James Webb Space Telescope - First images coming tomorrow

[Gopi Passiflora]

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https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

A sneak peek was revealed today (July 11).

[Silent Mistwalker]

I've already seen some of the first images taken several weeks ago. The calibration images were almost as fantastic.

[Ceka Cianci]

This is gonna be amazing.

[Finite]

17 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

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https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

A sneak peek was revealed today (July 11).

Hell ya! I can’t wait for all the docus that come from Webb. Gimme some more Degrasse-Tyson, Michio Kaku and Brian Green please.

“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,” 

 

 

[Garnet Psaltery]

Hands up who held out their hand at arm's length, imagining a grain of sand in it?  

Looking forward very much to the next images.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

[Orwar]

   There's an awful lot of stuff out there, huh. 

[Space Zehetbauer]

In most regards, I am very pleased to have lived through the generation I have been a part of, but when it comes to this stuff I envy those who are younger and will see so many amazing things in the field of astronomy.

Beautiful stuff!  🙂

 

 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Look how some of those central galaxies seem to have been bent, stretched and warped.  This is caused by the gravitational forces warping space-time itself, along with the light travelling from these distant galaxies.

Then consider that the light from these galaxies has taken over 13 billion years to reach us, at a speed of 671 million miles per hour.  Many of those galaxies are so old and so far, far away that they may not even exist any longer.  The JWST is literally a time machine that looks back in time almost to the Big Bang.

Everything in that image could be hidden behind the tip of a needle held out at arms length.  Consider all that other "empty space" too.

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Same view, but Hubble Space Telescope on left and JWST on the right. The six pointed star effect is a side-effect caused by JWST's hexagonal shaped mirrors. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Pop-science magazine Scientific American released a little interview and a schematic indicating how deep (in space and time) the JWST can gaze:

Here's the whole vid.

It basically implies that they can see so far back with it., that at some point, the galaxies and starts stop, as if you're looking at the edge of the universe. Imagine zooming in and seeing more and more galaxies, until at some magnification, it suddenly stops. That's pretty profound, imho.

I'm also really curious whether (i) they already were able to see the first, 'low-metallicity' stars,  (ii) what chemicals they were able to detect in exoplanet atmospheres, and (iii) whether they were able to explain the discrepancy between the age of the universe determined by measuring redshifts and distances of galaxies on the one hand and by measuring temperature distributions in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation on the other.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Even our view of the Sun is an illusion of time. Everytime you see the Sun, that's what it looked like eight and a half minutes ago, as it's light takes that long to reach us. from a mere 93 million miles away.

At the moment the Sun dips below the horizon at sunset, the Sun had actually set eight and a half minutes before you saw it do so.  And at sunrise, had already risen eight and a half minutes before dawn!

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Phil Deakins]

53 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Then consider that the light from these galaxies has taken over 13 billion years to reach us, at a speed of 671 miles 671 million miles per hour.

FIFY

 

[Phil Deakins]

A lot of the stuff in the pic are much nearer than the telescope is capable of, of course. It would be interesting to see the same pic but with the stuff that's also in the Hubble pic removed. That would show the stuff that the JW can resolve that we previously couldn't resolve/detect.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Phil Deakins

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

The difference between the Hubble and JWST is the much larger mirror size, the fact JWST has infra red heat detection abilities and is cooled to temperatures so cold that JWST could detect the warmth of a single bee flying above the Moon's surface if it were possible.

Hubble has a smaller mirror, does not have infra red detection and is encased by a big shiny metal tube that gets warmed up every time the Sun shines on it.

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Garnet Psaltery]

1 hour ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Even our view of the Sun is an illusion of time. Everytime you see the Sun, that's what it looked like eight and a half minutes ago, as it's light takes that long to reach us. from a mere 93 million miles away.

At the moment the Sun dips below the horizon at sunset, the Sun had actually set eight and a half minutes before you saw it.  And at sunrise, had already risen eight and a half minutes before dawn!

Sneaky!  So it's peeking at us for eight and half minutes before we know it.  

[Orwar]

2 minutes ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

Sneaky!  So it's peeking at us for eight and half minutes before we know it.  

   Well, no - because likewise it will take the same amount of time for light to bounce back from earth to the sun, so from the sun's perspective you'd see the rotation and position of the earth as it was 8.5 minutes ago.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

The Moon does it too. When you look up at the Moon, it's also an illusion. That's what it looked like 1.3 seconds ago because of the Moon's 240,000 mile distance from the Earth.

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[diamond Marchant]

adding on to the above... the universe is dusty and dust can be transparent to infrared, hence JWST sees objects that are obscured to Hubble. I have heard that SMACS 0723 has a great BBQ joint.

 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

they must of ran into a snag, was 9am est,  I had planned on being up to watch, but they moved it to 10:30 am est.  cant do.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, diamond Marchant said:

adding on to the above... the universe is dusty and dust can be transparent to infrared, hence JWST sees objects that are obscured to Hubble. I have heard that SMACS 0723 has a great BBQ joint.

 

I had to look it up.  I'm not sure what the larger "diffraction spikes" in the newer photographs accomplish, besides being pretty.  Since according to the explanation, it is more "artifacts" than anything..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike

 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

The "diffraction spikes" are caused by James Webb's six-sided mirrors.  Notice that Hubble's image has no such spikes because Hubble's mirror is round

Sadly, James Webb's overall mirror diameter was too big to have been made circular,  so instead it was made as a mosaic of sixteen separate hexagonal mirrors that could be foldered up for launching inside the rocket's nosecone fairing.  

Edited July 12, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Garnet Psaltery]

2 hours ago, Garnet Psaltery said:

Sneaky!  So it's peeking at us for eight and half minutes before we know it.  

2 hours ago, Orwar said:

   Well, no - because likewise it will take the same amount of time for light to bounce back from earth to the sun, so from the sun's perspective you'd see the rotation and position of the earth as it was 8.5 minutes ago.

Thank you for clarifying that in case I confused anyone in my bid to make a joke.  

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

Pop-science magazine Scientific American released a little interview and a schematic indicating how deep (in space and time) the JWST can gaze:

Here's the whole vid.

It basically implies that they can see so far back with it., that at some point, the galaxies and starts stop, as if you're looking at the edge of the universe. Imagine zooming in and seeing more and more galaxies, until at some magnification, it suddenly stops. That's pretty profound, imho.

I'm also really curious whether (i) they already were able to see the first, 'low-metallicity' stars,  (ii) what chemicals they were able to detect in exoplanet atmospheres, and (iii) whether they were able to explain the discrepancy between the age of the universe determined by measuring redshifts and distances of galaxies on the one hand and by measuring temperature distributions in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation on the other.

Lazy scientists, should have held out for a Big Bang telescope.

[Garnet Psaltery]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Lazy scientists, should have held out for a Big Bang telescope.

Perhaps they were afraid it might go bang.