. It also obtained the spectra of hundreds of stars simultaneously in a dense field towards the Galactic Center. Other targets described in the document:


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: Within two weeks of the first Webb images, several preprint papers described a wide range of early galaxies believed to date from 235 million years (z=16.7) to 280 million years after the Big Bang, far earlier than previously known. The results await peer review. On 17 August 2022, NASA released a large mosaic image of 690 individual frames taken by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on JWST of numerous very early galaxies. Some early galaxies observed by JWST like CEERS-93316, which has an estimated redshift of approximately z=16.7 corresponding to 235.8 million years after the Big Bang, are high redshift galaxy candidates.


title: James Webb Space Telescope

text: On 24 August 2022, astronomers published the first detailed scientific result for the telescope on the detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the gas giant exoplanet WASP-39b from transmission spectroscopy observations obtained with JWST as part of the Early Release Science program (ERS). It was the first confirmed detection of carbon dioxide on a planet outside the Solar System.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical styles, including pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, disco, and rock. Mars is accompanied by his band, the Hooligans, who play a variety of instruments, such as electric guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, drums, and horns, and also serve as backup singers and dancers.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mars moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to pursue a musical career. In 2009, he co-founded the production team The Smeezingtons, responsible for various successful singles for Mars himself and other artists. He rose to fame in 2010 buoyed by the success of "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B and "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy, both of which featured his vocals. That year, Mars released his debut studio album "Doo-Wops & Hooligans", which blended pop with reggae and R&B. It spawned the international number-one singles "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", and "The Lazy Song". Drawing inspiration from disco, funk, rock, reggae and soul genres, his second studio album, "Unorthodox Jukebox" (2012), was his first number one on the "Billboard" 200. It amassed two "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one songs, "Locked Out of Heaven" and "When I Was Your Man".


title: Bruno Mars

text: In 2014, Mars was featured on Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk", which topped various music charts, spending a total of fourteen and seven weeks atop the "Billboard" Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, respectively. Mars's third studio album, the R&B-focused "24K Magic" (2016), received seven Grammy Awards, winning the major categories of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year. The album also yielded the top-five singles "24K Magic", "That's What I Like" (his seventh "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one single), and a remix of "Finesse" featuring Cardi B. In 2021, Mars and Anderson .Paak, as Silk Sonic, released the collaborative studio album "An Evening with Silk Sonic", which delved into 70's R&B and soul and was led by the chart-topping single "Leave the Door Open". It received four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars has sold over 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Eight of his songs have reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and his concert tours are some of the highest-grossing in history. He has received 15 Grammy Awards (including three Record of the Year wins), four Brit Awards, eleven American Music Awards, 13 Soul Train Awards and holds three "Guinness World Records", among other accolades. He featured on "Music Week"s best songwriters (2011) and "Billboard"s Greatest of All Time Artists (2019) lists and rankings such as the "Time" 100 and "Forbes" Celebrity 100. Mars became the first artist to receive six Diamond-certified songs in the United States and has been regarded as a pop icon due to his influential career.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Peter Gene Hernandez was born on October 8, 1985, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Peter Hernandez and Bernadette San Pedro Bayot, and was raised in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu. His father is of half Puerto Rican and half Jewish descent, and is originally from Brooklyn, New York. Mars has stated that his Jewish ancestors were from Hungary and Ukraine. His mother emigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii, and was of Filipino and Spanish ancestry. His parents met while performing in a show in which his mother was a Hula dancer and his father played percussion. At the age of two, he was nicknamed "Bruno" by his father because of his resemblance to professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars is one of six children and came from a musical family which exposed him to a diverse mix of music genres, including first and foremost rock and roll, and later reggae, hip hop, and rhythm and blues. His mother was both a singer and a dancer, and his father performed Little Richard's music, which inspired him as a young child. His uncle was an Elvis Presley impersonator, and also encouraged three-year-old Mars to perform songs on stage by Presley and Michael Jackson. At the age of four, Mars began performing five days a week with his family's band, The Love Notes, and became known in Hawaii for his impersonation of Elvis Presley. When he was five he urinated on himself during a performance of Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961), which led his parents to think they could be making a mistake. However, Mars never wavered. In 1990, Mars was featured in the Hawaiian tabloid shopper "MidWeek" as "Little Elvis" and performed in the halftime show of the 1990 Aloha Bowl.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In 1992, he appeared in a cameo role in the film "Honeymoon in Vegas" and was interviewed by Pauly Shore on MTV. When Mars was six years old, he was featured on "The Arsenio Hall Show" and throughout grade school, he performed with his family's band, two shows a night, covering Frankie Lymon and Little Anthony. When he was a child he had a small version of a drum set, guitar, piano, and some percussion and learned to play the instruments. When Mars was 12, his parents divorced, ending The Love Notes act. His father's various businesses, ranging from temporary-tattoo parlors to memorabilia shops, failed. Consequently, there was no longer a steady source of income. He moved out of his parents' house along with his brother and father. They lived in the "slums of Hawaii", on the back of a car, on rooftops, and in an abandoned bird zoo, Paradise Park, where his father worked before it closed. Mars transferred schools and was bullied initially, but he became popular in his last school days.


