The James Webb Space Telescope

[Filip Larsen]

what's the big deal w/ 4.6 billion years old?

I understand this to be the distance to the SMACS 0723 group, not the faint galaxies in the background.

 

[pinball1970]

Im furious. What is the point of setting a date have this dramatic count down after 198 days of biting our nails then release an image. The night before?

It's kind of tainted it for me. The purity. It's like uncle Barney turning up drunk on Xmas Eve morning and opening one of your kids Xmas presents and handing it to them over toast and marmalade.My day is still as planned. Day off work with the OFFICIAL time of first light.

 

[pinball1970]

Yeah, what the heck does Biden have to do with a NASA release? And the news articles say it would happen at 5:30PM US Eastern Time, which was an hour ago and no images anywhere that I can find so far...

Yes not happy. I've barely looked at the image. First light for me is 3.30pm BST.
EDIT. Today!

 

[pinball1970]

[quote of now-banned member deleted by the Mentors]

Nothing to do with that. I am British and actually thought this administration would be more pro Science. That's good.
My point is there was a schedule, a critical path that people have been following for months admiring a MULTI national Scientific collaboration.
ESA, CSA and NASA plus private companies.

If senior members of government or the CIC wanted a private viewing before anyone else that's fine.
Ticker tape parade and huge party afterwards that's fine. I'm sure NASA have already and have plenty more champagne on ice.
11th hour televised viewing for me is hi jacking the event to feed off the publicity.
Probably not his idea.
Anyway this post could get bumped. That's fair enough, the P word is not discussed on this forum.

The ACTUAL event is in a few hours, 199 days of waiting. Day 198 I will forget for now. Time to check Webb to see if the final mode is complete.

 

[Jarvis323]

This structure stands out as the strangest in the image to me. Any idea what it is?

 

[JLowe]

Whether you like Biden or not its just seems a bit silly to have any president present this.

In any case, i thought it clearly said on NASA website that the galaxy cluster imaged at 4.6 billion years old was gravitationally lensing some background galaxies, of which are far older and sharper than the Hubble images, on less exposure time.

 

[phinds]

Whether you like Biden or not its just seems a bit silly to have any president present this.

It's normal for US presidents to make photo ops out of anything good that happens on their watch. Nothing new or odd about that and certainly not silly, given American politics.

 

[fresh_42]

It's normal for US presidents to make photo ops out of anything good that happens on their watch. Nothing new or odd about that and certainly not silly, given American politics.

Advisor to Nixon: "Keep it short. It isn't your merit."

 

[BWV]

This structure stands out as the strangest in the image to me. Any idea what it is?

View attachment 304053

 

[Motore]

The picture looks amazing, the detail is amazing. Of course more (deeper) pictures to come.

This structure stands out as the strangest in the image to me. Any idea what it is?

Some galaxy distorted due to gravitational lensing I suppose.

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Oldman too]

A MIRI image of Stephan’s Quintet.
Details at https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/034/01G7DBCJA1M1SSGKDMH7F5XMBE

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Oldman too]

NIRcam and MIRI composite of cosmic cliffs, Carina Nebula.
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/031/01G780WF1VRADDSD5MDNDRKAGY

Also, from Stephans's Quintet. MIRI spectra of gas composition around an active BH.
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/034/01G7F6AWJNTF1G0ZWP5ESGSFXF

 

[pinball1970]

The presentation was beyond cringe. Awful. Absolutely hated it. I'm surprised they did not put in a few adverts for burgers and fries...

That said the images were amazing and all that data will be making the science community very excited.

 

[BillTre]

This structure stands out as the strangest in the image to me. Any idea what it is?

View attachment 304053

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"

 

[fresh_42]

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"

There is nothing. Absolutely nothing. Drive there and have a look!

 

[phinds]

A tiny portion of the full sized image to give some idea of the resolution:

 

[Borg]

Check out Google today.

 

[berkeman]

Check out Google today.

LOL, forgot to remove the lens cap!

 

[BillTre]

Teamwork is a force multiplier.

 

[Ibix]

...it hadn't sunk in how big the thing is until I saw that photo. I presume that's a 1:1 scale model.

 

[phinds]

Wow, that pic brings back memories. Not of the Webb but of GSFC where I worked for 16 years.

 

[pinball1970]

...it hadn't sunk in how big the thing is until I saw that photo. I presume that's a 1:1 scale model.

Tennis court!

 

[phinds]

...it hadn't sunk in how big the thing is until I saw that photo. I presume that's a 1:1 scale model.

Yes, it's a full scale model

 

[Vanadium 50]

No point in launching a small telescope.

 

[Ibix]

No point in launching a small telescope.

Sure. It was just one of those moments of difference between knowing the dimensions and grokking them, if you see what I mean.

 

[anorlunda]

I think that now is the time to declare JWST as an outstanding success. Bravo to the JWST team.

The James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

• NASA: Overall responsibility for the mission
• ESA: Provides the Near Infrared Spectrograph, Mid-Infrared Instrument Optics Assembly, and the Ariane Launch Vehicle
• CSA: Provides the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph

As an engineer, I was very skeptical that they could make such a long chain of critical steps succeed on the first and only try. I'm delighted to be proven completely wrong.

JWST deserves it's place in my earlier thread.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/bold-monster-engineering-successes.1003708/

 

[Kevin the Kiwi]

I wonder if someone can answer a question for me. Probably a silly question but I am looking at the "star death" image, the planetary nebula. It looks like we are looking through a big hole in a spherical object, or is it a flat ring around the star we are looking at from above? The main reason for my question is that you can see the gas and dust inside the nebula that looks like behind the star it is a solid wall. I imagine when the star explodes it blows stuff out in all directions.

