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James Webb Space Telescope

Started by Tank, December 29, 2015, 05:13:42 PM

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Recusant

Quote from: Asmodean on May 16, 2022, 09:22:03 AM
Quote from: Recusant on May 10, 2022, 10:58:16 PMThe GIF below shows the contrast between the previous best infrared space telescope and the infrared capabilities of the Webb telescope.


Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

That one star a bit to the right and below the topmost one of them bright stars... Where did the high-res scope do away with it? HM?! Where, I ask?!  >:(

Yes, that area of the image is intriguing--regrettably the article doesn't address it.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Asmodean

The Asmo hereby suspects some sort of star-death event OR a bad pixel or some such tech voodoo OR having been cheated by the old scope. And/or the new one. :grrr:
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Recusant

The interplanetary medium has christened the Webb telescope. Bashed it with a speck of dust travelling at extremely high speed.

"Webb: Engineered to Endure Micrometeoroid Impacts" | NASA

QuoteMicrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, which routinely sustain many impacts over the course of long and productive science missions in space. Between May 23 and 25, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope sustained an impact to one of its primary mirror segments. After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data. Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing. Impacts will continue to occur throughout the entirety of Webb's lifetime in space; such events were anticipated when building and testing the mirror on the ground. After a successful launch, deployment, and telescope alignment, Webb's beginning-of-life performance is still well above expectations, and the observatory is fully capable of performing the science it was designed to achieve.

Webb's mirror was engineered to withstand bombardment from the micrometeoroid environment at its orbit around Sun-Earth L2 of dust-sized particles flying at extreme velocities. While the telescope was being built, engineers used a mixture of simulations and actual test impacts on mirror samples to get a clearer idea of how to fortify the observatory for operation in orbit. This most recent impact was larger than was modeled, and beyond what the team could have tested on the ground.

[Continues . . .]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

All cooled down and ready to work.  ;D

"The James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to do science – and it's seeing the universe more clearly than even its own engineers hoped for" | The Conversation

QuoteAfter the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on Dec. 25, 2021, the team began the long process of moving the telescope into its final orbital position, unfolding the telescope and – as everything cooled – calibrating the cameras and sensors onboard.

The launch went as smoothly as a rocket launch can go. One of the first things my colleagues at NASA noticed was that the telescope had more remaining fuel onboard than predicted to make future adjustments to its orbit. This will allow Webb to operate for much longer than the mission's initial 10-year goal.

[Detailed description of instruments coming online.]

As of June 15, 2022, all of Webb's instruments are on and have taken their first images. Additionally, four imaging modes, three time series modes and three spectroscopic modes have been tested and certified, leaving just three to go.

On July 12, NASA plans to release a suite of teaser observations that illustrate Webb's capabilities. These will show the beauty of Webb imagery and also give astronomers a real taste of the quality of data they will receive.

After July 12, the James Webb Space Telescope will start working full time on its science mission. The detailed schedule for the coming year hasn't yet been released, but astronomers across the world are eagerly waiting to get the first data back from the most powerful space telescope ever built.

[Link to full article.]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

The first serious image from the Webb telescope is in the major news outlets, but deserves a spot in this thread.


Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

"NASA's Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet" | NASA

QuoteNASA's James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb's First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.

Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb's view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground.

This deep field, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope's deepest fields, which took weeks.

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb's NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies' masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.

This image is among the telescope's first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast. Learn more about how to watch.

[Link to NASA page]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Recusant

Possible image of the most distant (and therefore oldest) galaxy yet observed, from the Webb telescope. Just a red blob, but its light comes to us across an immense expanse of space.

"Webb telescope may have already found most distant known galaxy" | Phys.org

QuoteJust a week after its first images were shown to the world, the James Webb Space Telescope may have found a galaxy that existed 13.5 billion years ago, a scientist who analyzed the data said Wednesday.

Known as GLASS-z13, the galaxy dates back to 300 million years after the Big Bang, about 100 million years earlier than anything previously identified, Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics told AFP.

"We're potentially looking at the most distant starlight that anyone has ever seen," he said.

[Continues . . .]

A pre-print version of the paper is available:

"Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z ≈ 11 − 13 Revealed by JWST" | arxiv
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Tom62

I just heard that the Webb telescope was damaged. It was hit by a micrometeoroid.
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

billy rubin

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/james-webb-telescope-faces-damage-micrometeoroid-hit

oops

A micrometeoroid that hit the James Webb Space Telescope in May caused a "significant uncorrectable change" to one of its panels used to observe deep space.

So far, Webb has faced at least six deformations on its main mirror panels that have been traced to micrometeoroid strikes, but five of those degradations were negligible or correctable by adjusting the processing formulas, per NASA. The strike in May, however, does not appear to be correctable and slightly reduces the breadth of accurate data the telescope can collect.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Recusant

They have no plans to make service visits to it, as far as I have been able to find. It's a long ride out there--1.6 million kilometers. They don't know how common this sort of impact will be in that orbit, either. Meanwhile, it's performing splendidly. :dance:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Ecurb Noselrub

I read that the one image you posted is a picture of a sector of space equivalent to the area behind a grain of sand held at arm's length. That is simply incomprehensible.

Recusant

Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 26, 2022, 01:20:07 AMI read that the one image you posted is a picture of a sector of space equivalent to the area behind a grain of sand held at arm's length. That is simply incomprehensible.

Yeah, if anything qualifies as mind-blowing, that detail is. Gives a hint at how big the Universe is, and how much stuff is out there. I don't think that area is a particularly crowded part of it, either.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Asmodean

Quote from: Recusant on July 12, 2022, 06:07:30 AM

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
There be a whole bunch of lensing of what appears to be the same object over there *point.*

...Fascinating.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Tank

A truly amazing achievement for an ape with just enough brains to be dangerous!
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Ecurb Noselrub


Tank

Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on August 03, 2022, 06:36:06 PMTank, how are you doing?

Ok thanks. While I was away I had sepsis, Covid and a very, very minor heart attack, probably brought on by the sepsis.  ;D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.