James Webb Space Telescope.

[Herdfan]

I know several of you have mentioned this in posts, so I figured it needed its own thread.

Supposedly NASA will be releasing some teaser photos today. Plus some more info:

James Webb Space Telescope

blogs.nasa.gov

 

[lizkat]

Thanks for that link. This telescope's revelations are going to be so amazing. I can't get over how much work has gone into this thing for decades, and now proving to have been done successfully with meticulous attention to each task.

The team’s challenge was twofold: confirm that NIRCam was ready to collect light from celestial objects, and then identify starlight from the same star in each of the 18 primary mirror segments. The result is an image mosaic of 18 randomly organized dots of starlight, the product of Webb’s unaligned mirror segments all reflecting light from the same star back at Webb’s secondary mirror and into NIRCam’s detectors.

What looks like a simple image of blurry starlight now becomes the foundation to align and focus the telescope in order for Webb to deliver unprecedented views of the universe this summer. Over the next month or so, the team will gradually adjust the mirror segments until the 18 images become a single star.

 

[chengengaun]

I know the telemetry has confirmed this many times over, but still there is a certain satisfaction seeing the selfie of the primary mirror.

 

[Pumbaa]

I know the telemetry has confirmed this many times over, but still there is a certain satisfaction seeing the selfie of the primary mirror.

Absolutely cool.

Why not put it on your fridge, at L2 it is even more unobtainable than most people’s swimsuit models are!

 

[jbailey]

First picture today (7/11/2022) at 5 PM from the White House. Then more tomorrow along with the scientists discussing their first findings.

Webb First Images

 

[Huntn]

I heard a report about this yesterday on NPR, it sounded spectacular, but I’ve not been there yet to look.

Update: took a peak, those visible arcs are exciting as they are described as a visual capture of gravity altering light.

 

[DT]

Wow.

 

[Nycturne]

That's a lot of lensing going on there. Wow.

 

[Herdfan]

Now consider those dots aren't stars, they're galaxies. Each containing millions or billions, maybe even a trillion stars. The vastness of the universe is almost beyond comprehension.

Then consider that that pic is the equivalent of a grain of sand held at arm's length.

And the light you are seeing is billiions of years old, so it may no longer look like this.

 

[Eric]

Here is a dying star, just amazing images and resolution.

 

[Huntn]

Here is a dying star, just amazing images and resolution.

Wow, that is a holy crap image. Of note it's color corrected infrared. Decades ago I became enamored with Hubble telescope images which made me realize just how incredible this universe is. It kind of makes you want to be a star child and roam the heavens, at least for a couple of light years, capable of near the speed of light. For anyone unfamiliar, watch 2001 A Space Odyssey to get a feel for it.

 

[Yoused]

 

[SuperMatt]

I don’t always think about how much our atmosphere protects us, but here’s an example of the dangers of space.

The $10 Billion Webb Telescope Has Been Permanently Damaged, Say Scientists

Scientists are reporting that damage sustained to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during a micrometeoroid strike in late May 2022 is "uncorrectable."

www.forbes.com

 

[lizkat]

I don’t always think about how much our atmosphere protects us, but here’s an example of the dangers of space.

The $10 Billion Webb Telescope Has Been Permanently Damaged, Say Scientists

Scientists are reporting that damage sustained to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during a micrometeoroid strike in late May 2022 is "uncorrectable."

www.forbes.com

At least the mirror overall is segmented into 18 parts, so the C3 segment damage can likely be worked around. The part about throughput being affected though is more worrying.... as is the suggestion in the piece that the algorithm for estimation of the frequency of damaging hits needs to be reviewed. Cue notes for next space telescope: it's not like we haven't all known that this one, like Hubbell before it, would age and have to be replaced at some point. I'm still so amazed the JWST has survived so many critical failiure points and sent back such wondrous results even in its infancy. It remains one of the high points of news around the world this year for me.

 

[mac_in_tosh]

Of note it's color corrected infrared.

I wouldn't use the word "corrected." The telescope uses filters to collect six ranges of infrared grayscale values. Each range is assigned a color (the highest wavelength is assigned red, the lowest wavelength is assigned blue, etc.) and these different colors are then combined to get a resultant "color" at each point in the image. The photos are nonetheless magnificent and JWT is a great engineering achievement. It shows what can be accomplished when people work together toward a common goal.