 

[phyzguy]

I wonder if someone can answer a question for me. Probably a silly question but I am looking at the "star death" image, the planetary nebula. It looks like we are looking through a big hole in a spherical object, or is it a flat ring around the star we are looking at from above? The main reason for my question is that you can see the gas and dust inside the nebula that looks like behind the star it is a solid wall. I imagine when the star explodes it blows stuff out in all directions.

It is a spherical shell, but you are looking through less material in the center as along the edges (see sketch), so it makes it look like an annular ring. The material you say is "behind the star" is both in front of and behind the star.

 

[Kevin the Kiwi]

It is a spherical shell, but you are looking through less material in the center as along the edges (see sketch), so it makes it look like an annular ring. The material you say is "behind the star" is both in front of and behind the star.

View attachment 304135

Ah yes, that makes complete sense, I honestly never would have thought of that. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Devin-M]

“Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)”
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07...and-more-now-available-in-commissioning-data/

“Two photos of Jupiter taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The left image was taken using a NIRCam (near infrared camera) to examine the planet’s short wavelengths of light. The right image was taken with a filter that highlights long wavelengths. NASA”

https://globalnews.ca/news/8987398/james-webb-space-telescope-pictures-jupiter-why-you-missed-them/

 

[russ_watters]

OT posts about sensor principles of operation split to a new thread here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/jwst-sensor-thread-split.1016876/

 

[Devin-M]

I was able to download some RAW telescope data in FITS format from here:
https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/MASTDATA/JWST+AWS+Bulk+Download+Scripts

If you open one of the bulk download scripts in a text editor it will list out the download URLs of the FITS files where the RAW data is stored...

100% Crop of some of the data:

 

[Devin-M]

If you search for ".jpg" in the bulk download scripts (available at: https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/MASTDATA/JWST+AWS+Bulk+Download+Scripts ) through a text editor you can find links to JPG files of some of the data for easier viewing than the FITS format:

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02732/jw02732001005/jw02732001005_02103_00005_nrca4_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er.../jw02732001006_02105_00005_nrca1_o001_crf.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02732/jw02732001006/jw02732001006_02105_00002_nrcb1_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er...01/jw02732002001_02103_00004_mirimage_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er...05/jw02732001005_02101_00003_nrcalong_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02732/jw02732001002/jw02732001002_02101_00003_nrcb2_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er.../jw02736001001_02103_00007_nrcb1_o001_crf.jpg

100% crop, above image

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02731/jw02731001001/jw02731001001_02105_00004_nrca1_cal.jpg

 

[Devin-M]

100% crop, above image

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er...01/jw02731001001_02103_00001_nrcblong_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02731/jw02731001002/jw02731001002_02103_00001_nrca2_cal.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er...02731001003_02105_00002_nrcblong_o001_crf.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er...02731002005_02107_00005_mirimage_o002_crf.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/er.../jw02731001004_02103_00001_nrcb2_o001_crf.jpg

https://stpubdata-jwst.stsci.edu/ero/jw02731/jw02731001001/jw02731001001_02101_00001_nrca1_cal.jpg

 

[Astronuc]

Webb telescope suffered ‘uncorrectable damage’ in micrometeoroid hit, NASA report says​

https://thehill.com/policy/technolo...amage-in-micrometeoroid-hit-nasa-report-says/

At 21 feet, Webb’s gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror is the biggest and most sensitive ever sent into space. It’s comprised of 18 segments, one of which was smacked by the bigger than anticipated micrometeoroid in May. Micrometeoroids are fragments of asteroids that are usually smaller than a grain of sand, according to NASA.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/webb-telescope-suffered-uncorrectable-damage-030948640.html

 

[DennisN]

Here's a new video from the Royal Institution:
(I haven't seen it yet, but I wanted to share it)

Solar system science from the James Webb Space Telescope – with Naomi Rowe-Gurney (RI)
What is the JWST, and what big science questions can it answer? Join NASA scientist Naomi as she discusses the new JWST images, along with her research into the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, and the many other areas that JWST can help with.


Edit: And the Q&A is here:

Q&A: Solar system science from the James Webb Space Telescope – with Naomi Rowe-Gurney (RI)

 

[Devin-M]

I enlarged a bunch of galaxies / objects from the 1st released image from James Webb of SMACS 0723...

(original image: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/...livers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet )

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Devin-M]

 

[Filip Larsen]

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...have-already-spotted-the-oldest-known-galaxy/
with a layman's presentation of the results in the (draft) paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.09434.

 

[Devin-M]

Phantom Galaxy, James Webb Telescope, MIRI Instrument:

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-phantom-galaxy-image

 

[Filip Larsen]

Yet another new very early galaxy candidate from JWST, this time with an age estimated around 230-ish million years after BB: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.12356, with a layman's summary found at https://arstechnica.com/science/202...omers-find-a-galaxy-even-deeper-back-in-time/

 

[Astronuc]

Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy​

https://www.quantamagazine.org/two-...ce-telescope-is-reshaping-astronomy-20220725/

 

[anorlunda]

I was surprised at the nomenclature -- Population III stars in the oldest galaxies. I would have guessed that the numbering would run the other direction. I looked it up and learned that my understanding was backwards.

Every day on PF I get to learn something new.

 

[phyzguy]

Astronomy has the interesting practice that nothing ever gets re-defined. Hipparchus defined the magnitude scale almost 3000 more than 2000 years ago, and called the brightest stars 1st magnitude, the next brightest 2nd magnitude, and so on. So we are stuck with a magnitude scale that runs backwards - where brighter stars have a smaller magnitude than dimmer stars.

Population I and Population II were defined before anyone knew why they were different and that Population II came before Population I.