title: Bruno Mars

text: The time Mars spent impersonating Presley had a major impact on his musical evolution and performing techniques. He later began playing guitar after being inspired by American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. In 2010, he also acknowledged his Hawaiian roots and musical family as an influence, explaining: "Growing up in Hawaii made me the man I am. I used to do a lot of shows in Hawaii with my father's band. Everybody in my family sings, everyone plays instruments ... I've just been surrounded by it." When he attended President Theodore Roosevelt High School in Honolulu he sang in a group called The School Boys, who did several shows including opening for his father's new band, performing songs by the Isley Brothers and the Temptations. The singer, while in high school, became well known in Hawaiian entertainment, becoming the opening gig for a huge magic show and impersonating Michael Jackson in a celebrity-impersonators show, making $75 per performance.


title: Bruno Mars

text: After his sister in Los Angeles, California, played his demo for Mike Lynn (the head of A&R at Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment record label), Lynn summoned Mars to Los Angeles. In 2003, shortly after graduating from high school at the age of 17, Mars moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. At that time, he lived on Mansfield Avenue and was surprised by the poverty and squalor of the neighborhood. He adopted his stage name from the childhood nickname his father gave him, adding "Mars" at the end because: "I felt like I didn't have no pizzazz, and a lot of girls say I'm out of this world, so I was like I guess I'm from Mars." Moreover, the adoption of his stage name was also an effort to "avoid being stereotyped", as the music industry tried to pigeonhole him as another Latin artist. They even tried to convince Mars to sing in Spanish.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Mars signed a record contract with Motown Records in 2004, but the deal "went nowhere", leading him to have a conversation with will.i.am's management, which also turned out to be fruitless. However, the singer's experience with Motown proved to be beneficial to his career. American songwriter and record producer Philip Lawrence was also signed to the label.


title: Bruno Mars

text: After Mars was dropped by the label less than a year after being signed, he stayed in Los Angeles and landed a music publishing deal in 2005 with American record producers Steve Lindsey and Cameron Strang at Westside Independent.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Lindsey showed Mars and fellow songwriters Brody Brown and Jeff Bhasker (who Mars met through Mike Lynn) the ins and outs of writing pop music and acted as a mentor, helping them to hone their craft. Bhasker explained that Lindsey would "mentor us, and kind of give us lectures as to what a hit pop song is, because you can have talent and music ability, but understanding what makes a hit pop song is a whole other discipline." Lindsey confessed he "held Mars back for five years while they learned an extensive catalog of hit music." In a different interview, Brown corroborated the former story. During this time, Mars played cover songs around Los Angeles in a band called Sex Panther, with Bhasker and Eric Hernandez (the former's brother), who eventually became the drummer of The Hooligans.


