https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
Apprehensive, yes. Could be an $8.8 Billion fireworks show.
I'm curious to see what comes back from it. I wouldn't say "excited" since I think it will be quite a while until we see what it can do.
Remember how Hubble seemed like a debacle for a while... and then it started offering data that simply had never been available before? So the "excitement" curve was excited > disappointed > awed. If Webb can achieve that, it will be great :-)
Welp, so far, so good.
Keep us posted please... yes interested.
When the telescope was about 100,000 miles (160,000 km) away from Earth, the observatory executed a crucial burn to ensure it would safely reach its destination.
According to NASA, this burn, dubbed Mid-Course Correction Burn 1a or MCC1a, was the most important of the three burns the spacecraft will make during its journey to the destination --Earth-sun Lagrange point 2-- and the only one that needed to be particularly carefully timed.
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Worth a read. We have 6 months of high anxiety to bear.
James Webb Space Telescope to Unfold After Launch — a NASA Nail-Biter
https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-to-unfold-after-launch-2021-12
Nice animations. I was listening to radio coverage of this last night while driving around.
One thing to highlight is that the JW is going into orbit around the sun 1.5 million km away from the earth. I found this interesting, especially the comparison to other objects (Hubble, the moon, etc)
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html
Hats off to the European Space Agency for their Ariane 5 rocket which worked flawlessly. It's good to know that somebody besides the US, Russia and China have heavy lift capability.
Dec 28:
JWST will deploy its mirror flaps around 12 to 13 days after launch. But before that happens, the observatory has an even more complex deployment that it must get through, one that will take up to six days to complete. It's the deployment of JWST's sunshield, an intricate apparatus designed to block heat from the Sun and keep the telescope extra cool while in space. While the deployment process is designed to be flexible and things could change, the first step of the sunshield deployment is supposed to get started today, which means almost everyone associated with this mission will be holding their breath for the next week.
"The sunshield itself is — of all of our deployments — that's the one that is the most complex," Lee Feinberg, the optical telescope element manager for JWST at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, tells The Verge. "It has the most moving parts."
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>European Space Agency
The Ariane 5 rocket has one of the widest payload fairings currently on the market, spanning 5.4 meters, or nearly 18 feet wide. But that's still too small to house JWST's mirror fully extended.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22816310/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-deployment-sequence
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Baby steps...
On Tuesday (Dec. 28), the spacecraft notched another key step in that deployment as it unfolded the Forward Unitized Pallet Structure (UPS) of its vast sunshield, according to a NASA statement. The process took four hours and concluded at 1:21 p.m. EST (1821 GMT), according to the agency. Webb will now mimic that process with the Aft UPS.
Aft Sunshield Pallet Deployed
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/28/aft-sunshield-pallet-deployed/
5-layer heat shield deployed.
Sunshield Tensioning Complete. JWST Sunshield is Fully Deployed
Secondary Mirror FULLY DEPLOYED
Amazing bit of engineering. Have you seem where its at?
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
Just had a peek.
Thanks for the updates :)
>Thanks
Welcome
James Webb Space Telescope deploys radiator to keep instruments cool
the telescope's Aft Deployable Instrument Radiator (ADIR) is a 4 foot (1.2 meters) by 8 foot (2.4 m) panel
Today, the first of two primary mirror wings, or side panels, was deployed and latched successfully.
Now that the port side wing panel is locked in place, ground teams will prepare to deploy and latch the starboard panel tomorrow.
Upon completion, Webb will have concluded its major deployment sequence.
James Webb Completely and Successfully Unfolded
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ION:
The Hubble telescope was deployed from Space Shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, and has been in operation for more than 31 years.
That's all pretty amazing. I sure hope we start getting some science from it soon.
NASA has begun a four month-long process of bringing the James Webb Space Telescope into focus so it can start taking pictures of the universe by May.
Wow. That's a long time to get something into focus. I think its utility for sports photography will be very limited.
QuoteWith the successful deployment & latching of our last mirror wing, that's:
50 major deployments, complete.
178 pins, released.
20+ years of work, realized.
https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1479880178021060609
Webb Mirror Segment Deployments Complete
"Today, the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the mirror segment deployments. As part of this effort, the motors made over a million revolutions this week, controlled through 20 cryogenic electronics boxes on the telescope. The mirror deployment team incrementally moved all 132 actuators located on the back of the primary mirror segments and secondary mirror. The primary mirror segments were driven 12.5 millimeters away from the telescope structure. Using six motors that deploy each segment approximately half the length of a paper clip, these actuators clear the mirrors from their launch restraints and give each segment enough space to later be adjusted in other directions to the optical starting position for the upcoming wavefront alignment process....
