Webb Space Telescope Takes Flight

Bambooza

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Just adding to your excellent responses.
JWST took 12.5 hours to take the deep field image. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
Also, note that JWST was not focused at 13.1 billion light years, but 4.6 billion light years. They were duplicating an image Hubble had taken ( conjecture: because it showcases the abilities of JWST.)

The main issue with Hubble is that it orbits the Earth, where JWST orbits the sun. Earth orbit means Hubble didn't have a long exposure time on a specific area of the universe during any particular session, so multiple sessions were required. On the other hand, JWST has a continuous view that could last for days, but it is orbiting the sun rather than Earth (and it is orbiting arouind the LaGrange point) so a particular view might need also to take years to get. But it can do a ton of other stuff in the mean time.

:: edit: there was a mess in the second last sentence... I was distracted by what turned out to be a shiny nut.
And this is why I fully expect it to make its own discoveries. And I understand the disappointment in JWST rehashing what has already been shown instead of bringing something shiny new to the table. But to this, i say it showcases that it confirms what Hubble saw and shows that its images are just as clear before going forward to see what has not been before.
 
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Radegast74

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Shadow Reaper

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Shocking. Stunning. The whole world of astrophysics is afire.

I recall the final exam in first year physics in high school asked the student to solve for the critical mass of the universe that would determine whether it would eventually slow enough to collapse again into a "big crunch" or continue to expand forever. The question was whether the universe's constituent parts had "escape velocity" or if gravity would slow its expansion enough that eventually it would reverse direction and collapse due to its own gravity. Yes, this is simple first year physics kids can do.

In 1993, what we found is this scenario is completely in error. The universe is not slowing in its expansion, but rather; some force is pushing its parts apart ever faster in defiance of gravity. Physicists immediately called this "dark energy" (not "dark matter, that's something different) and set the problem aside, postulating some anti-gravity type force we're not familiar with. Still, we knew then what we thought was wrong. Turns out it is more wrong than we could have imagined.

Enter JWST. Looks like EVERYTHING we have thought about the universe is completely wrong. Great time to become an astrophysicist, as they're not all so damn cocky now.

View: https://youtu.be/vAxgaTvYA7Y
 

Jolly_Green_Giant

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Shocking. Stunning. The whole world of astrophysics is afire.

I recall the final exam in first year physics in high school asked the student to solve for the critical mass of the universe that would determine whether it would eventually slow enough to collapse again into a "big crunch" or continue to expand forever. The question was whether the universe's constituent parts had "escape velocity" or if gravity would slow its expansion enough that eventually it would reverse direction and collapse due to its own gravity. Yes, this is simple first year physics kids can do.

In 1993, what we found is this scenario is completely in error. The universe is not slowing in its expansion, but rather; some force is pushing its parts apart ever faster in defiance of gravity. Physicists immediately called this "dark energy" (not "dark matter, that's something different) and set the problem aside, postulating some anti-gravity type force we're not familiar with. Still, we knew then what we thought was wrong. Turns out it is more wrong than we could have imagined.

Enter JWST. Looks like EVERYTHING we have thought about the universe is completely wrong. Great time to become an astrophysicist, as they're not all so damn cocky now.

View: https://youtu.be/vAxgaTvYA7Y
It's exactly stuff like this i point out to people when they think past conclusions are infallible. Absolutely wonderful time to be alive!
 

Vavrik

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Great side-by-side picture comparison of Neptune, as taken from a) Voyager 2, b) Hubble, and c) the Webb Telescope:
It's amazing what becomes visible in the infrared part of the spectrum. They've known about some sort of rings since 84, but only had glimpses of them until Voyager 2 in '89. 6 rings total, and they are changing rapidly. Something else interesting is in the James Web image, if you look at the poles and equator. Those are storms, but look how bright in infrared the area adjacent to it's north pole is. Fantastic image.
 

Rear_Intruder

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I read the science story's, lots of astronomy stuff. Not much from the JWST except better images of things we have already seen.
I would like your thoughts on why;
Is it working?
Has it confused them with its findings?
Why the lack of new science from the JWST as promised/hoped?

Do I need to spell it out??
1667858208540.png
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I read the science story's, lots of astronomy stuff. Not much from the JWST except better images of things we have already seen.
I would like your thoughts on why;
Is it working?
Has it confused them with its findings?
Why the lack of new science from the JWST as promised/hoped?

Do I need to spell it out??
View attachment 23611
Having the tools to be able to search for answers was only the beginning of the journey of discovering them. It's still going to take time, but here is an article with some of the discoveries it hopes to make by the end of the decade:

 

Vavrik

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Vavrik
I read the science story's, lots of astronomy stuff. Not much from the JWST except better images of things we have already seen.
I would like your thoughts on why;
Is it working?
Has it confused them with its findings?
Why the lack of new science from the JWST as promised/hoped?

Do I need to spell it out??
You don't need the aluminum foil hat, it won't protect you from infra-red. The problem with the hat is that it doesn't reflect heat very well, so you'll just sweat more and that heat can build up and get really annoying.

I think you might need to pick better sources if you're truly interested in the science. Don't if you're not. A starting place you can try is an astrophysicist named Dr. Becky Smethurst from the UK, who has a channel on YouTube:
She's not always talking about JWST, but you can learn a lot about it in snippets that are relevant to her updates. It's a great starting point.
 

Rear_Intruder

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Having the tools to be able to search for answers was only the beginning of the journey of discovering them. It's still going to take time, but here is an article with some of the discoveries it hopes to make by the end of the decade:

Naff, that link is a vague sales pitch to get our taxes. I expected something big by now. The LIGO for instance was not a disappointment.

VARIK -- I will have a look at Dr Becky thanks
 

Bambooza

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There was the calibrations phase then the committee voting on what to look at. Then the year an astronomers teams get exclusive access to the images to make first discoveries or release at their own time. It also takes a long time to look at one spot to get an image and often it's lots of spots then patched together and colored before it's publication is made.

So after the process of calibration the telescope and while it is still neat the pics it can take the purpose is to make sure what they are seeing matches with known values. Then they will start to look for new things. The other issue is the committee is self has lots of people wanting time to look at their pet projects and funding goals and so everyone is pushing and thus known safe areas are often pushed first which don't yield well to the big breakthroughs. In fact the deep field Pic that made hubble stand out wouldn't have happened if not for the director who had enough sway and time allocation.


So it takes months to make a Pic and months of analyzing those pics for discovieres and then months to write and release publications so you end up with a year lag and if we are lucky quarterly releases of a image.
 
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Dirtbag_Leader

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Great side-by-side picture comparison of Neptune, as taken from a) Voyager 2
Voyager was/is just a spectacular program that IMO never gets it's proper due. Not to detract from JWST at all, just wanted to take the opportunity to toot the Voyager horn a bit!
 
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