title: Bruno Mars

text: When Lawrence was first told he should meet Mars he was reluctant to do so since he did not even have money for bus fare. Keith Harris, the drummer for the American musical group The Black Eyed Peas, told Lawrence: "Whatever it costs you to get out here, I'll reimburse you." Lawrence responded: "Just give me five dollars back for the bus." The pair began collaborating, writing songs for Mars, but they received many rejections from record labels. In 2006, Lawrence introduced Mars to his future A&R manager at Atlantic Records, Aaron Bay-Schuck. After hearing him play a couple of songs on the guitar, Bay-Schuck wanted to sign him immediately, but it took roughly three years for Atlantic Records to finally sign Mars to the label, because they felt it was too early and that he still needed to develop as an artist.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In 2008, on the verge of giving up, they received a call from Brandon Creed, who was looking for songs for a reunited Menudo. He liked their song "Lost", which was written for Mars. The duo did not want to give the song away, but when they were offered $20,000 for it, they agreed. The sale of this song allowed them to continue working, and Mars and Lawrence decided that they would write and produce songs together for other artists. Eventually, Creed became the former's manager for nine years.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Before becoming a successful solo artist, Mars was an acknowledged music producer, writing songs for the likes of Alexandra Burke, Adam Levine, Brandy, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida. He also co-wrote the Sugababes' hit song "Get Sexy" (2009) and provided backing vocals on their album "Sweet 7" (2010). In 2009, he was featured as a singer on Far East Movement's second studio album, "Animal", on the track "3D". In the same year, he was also featured on American pastor and hip hop artist Jaeson Ma's debut single "Love" and on American rapper Travie McCoy's "One at a Time", a charity single for MTV's Staying Alive foundation. He reached prominence as a solo artist after being featured on, and composing (as part of the production group the Smeezingtons) American rapper B.o.B's "Nothin' on You" (2009) and McCoy's "Billionaire" (2010); both songs peaked within the top ten of various music charts, with the former charting at number one on both the United States "Billboard" Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars said of these successful singles: "I think those songs weren't meant to be full-sung songs. If I'd sung all of 'Nothin' on You', it might've sounded like some '90s R&B." On May 11, 2010, Mars released his debut extended play (EP), "It's Better If You Don't Understand". It peaked at number 99 on the US "Billboard" 200 and a music video was released for the song "The Other Side" featuring American singer CeeLo Green and B.o.B. Mars, under the Smeezingtons, also composed Green's successful single "Fuck You" (2010).


title: Bruno Mars

text: On July 20, 2010, Mars released "Just the Way You Are" as the lead single from his debut studio album, "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" (2010), an album produced mainly by the Smeezingtons. The song topped the charts in various countries, including Australia, Canada and the U.S. The album, released on October 5, 2010, debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200 and number one in the UK. It also charted at number one in the Netherlands and Canada. "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" has since sold 15.5 million copies worldwide. It spawned two other international singles, "Grenade", which topped the "Billboard" Hot 100, New Zealand, the UK, as well as multiple other charts, and "The Lazy Song", which peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and reached the top spot in the UK and Denmark.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Other singles include "Talking to the Moon", which was exclusively released in Brazil and topped "Billboard" Brasil's Hot Pop Songs and Hot 100 Airplay. "Marry You", which was only released to international markets, entering the top ten of various countries, and "Count On Me", which served as the final single in Australia. Mars released the single "It Will Rain" for "" film soundtrack (2011). The song reached number three in the U.S. and at number two in New Zealand. During this period, Mars featured on "Lighters" with American hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, "Mirror" with American rapper Lil Wayne, and "Young, Wild & Free" with American hip hop artists Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg. The songs peaked at number four, sixteen, and seven in the U.S. and reached the top-20 of various music charts.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars started to promote his debut album as the opening act for American bands Maroon 5 and OneRepublic on the fall leg of the former act's Palm Trees & Power Lines Tour. Later, on October 18, 2010, the singer began a co-headlined European concert tour with McCoy that lasted until early November. "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" received further promotion when the singer embarked on his first headlined concert tour, The Doo-Wops & Hooligans Tour, which ran from November 2010 to January 2012. Nevertheless, in February 2011, a joint co-headlining tour between Mars and Janelle Monáe was announced, dubbed Hooligans in Wondaland Tour (2011). The concert tour was performed in North America in May and June 2011. Mars turned down offers to open for notable artists on arena tours, opting instead to play at smaller venues, such as theaters and ballrooms. This made the tour less lucrative, but helped him build his fan base.


