Mark McCaughrean1d ago

Sneak preview 👀

Some of our #JWST data will become publicly available in the archives tomorrow, for the galactic star-forming region, Sharpless 305, & the nearby massive protostar, RAFGL5232.

The data are tricky & need more work on saturation, noise, & banding problems, plus colour compositing 😬

But as others will be quick to publish images as usual, I thought I'd share our snapshot with you first 😉

More to come as we continue pixel-bashing 👾🔨👍

#SpaceScience #Astronomy #Space #Photography

Show threadMisterMaker1d ago
@markmccaughrean It's so beautiful.
The chaotic birth of the stars.
I'm sure someone is looking back at us in that image.
Show threadMark McCaughrean1d ago

@MisterMaker Ha – nice. That said, anyone looking back from there would themselves be a star-formation tourist like us, except in person rather than remote.

That is, the region is only a few million years old at best, so not long enough for life to have evolved there. But certainly it’s pretty enough to entice visitors in the meantime 🙂

Show threadMisterMaker1d ago
@markmccaughrean Well it was around like room temperature life should be thriving back then.😄
Show threadMark McCaughrean
@MisterMaker Planets are rather excessively toasty when they’re that young – took a few hundred million years at least before things calmed down enough for life to begin on Earth 😉
Apr 2 at 9:03amIceCubesApp
Show threadMisterMaker1d ago
@markmccaughrean I mean earth is gladly still warm, but there are more cold planets then warm planets around.