BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Nobel Prize winner John Mather will return to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt to lead the James Webb Space Telescope project that will eventually replace Hubble.

Mather’s work interpreting microwave radiation patterns helped prove the big bang theory as described in his book “The Very First Light.”

What motivated you to go into astrophysics?

When I was 8, I went to the Museum of Natural History in New York and saw the planetarium there. I thought that was pretty cool.

What mysteries of the universe would you like to explore through Webb?

I want to see as much as astronomers can possibly see about our history — what made the universe capable of producing a planet that could support life.

The biggest mysteries of physics today are about dark matter and dark energy.

Of course you can’t see it, but we could see signs of it.

What ways will Webb help that Hubble could not?

It’s huge by comparison.

Hubble’s mirror was just about 8 feet.

Webb’s mirror is 21 1/2 feet, so you can collect a lot more light from different objects.

It’s also cold, so we can observe infrared light. Hubble gave off its own heat. ...

Some of the spectacular images from Hubble took up to two weeks of timed exposure. Webb can do those images in a few hours.

The Hubble images now hang in The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore City. They obviously hit a chord with the public.

It’s got a tremendous cultural significance.

Astronomy is not one of those pointy-headed intellectual sciences.

At some point, it touches our hearts and our emotions