06/04/2026 02:44:35 PMAstronomyGraduate StudentsPhysicsResearcharticleThanks to the hard work of his late advisor, a UNT student is getting the chance of a lifetime to work with the James Webb Space Telescope and better understand the history of our universe. Jake Reinheimer, a doctoral student in the College of Science’s physics department, will analyze data from the telescope as part of a project originally proposed by Fakhri Zahedy. Zahedy was an assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Science. Zahedy had been submitting research proposals to the telescope’s General Observer Program for four years. He passed away two weeks after submitting his latest proposal in the fall of 2025. “Losing Zahedy was really hard emotionally,” Reinheimer said. “It’s been a roller coaster, and we have some mixed feelings, but this was his dream for a long time so I’m excited to keep it going.” The multi-institutional team knew the proposal was selected thanks to Zahedy listing Reinheimer as a co-principal investigator on the original proposal. Following Zahedy’s death, the team worked to ensure the project could continue. Hsiao-Wen Chen, a professor at the University of Chicago and Zahedy’s former graduate advisor, is now serving as the project’s principal investigator. “We were really worried at first because this is such a prestigious honor,” said Physics Professor Ohad Shemmer, Reinheimer’s current advisor. “Only 1 in 20 proposals win time with the telescope, and we didn’t know if the project would be affected. Thankfully, the James Webb team was understanding and approved the change.” The Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the telescope, awarded the project $344,000 with a third of that going to UNT. This will be UNT’s first time working with the flagship observatory. Reinheimer will continue his work at UNT thanks to both Shemmer and Chen. Shemmer has helped him with his proposals, presentations and other documentation. Because the science is a specialized area of astronomy, Chen has also stepped in as a research advisor. “We will not let Jake fall through the cracks,” Shemmer said. “We will make sure he graduates.” The project has been awarded 50.6 hours of observing time with the telescope, which is considered a medium-size program. During that time, the James Webb Space Telescope team will record data on what’s called the circumgalactic medium (CGM). “This is basically a gaseous envelope believed to be around all galaxies, but it’s very diffuse so it’s essentially impossible to see,” Reinheimer said. “What we look for is a super bright source behind a galaxy and then study the light as it passes through the CGM.” As the light passes through the CGM, different elements in it will absorb specific wavelengths of the light. Reinheimer will analyze that image and light distribution data from the recordings. Because that light takes time to travel across the universe, the light he’ll be studying reflects how the galaxies were billions of years ago. “We’re targeting high redshift galaxies which are from a much earlier period of the universe. It’s more than 10 billion years ago, which is really exciting,” Reinheimer said. Research shows the CGM exists, but Reinheimer’s research aims to understand it more by learning about the metals inside of it. Different elements can offer clues about a galaxy. For example, a majority of iron in a CGM shows that the galaxy is dominated by older white dwarf stars. These stars take an exceptionally long time to form, 1 to 10 billion years, as they require a low mass star to burn out “By understanding the CGM, we can get a really good comprehension of the galaxy’s star formation and its lifetime,” said Reinheimer. “On top of that, we’re learning more about what the universe looked like when it was less than 3 billion years old compared to its 14-billion-year lifetime.” This work will become part of Reinheimer’s doctoral dissertation which focuses on CGM. He recently proposed his thesis and hopes to earn a postdoctoral position after graduation and continue in academia. “Grad school and everything surrounding this proposal have really taught me resilience,” Reinheimer said. “We just need to keep moving forward and keep doing good science. It’s surreal getting to work with James Webb so I’m excited and I’m excited to keep myself and this project going.” Vie UNT News