title: Bruno Mars

text: At the 2011 Grammy Awards, Mars won his first Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Just the Way You Are" and received other six nominations for his work: Best Rap Song, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Record of the Year for "Nothin' on You"; the latter category along with Song of the Year for "Fuck You" by CeeLo Green, and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical as part of the Smeezingtons. At the 2012 Grammy Awards, Mars lost all the six categories in which he was nominated to British singer Adele. This included Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for "Doo-Wops & Hooligans", Best Pop Solo Performance, Record and Song of the Year for "Grenade", while Producer of the Year, Non-Classical as the Smeezingtons was lost to English producer Paul Epworth. During this time, Mars also won his first American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, International Male Solo Artist at the Brit Awards and the Echo Award for Best International Male.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In March 2012, Mars signed a worldwide publishing deal with BMG Chrysalis US. In September 2012, when interviewed by "Billboard" magazine, Mars stated that his next album would be more musically varied, adding: "I want to have the freedom and luxury to walk into a studio and say, 'Today I want to do a hip-hop, R&B, soul or rock record'". He announced "Unorthodox Jukebox" release date, December 11, 2012. The album debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200, eventually peaking at number one on the chart. It also charted at number one in Australia, Canada, and in the UK, where it became the third fastest-selling album by a solo artist in 2012. The album has since sold over six million copies worldwide.


title: Bruno Mars

text: "Locked out of Heaven" was released on October 1, 2012, and preceded the release of "Unorthodox Jukebox", an album produced mainly by the Smeezingtons. The song topped the U.S. and Canada charts, peaking at number two on the UK. It also charted within the top ten in various countries. Other singles released from the album include "When I Was Your Man", "Treasure", "Gorilla" and "Young Girls". Because "When I Was Your Man" reached number one "Billboard" Hot 100, aside from Elvis Presley, no other male artist has achieved five number-one singles more quickly than Mars. It also peaked at number three in Canada, number two in the UK, and was top-ten in various countries. "Treasure" reached number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number four in Canada, but had less commercial success in other countries. Mars contributed vocals to Jamaican-American EDM trio Major Lazer's "Bubble Butt", released in May 2013. The single also features American rappers Tyga, 2 Chainz, and American hip-hop singer Mystic.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars ran his second headlining concert tour, the Moonshine Jungle Tour, from June 2013 to October 2014. He also announced a concert residency titled Bruno Mars at The Chelsea, Las Vegas, Paradise, Nevada. The tour grossed $156.4 million. On September 8, 2013, Mars was disclosed as the headline performer at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, which took place on February 2, 2014, with American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers as special guests. It was the first Super Bowl halftime headlined by a performer under 30 in a decade. It was the most watched halftime show in the history of the Super Bowl at that time, drawing a rating of 115.3 million viewers. The viewership for the halftime show was higher than that for the game.


title: Bruno Mars

text: At the 2014 Grammy Awards, Mars won the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for "Unorthodox Jukebox". "Locked Out of Heaven" was nominated for Record and Song of the Year, while "When I Was Your Man" earned a nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance. In the same year, the album was recognized with a Juno Award for International Album of the Year. Aside from his music career, Mars cast as Roberto in the movie "Rio 2" (2014). He also contributed to the film's soundtrack with the song "Welcome Back". On November 10, 2014, British musician Mark Ronson released "Uptown Funk", featuring Mars. The song was a major commercial success, reaching number one in several countries, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand. "Uptown Funk" spent a total of fourteen and seven weeks atop the "Billboard" Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, respectively. The song became a worldwide phenomenon with a major impact on pop culture.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In September 2014, Mars began working on his third studio album, "24K Magic", affirming, "Now it's time to start writing chapter 3". He had not come up with a date for the release, stating: "Until it's done ... It's gotta be just as good if not better". At the 2016 Grammy Awards "Uptown Funk" won Ronson and Mars a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year. On February 7, 2016, British band Coldplay headlined the Super Bowl 50 halftime show with Mars and American singer Beyoncé as guest acts, marking their second appearance on the Super Bowl halftime. It became one of the most watched halftime shows in Super Bowl history. In early 2016, Mars was working with bass player Jamareo Artis, musician Brody Brown, singer-songwriter Andrew Wyatt and EDM producer Skrillex.