Next up in the wavefront process, we will be moving mirrors in the micron and nanometer ranges to reach the final optical positions for an aligned telescope. The process of telescope alignment will take approximately three months."
Webb space telescope nears its destination almost a million miles from Earth, ready for critical mirror alignment.
Once aligned and its instruments calibrated, Webb will be 100 times more powerful than Hubble, NASA says — so sensitive to infrared light that it could detect the faint heat of a bumble bee as far away as the moon.
January 24: after a 30-day journey into space, Webb arrives at its final destination.
Quote from: Rupert on January 05, 2022, 09:35:28 PM
Amazing bit of engineering. Have you seem where its at?
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
Just had a peek.
Thanks for the updates :)
Have you seen the new 3D version, it's pretty awesome
The mission operations team's next major step is to turn off instrument heaters. The heaters were necessary to keep critical optics warm to prevent the risk of water and ice condensation. As the instruments meet pre-defined criteria for overall temperatures, the team is shutting off these heaters to allow the instruments to restart the months-long process of cooling to final temperatures.
When NIRCam reaches 120 kelvins (approximately -244 degrees Fahrenheit, or -153 degrees Celsius), Webb's optics team will be ready to begin meticulously moving the 18 primary mirror segments to form a single mirror surface.
This week, the three-month process of aligning the telescope began - and over the last day, Webb team members saw the first photons of starlight that traveled through the entire telescope and were detected by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument. This milestone marks the first of many steps to capture images that are at first unfocused and use them to slowly fine-tune the telescope. This is the very beginning of the process, but so far the initial results match expectations and simulations.
We have the first (still cross-eyed) images from James Webb telescope. (https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-photos-unveiled)
Webb Space Telescope Captures Selfie as It Aligns Its Gold Mirrors
https://gizmodo.com/webb-space-telescope-selfie-1848523892
"The process is going well, according to NASA.
This initial search covered an area about the size of the full moon because the segment dots could potentially have been that spread out on the sky," Marshall Perrin, the deputy telescope scientist for Webb and an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in the same statement. "Taking so much data right on the first day required all of Webb's science operations and data processing systems here on Earth working smoothly with the observatory in space right from the start. And we found light from all 18 segments very near the center early in that search! This is a great starting point for mirror alignment."
James Webb Space Telescope has locked onto guide star in crucial milestone
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/webb-telescope-reaches-major-milestone-all-its-light-is-in-one-place/
Quote
Webb Telescope reaches major milestone: All its light is in one place
Today, NASA shared an image indicating that it had successfully completed the image alignment stage of commissioning the Webb Space telescope. The Webb's primary mirror is composed of 18 individual segments and, as of today's update, all of those segments are aligned so that a single star shows up as a single object. While there are still several more focusing steps required, the path to commissioning the telescope keeps getting shorter.
Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb's mirrors.
After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starlight into Webb's signature hexagonal formation, the team refined each mirror segment's image by making minor adjustments, while also changing the alignment of Webb's secondary mirror. The completion of this process, known as Segment Alignment, was a key step prior to overlapping the light from all the mirrors so that they can work in unison.
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Even though the segments are properly aligned, each of the mirror segments are still acting as 18 small telescopes instead of one big one, as is the final intent. NASA says that these segments now need to be lined up to each other with an accuracy smaller than a the wavelength of light.
The next step, phase four of seven, is known as Coarse Phasing, where the NIRCam will be used to capture light spectra from 20 separate pairings of the mirror segments.
NASA's Webb Reaches Alignment Milestone, Optics Working Successfully (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-reaches-alignment-milestone-optics-working-successfully)
Quote
On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as "fine phasing." At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb's Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb's optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.
Although there are months to go before Webb ultimately delivers its new view of the cosmos, achieving this milestone means the team is confident that Webb's first-of-its-kind optical system is working as well as possible.
"More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Today we can say that design is going to deliver."
NASA released a statement explaining how JWST is performing even better than expected. "Every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb's optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue."
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope mirror surpasses expectations as alignment continues
https://www.teslarati.com/nasa-webb-telescope-jwst-mirror-alignment-progress/
"Better than our most optimistic prediction" – first images from James Webb exceed all expectations
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/james-webb-telescope-first-images
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/james-webb-spikes/
I learnt something new today, being able to tell by the spikes which which telescope was used.
