Did you see the news that all of the #JWST instruments are aligned now?
Check out this comparison of one of the newly released calibration images from the MIRI instrument compared to images taken of the same region of space by the WISE and Spitzer space telescopes! Look at that resolution! So many newly resolved stars and structures! 🤩
I can't wait for all the new discoveries we'll make with JWST! #Science data starts in only a couple months!
(Image from @/AndrasGasper on birdapp)
@_astronoMay Dayum!
In all seriousness, using backcasting / retrospective analysis, what have been the most consequenctial results of improved astronomical observation in the past? How does this illuminate (so to speak) what we might gain here?
Thoughts that occur to me:
(Very partial list.)
Is there some sort of official Astronomical Compendium of Major Discoveries out there?
Major findings, of, say, WISE, Spitzer, Chandra, Hubble (scope), etc.?
@dredmorbius I'm not sure if there is a compilation of all the major discoveries of each observatory! My favorite would probably be the Hubble Deep Field though!
@_astronoMay On HDF: what's the scientific content of that image?
I mean "it's full of starsWgalaxies" is interesting from a visual / aesthetic basis, but scientifically what does it show?
@futureisfoss @WestCoastBirder nearly all telescope images are by default monochromatic! The only way we can get color is by using filters and then combining them on a computer later.
There are some telescopes that also record the "color" of the light too in the form of the energy of each photon, but these are x-ray telescopes.
For JWST we have quite a few filter options on the different instruments to take pictures with, but they can also be combined with data from other telescopes too!
Correct! That's the wavelength of light in each image.
We typically use filters to only collect very certain colors of light at a time so that we can later see how objects in space change when observed in these different colors. This helps show us, among other stuff, what the objects are made of
These are all infrared wavelengths, which is a type of heat.
this is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits our Milky Way!
check out https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html for updates on the status of the telescope and instruments!
During Webb's launch, deployment and commissioning, 'WhereIsWebb' tracked Webb's 'flight' to L2 orbit, its state and progress during its deployment and commissioning process, and finally the release of its first images. This process is now complete. During this process, the page constantly updated in near realtime as Webb traveled, deployed, cooled to operating temperature and as instruments were turned on, tested and verified. The most recently completed deployment/commissioning step for Webb was displayed along a timeline/schedule that indicated all the major deployment/commissiong phases. Webb's current deployment/commissioning state and regularly updated detailed status of that state were displayed along with links to relevant media. WhereIsWebb (via NASA Eyes) also provides users with a 3d model of Webb showing its location in our 3d solar system. The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called Webb or JWST) is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.
Great! Thanx
Hmm, I haven't heard about that! There were some galaxies that were in the background of a calibration image that was released, but very few people have the actual data that made up those images so no science on it has been done yet.
There was a recent discovery of the farthest star/galaxy ever observed with the Hubble Space Telescope and that target will be observed with JWST once science observations start, maybe that's what you're thinking of?
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/record-broken-hubble-spots-farthest-star-ever-seen/
this has to do with the shape of the mirrors! Since it's not a circle, a star won't look like a circle. Here's an example of what a star would look like if observed with different shape mirrors:
@tagomago yep, That's what JWST stands for. Many astronomers do not use the actual name, though, because of who the telescope is named after. You can read more here:
@_astronoMay This is soo exciting!
@_astronoMay
Hope they find a way to put that type of resolution in a camera lens soon.
The sun stars look a litte mushy, though. They'll have to work on those for the consumer version :)
slightly more serious: Someone should make one of those zoom animations where you start from a wide-angle shot of the milky way and zoom in all the way to JWST resolution, just to appreciate what a tiny part of the sky this is.
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