title: Bruno Mars

text: "24K Magic" was set to be issued in March but was postponed several months due to Mars's appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show. At that time, seven songs had already been recorded. They were composed mainly by Shampoo Press & Curl, a production team consisting of Mars, Lawrence, and Brown, which replaced the Smeezingtons. In May 2016, the singer split with his manager because Creed sold half his company. Mars took his business affairs under his own management company, Gorilla Management, operated by Aaron Elharar. At the 2017 Grammy Awards, his work (as part of the Smeezingtons) on Adele's "All I Ask", a track from her third studio album, "25" (2015), brought him a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2017, "Guinness World Records" recognized Mars as the "First Male Artist to achieve three 10-million-selling-singles".


title: Bruno Mars

text: In October 2016, "24K Magic" was released as the lead single of "24K Magic". It peaked at number four in the U.S. and reached the top in France and New Zealand. The album, issued on November 18, 2016, debuted at number two in Canada, France, New Zealand, and the U.S. It has since sold over five million copies globally. Four more singles were released throughout 2017 and 2018: "That's What I Like", "Versace on the Floor", "Chunky", exclusively released in Australia, and a remix of "Finesse" featuring American rapper Cardi B. "That's What I Like" was the album's highest-charting single on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number one, while "Finesse" reached the top-three. Both singles reached number three in Canada, number four and two in New Zealand, respectively. All appeared on "Billboard"s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, with "That's What I Like" and "Finesse" reaching number one.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In late 2016, the singer started his second concert residency titled Bruno Mars at Park MGM. He also announced his third headlining concert tour, 24K Magic World Tour, which began in March 2017 and ended in December 2018. The tour grossed more than $300 million worldwide. On November 29, 2017, CBS aired Mars's first TV concert special, "". He received seven awards at the 2017 American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year, two for "That's What I Like" and other two for "24K Magic". He also won Album/Mixtape of the Year at the 2017 Soul Train Music Awards, in addition to four other awards. At the 2018 Grammy Awards, Mars won in the six categories for which he was nominated: Album of the Year and Best R&B Album for "24K Magic", Record of the Year for the title track and Song of The Year, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for "That's What I Like". "24K Magic" also won a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, for the work of the album's engineers.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars worked on Chic's studio album "It's About Time" (2018), with the song expected to be featured on Chic's next studio album, according to musician Nile Rodgers. In early 2018, Mars worked with recording engineer Charles Moniz, as well as songwriting and recording production team the Stereotypes. In September 2018, Mars and American rappers Gucci Mane and Kodak Black released "Wake Up in the Sky" for Mane's thirteenth studio album, "Evil Genius" (2018). It reached number 11 in the US. In February 2019, Cardi B and Mars released a single together, "Please Me". It peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The single also reached the top-20 of Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Five months later, British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, American singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton, and Mars collaborated on, "Blow", for the former's fourth studio album, "No.6 Collaborations Project" (2019). In October 2019, Mars posted a picture of himself in a recording studio, possibly indicating new music.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In February 2020, it was announced a partnership between Mars and Disney for a "music-themed theatrical narrative", in which the singer will both star and produce the movie. A month later, it was confirmed that Mars was working on his next album, possibly with American musician Babyface. While on quarantine, the singer wrote music every day for his upcoming album. In the same year, Mars sold part of his song catalog to Warner Chappell Music, keeping a small share in the deal. In exchange for its payment to Mars, Warner Chappell Music, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, will collect future income from the songs. Furthermore, Mars's co-publishing contract with BMG, which collects "revenue on his share of the songs" was also a part of the business acquisition.


title: Bruno Mars

text: On February 26, 2021, Mars and American rapper Anderson .Paak announced that they have recorded an album together under the band name Silk Sonic. Their debut album, "An Evening with Silk Sonic", was released on November 12, 2021, and it features American musician Bootsy Collins as a special guest host. It debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and entered at the top-five in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The songs "Leave the Door Open", "Skate, "Smokin out the Window", a cover version of Con Funk Shun's "Love's Train" and "After Last Night" featuring Thundercat and Bootsy Collins were released as singles. "Leave the Door Open" peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and in New Zealand. "Smokin out the Window" peaked at number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number four in New Zealand. All the singles, but "Skate", topped the "Billboard" Adult R&B Songs, which led the album to become the second with four number-one singles on the aforementioned chart, tying with Toni Braxton's record.