Every article I read I'm always awestruck at the the insane level the engineers went to get this telescope to where it is now.
Three of James Webb's four instruments are now aligned
https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/james-webb-multi-instrument-alignment/
Final James Webb Space Telescope instrument reaches super-cold operating temperature - Space.com
Webb's mirror alignment is done, now it's on to the instruments | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/webbs-mirror-alignment-is-done-now-its-on-to-the-instruments/
NASA James Webb Target Acquired: A Super-Earth Covered in Lava Oceans - CNET
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/nasa-james-webb-target-acquired-a-super-earth-covered-in-lava-oceans/
James Webb Space Telescope will release its 1st science-quality images July 12
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-images-july-12
'Unexpected' NASA James Webb Space Telescope Test Image Will Pump You Up
https://www.cnet.com/science/space/unexpected-nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-test-image-will-pump-you-up/
James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62122859)
Pretty great stuff!
Hubble vs JWST (https://imgur.com/a/nVYtx6O)
First full-color images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope (https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive) - NASA live, starts in 30 mins
Another comparison page Compare Webb's Images to Hubble (https://johnedchristensen.github.io/WebbCompare/)
Wow. Those comparisons are stunning.
What surprised me the most is looking outside the main object at the dark sky and seeing how much of the "dark" sky is no longer dark.
I don't know anything about astronomy - are these never-before-seen objects, or objects seen with other telescopes (i.e. the best terrestrial scopes), just not the Hubble?
Also as I understand it, these are all "translations" - there's only a small amount of overlap - Hubble primarily sees in the 0.1-0.8 micron range (UV and visible) while Webb is primarily 0.6-25 microns (IR). So they really aren't "seeing" the same stuff and when NASA presents us with viewable, visible images, it's effectively some sort of artist's rendition of what shows up on the telescope.
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparisonWebbVsHubble.html
That article has a cool graphic showing how far back in time they see. Hubble can see back to the end of the "toddler" galaxy period, while Webb sees to the very beginning of it and beyond to the formation of early stars.
That, by the way, is why Webb is in the near-IR. Because of red shift as the universe expands, the light from the oldest galaxies and early stars is in the near-IR range (another thing I just learned from that article)
It is staggering.
JWST captures aftermath of galactic collision (Cartwheel Galaxy)
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-039
Pictures of Jupiter. I didn't know they would look at things so "close" as a planet
https://www.microsoftnewskids.com/en-us/kids/science-tech/nasa-unveils-new-james-webb-telescope-images-that-show-remarkable-details-of-jupiter
Scientists Puzzled Because James Webb Is Seeing Stuff That Shouldn't Be There
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-puzzled-because-james-webb-is-seeing-stuff-that-shouldn-t-be-there/ar-AA11hAAa
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/webb-telescope-captures-new-view-of-pillars-of-creation/ar-AA13a1vF
Webb Telescope Captures New View of 'Pillars of Creation'
James Webb telescope allows astronomers to see atmosphere on planet 700 light years away
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-spot-entirely-new-details-on-distant-planet-using-nasa-james-webb-space-telescope/ar-AA14ptqK
Wow.
That is incredible.
>see life on other worlds
I know i is a long shot, but imagine if Webb grabbed an image of a planet with artificial lighting? That would change everything.
Probably much more likely is evidence of simple life somewhere.
>artificial lighting
Reminds me of the film Contact. What a moment that would be.
>long shot
I think the theory is already there on it being entirely possible, a bunch of telescopes spread out across our orbit like the telescope arrays we have on Earth just now. By spreading out the telescopes over a wider distance there's more granularity in the signal due to the arc of the incoming light being more measurable. No idea on the maths and how much distance is needed vs how far we can see with it. AFAIK there's a bunch of extra data to be had for near enough stars simply by looking at them 6 months apart when we're on either side of the Sun.
>artificial lighting
Heh, If we detect alien life it's likely to be advertising and spam full of alien affiliate links.
Quote from: littleman on November 27, 2022, 12:31:23 AM
Probably much more likely is evidence of simple life somewhere.
I wonder what signal that would be from a great distance. Especially what unambiguous signal.
If there are 5 planets with life and the JWST could see every planet in the galaxy, it still might take centuries(???) just to look at them all and find one of the other four.
