The James Webb Telescope

[Slim]

Very good introduction / overview here:

[Slim]

First pics from Webb to be released in about ten minutes (supposedly). Joe Biden will be presenting them.

[Slim]

Hundreds of galaxies, in a patch of sky that you could cover up with a grain of sand extended on your fingertip.

The cosmos is unimaginably massive. The orange objects are images of galaxies, 13 billion years ago.

[Nickslikk2112]

Some nice Gravitational lensing in there. Awesome.

[David L]

Close-up of a Xmas tree

[Nick]

Just needs Rush 2112 written over it.


Livestream here shortly https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/ESA_Web_TV

[Nick]

Amazing but at the same time the images although clearer than the Hubble are just as incomprehensible due to the scales involved. The data analysis from each planet/star may be of more use than the actual images in near/mid/far or whatever infrared type that is shown.

[Slim]

I had this thought while I was out on my bike and it's been twisting my melon ever since.

Given that any direction you point a telescope in is the direction of the big bang - because space itself has expanded since the moment the Universe started - it follows that if you look sufficiently into the distance, and therefore back in time - you'd actually be looking at the same early stars that you'd see if you pointed the same telescope in a completely different direction.

I think I need to confirm this with a cosmologist, but I do think it must be correct.

[pxr5]

I watched this documentary on BBC2 last night about the whole development and deployment of the James Webb Space telescope. I was a Systems Engineer yet the work and detail involved just blows my mind:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00197px/horizon-2022-super-telescope-mission-to-the-edge-of-the-universe

[Slim]

I had this thought while I was out on my bike and it's been twisting my melon ever since.

Given that any direction you point a telescope in is the direction of the big bang - because space itself has expanded since the moment the Universe started - it follows that if you look sufficiently into the distance, and therefore back in time - you'd actually be looking at the same early stars that you'd see if you pointed the same telescope in a completely different direction.

I think I need to confirm this with a cosmologist, but I do think it must be correct.

I think that this probably isn't correct.

[Thenop]

Stunning imagery of Jupiter through the JW telescope
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/

[The Picnic Wasp]

Hundreds of galaxies, in a patch of sky that you could cover up with a grain of sand extended on your fingertip.

The cosmos is unimaginably massive. The orange objects are images of galaxies, 13 billion years ago.

Wow!!!

[The Picnic Wasp]

Stunning imagery of Jupiter through the JW telescope
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/

And again. Wow!!!

[Thenop]

Neptune this time, stunning to see it like this

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/new-webb-image-captures-clearest-view-of-neptune-s-rings-in-decades

[The Picnic Wasp]

My goodness! It looks like it's made of glass.