title: Bruno Mars

text: In early 2022, Silk Sonic started their debut concert residency titled An Evening with Silk Sonic at Park MGM. The duo won Best Group at the BET Awards 2021, International Group of the Year at the 2022 Brit Awards and Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration, Traditional at the 53rd NAACP Image Awards. They received three awards at the 2021 Soul Train Music Awards, including Song of the Year for "Leave the Door Open". The music video for the latter song won Best R&B Video and Best Editing at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. At the 2022 Grammy Awards, Silk Sonic won Record of the Year, Song of The Year, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for "Leave the Door Open".


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars was raised on his father's 1950s doo-wop collection – "simple four-chord songs that got straight to the point" – and on Little Richard, Frankie Lymon, Little Anthony, and Jerry Lee Lewis. As a child, Mars spent time impersonating Elvis Presley. This playacting had a major impact on his musical evolution; he later reflected: He also impersonated Michael Jackson, another major inspiration. The hip-hop productions by The Neptunes and Timbaland, that were played on the radio, also influenced him.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars's musical style gravitated initially towards R&B. He was influenced by artists such as Keith Sweat, Jodeci, and R. Kelly. As a child he also took notice of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men, Teddy Riley and Babyface. At the same time, he also listened to 1950s rock 'n' roll, doo-wop music, and Motown. In high school, he listened to classic rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles, whose influences can be heard in his work, as well as singers with high voices, like Stevie Wonder and Freddie Mercury. Bob Marley, and local bands in Hawaii, were a major influence and account for his reggae roots. Hip-hop acts like Jay-Z, The Roots, and Cody Chesnutt were among some of his favourites, and have influenced his compositions. Each of these musical genres has influenced the singer's musical style; he observed: "It's not easy to [create] songs with that mixture of rock and soul and hip-hop, and there's only a handful of them." Mars also admires classical music.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Other artists Mars has said inspired his work include Janet Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, Sly Stone, Carlos Santana, George Clinton, and Usher. Mars has also stated that he is a fan of Alicia Keys, Jessie J, Jack White, The Saturdays, and Kings of Leon.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars's music has been noted for displaying a wide variety of styles, musical genres, and influences, including pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, and rock. His debut album, "Doo-Wops & Hooligans", is predominantly a pop, reggae pop and R&B record. It is influenced by most of the genres mentioned above. Many of his songs on the album, reflect "feel-good", carefree, and optimistic sentiments. However, darker subjects are addressed in his songs, detailing failed relationships, pain and loneliness. His subsequent release, "Unorthodox Jukebox", as with his debut album, is infused with different influences including disco, funk, rock, reggae and soul, as well as balladry. Lyrically, the album is different from the former, addressing traditional notions of romance, male chauvinism, and sexuality. The explicit content in the song "Gorilla" caused a controversy in Australia. Mars's third album, "24K Magic", was significantly influenced by R&B, funk, pop and new jack swing. Lyrically, the album involves themes of money and sex. Mars has explained his writing process: "I don't sit down and think, 'I'm going to write a song'", since "You can't force creativeness" as inspiration comes out of the blue in different places. Ideas occur suddenly to him; and occasionally, he is able to materialize them into lyrics. He has stated that he typically writes songs by playing the guitar or piano first.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars claims that his work with other artists has influenced his musical style: ""Nothin' on You" had a Motown vibe, "Billionaire" was a reggae acoustic guitar-driven song, though one of my favorites is the CeeLo Green song. I don't think anyone else could've sung that song. And there's "Just the Way You Are". If you know my story, you know I love all different genres of music." Mars states that growing up in Hawaii influenced his style, giving the songs a reggae sound. He explains: "In Hawaii some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. That music brings people together. It's not urban music or pop music. It's just songs. That's what makes it cross over so well. The song comes first."


title: Bruno Mars

text: Philip Lawrence, one of his music partners, stated: "What people don't know is there's a darker underbelly to Bruno Mars." Nevertheless, most of his music is romantic and Mars himself says: "I blame that on me singing to girls back in high school".