>I wonder what signal that would be from a great distance. Especially what unambiguous signal.
Unambiguous would be challenging, but we can detect gasses from a distance and if a planet has carbon dioxide, methane and water it may have life. If we could get detailed enough images to see evidence of plant like life, say the way our rain forests look from space, that would be a good indication.
Edit:
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/detecting-lifes-influence-on-planetary-atmospheres/
Sorry, yes, "unambiguous" is a ridiculous bar. I'm still searching for unambiguous signs of intelligent life on earth. But for "intelligent" life, highly varying non-random radio signals would be a strong sign (i.e. the sort of thing SETI was looking for).
But that's pretty interesting
QuoteIn the Archean eon (4 to 2.5 billion years ago), a disequilibrium existed via the coexistence of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, and liquid water, which ordinarily would react to create ammonium and bicarbonate, quickly removing the methane from the atmosphere without the presence of life to replenish it
Now I can see how you could detect possible life without radio signals from a technologically advanced society.
AFAIK, we're searching for signs of carbon-based life. Roddenberry once mulled over the possibility of silicone-based life forms. Everything else in Star Trek seems to have happened , so why not silicone aliens?
The James Webb Space Telescope: Atmospheres of Other Worlds (https://kipac.stanford.edu/events/james-webb-space-telescope-atmospheres-other-worlds) lecture @ 8pm PST Monday. It requires pre-registration for in person or YT viewing.
James Webb smells someone having barbecue in galaxy 12 billion light years away
Most distant smoke and smog discovery could help explain star formation in the early universe • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/06/james_webb_aromatics/
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"On Earth, the molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can be found in smoke, soot, smog, engine exhaust and forest fires. "
Webb telescope detects organic molecules in distant galaxy | CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/world/webb-telescope-distant-organic-molecules-scn/index.html
James Webb telescope image dazzles on science birthday - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66179323
These pictures are gorgeous, but I always wonder how much is art and how much is science. Webb, of course, mostly isn't sensing in the visible spectrum, let alone in color, so all these stunning photos NASA releases are artist's interpretations of the data, but based on some
I have seen photos of the raw images, but was curious how available these are. There is a nice page explaining the JWST image processing and you can actually access the archive of the raw images, which are actually in FITS format. That page also has a link to download the FITS Liberator to convert to TIFF and a link to a step-by-step guide on how to download the original black and white images and colorize them yourself. I can't see doing that, but I wonder how many hobbyists are going in there and grabbing images and, in particular, I wonder how different the images are depending on who does the processing.
https://esawebb.org/about/general/image-processing/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FITS
I didn't find an article with side-by-side interpretations, but here are two quite different versions of the Eagle Nebula Pillars of Creation as captured by Hubble - different colors, different elements highlighted, though still the same orientation (as noted in one of the articles, the orientation is arbitrary and choosing to show them as pillars rather than, say, hanging tentacles, is an artistic choice too).
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/050303/hubble.shtml
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2016/09/13/hubble-false-color/
This has some nice graphics on how the Hubble images are processed. With JWST there is, of course, a lot more room for interpretation since it is almost entirely in infrared part of the spectrum.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/articles/the-meaning-of-light-and-color
https://mashable.com/article/james-webb-space-telescope-exoplanet-discovery-1
We have to stay objective, but finding a strong pointer to life outside our planet is pretty exciting.
>> pointer to life
From today
https://xkcd.com/2828
And now Euclid images are coming in.
I couldn't understand from the article whether these are natively full color or the released images have been processed to full color like Webb or Hubble images. I assume the latter.
https://www.space.com/dark-matter-euclid-mission-first-breathtaking-images
<warp>
https://www.reuters.com/science/webb-telescope-confirms-universe-is-expanding-an-unexpected-rate-2024-12-09/
Webb telescope confirms the universe is expanding at an unexpected rate | Reuters
Not James Webb, but some fun astronomy news
Hubble Caught an Accidental Glimpse of a Comet Breakup
https://www.discovermagazine.com/hubble-caught-an-accidental-glimpse-of-a-comet-breakup-snapping-pictures-of-bright-blue-fragments-48858
This, on the other hand, is JWST news (or maybe "anti-news" since it's about a thing JWST can't do)
This Cotton Candy Planet Is So Weird Even James Webb Can't See Inside
https://scitechdaily.com/this-cotton-candy-planet-is-so-weird-even-james-webb-cant-see-inside/