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars possesses a three-octave tenor vocal range. Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" commented that he is one of the most "versatile and accessible singers in pop, with a light, soul-influenced voice that's an easy fit in a range of styles, a universal donor", while Tim Sendra from AllMusic described the singer's vocals on "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" as "the kind of smooth instrument that slips into your ear like honey." Jody Rosen from "Rolling Stone" called Mars a "nimble, soulful vocalist" on "Unorthodox Jukebox". Jim Farber of the "New York Daily News" likened the voice "the purity, cream and range of mid-period Michael Jackson" in a review of a concert promoting "Unorthodox Jukebox". On "24K Magic", "Consequence of Sound"s Karen Gwen afirmed that Mars showed his "pips" and pushed his vocals to the limit. She described his voice as a "clear, unapologetic tenor" being a "blessing" nowadays. Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" found "24K Magic" to show the singer's vocal ability from tenderness to "the more forceful side of his voice". Mars is also able to play drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, piano, ukulele and congas. Mars usually plays the instrumentation or part of it, on his albums and on the songs he composes for other artists.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars is known for his retro showmanship, which is widely acclaimed by tour critics and reviewers. Deanna Ramsay of "The Jakarta Post" described Mars as a "truly global star". "Boston Herald"s Jim Sullivan compared the showmanship of Mars to Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Kevin Johnson of the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" called Mars a "consummate performer." "The Boston Globe" Sarah Rodman said that Mars shows an "indefatigable ecstatic approach to performing" and "classic showmanship." In the same vein, Jim Farber of the "Daily News" stated of the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVIII that Mars "brings old-school showmanship to dynamic performance." The singer took its inspiration by playing videotapes of Elvis, James Brown and Michael Jackson when he was younger. Nowadays, before the shows, he watches Brown's T.A.M.I. Show, James Hendrix's Live at Woodstock or Prince performing "Purple Rain" (1984).


title: Bruno Mars

text: During The Doo-Wops & Hooligans Tour, Ara Jansan from "The West Australian" called the performance "one of the most creative and exciting displays of musical artistry" she had witnessed in a long time and noticed the concert attracted a wide-ranging audience of all age groups. "The Oregonian"s Robert Ham noticed, on the Hooligans in Wondaland Tour, that the singer not only grabbed the spectators' attention throughout the entire concert, but he also sang every note by himself with noticeable guitar skills. During the Moonshine Jungle Tour, Jason Lipshutz of "Billboard" described the singer's performance as "entertaining ... keeping smiles plastered on the faces of his onlookers, and he does a better job at it than almost anyone working in music right now". "Rolling Stone" magazine placed Mars at number 35 on its list of 50 Best Live Acts Right Now in 2013; "Anyone from the age of 5 to 95 can walk out of a Bruno Mars concert feeling like the show was designed just for them. Mars walks the old-school walk and talks the sexy talk, but he also nails the hits, leads a super-energetic nine-piece soul band, and rips a mean drum solo". NFL executives Sarah Moll and Tracy Perlman stated that: "If you go to his concerts, it's 11-year-old girls to 65-year-old women—it's everyone", after seeing The Moonshine Jungle tour several times during the summer of 2013. The 24K Magic World Tour, was praised by critics due to the showmanship, guitar skills and stage production. The tour won two "Pollstar" awards, two Billboard Music Awards and one TEC Award.


title: Bruno Mars

text: Mars's concerts feature The Hooligans, a band that includes a guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist, and a horn section. They also serve as dancers and background singers. Critics noted the difference the backup band and the arrangements made to the sound of the live versions of the songs compared to those on the album. The shows feature all-band choreographed dancing arrangements, including footwork inspired by James Brown and the splits. The shows are influenced by the disco era with a soul revue-inspired set. In addition, long, mellow, and soft interludes that echo the smooth contemporary R&B style which was popular during the 1990s are also part of the show. The set lists blend several genres of music, including pop, doo-wop, funk, R&B, soul and reggae. His shows usually feature pyrotechnics, strobe and laser lighting, and he typically plays the drums and guitar. In 2021, "Pollstar" named Mars the hip-hop/R&B touring artist of the 2010s decade.