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James Webb is fully deployed
- jordanpg 5y agoI understand that it will take months to perfect the primary mirror alignment and focus for good science data, but when can we expect the first image?
- terramex 5y ago> Some high priority scientific observations (GTO & GO) with the JWST are likely to be carried out during the commissioning period, since it is clearly desirable to begin to take science data as early as is technically feasible. > Early Release Observations (EROs) will be taken by JWST during both the commissioning and post-commissioning phases of operation. These observations will be chosen to have wide public appeal and are designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the JWST instruments. Publication or reporting in any form of results of these observations is embargoed until the EROs are released. https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportunities-and-policies/jwst-general-science-policies/nasa-smd-policies-and-guidelines-for-the-operations-of-jwst-at-stsci/policy-4-post-launch-commissioning-of-jwst https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportunities-and-policies/... There is a chance for first images to be released before commissioning is complete, but no dates announced so far.
- emptyfile 5y agoAmazing feat of engineering. NASA can be proud of achieving something that no other space agency could do. It took courage to keep shovelling money and effort into this project and some amazing science to get it deployed into space.
- davesque 5y agoI agree with the sentiment, but I think some people might take issue with the suggestion that this was entirely NASA's achievement.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Crash0v3rid3 5y agoWho else was involved?
- davesque 5y agoESA and CSA to name a couple. Probably also lots of other uncredited, small cross-institutional interactions. Not to mention all the details of the launch. I was partly trying to speculate as to why the comment appeared to be getting down-voted. But I guess it's also my opinion that it's kinda weird to claim that no one else could have done it. Who else are we talking about other than earthbound humans?
- magicalhippo 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Partnership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Par... NASA, ESA and CSA have collaborated on the telescope since 1996. [...] ESA is providing the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher, and manpower to support operations. The CSA will provide the Fine Guidance Sensor and the Near-Infrared Imager Slitless Spectrograph plus manpower to support operations. Several thousand scientists, engineers, and technicians spanning 15 countries have contributed to the build, test and integration of the JWST. A total of 258 companies, government agencies, and academic institutions are participating in the pre-launch project; 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European countries, and 12 from Canada. Other countries as NASA partners, such as Australia, have or will be involved in post-launch operation.
- emptyfile 5y agoESA and CSA seem to be in every headline so I wanted to emphasize that only one org would've poured so much money into a project. NASA gets way too much flak and little credit these days. I'm European btw.
- verelo 5y agoFamily guy has got to me, i keep thinking of James Woods high.
- 541 5y agoFor some context around what makes this deployment so remarkable, watch this[0] video that talks about the engineering/building aspects of the James Webb [0] https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ
- ArmandGrillet 5y agoThanks for the link. I am interested in knowing more about the organization behind that project: how many people took care of the deployment, how are they organized, how has quality control been done. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-25/james-webb-space-telescope-hubble-successor-christmas-day-launch https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-25/james-webb... gives some info but not an in-depth view of how things work at the NASA.
- pkaye 5y agoA couple of interesting links I've found so far on the technology of the telescope. https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/observatory/ote/mirrors/index.html#1c https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/observatory/ote/mirrors/in... https://www.stsci.edu/~idash/pub/dashevsky0607rcsgso.pdf https://www.stsci.edu/~idash/pub/dashevsky0607rcsgso.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20080030196/downloads/20080030196.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20080030196/downloads/20...
- jonahbenton 5y agoThank you, this is great, have been looking unsuccessfully for technical content like this.
- amriksohata 5y agoHow long before we can see images?
- tibbydudeza 5y agoAmazing design. Was worried for a moment when they picked up heat issues during deployment but could resolve it a million miles away. Well done to NASA/ESA/CSA/Northrop Grummam and all others who worked on it.
- microjim 5y agoGreat news! I’m happy about this. Just curious - had this mission critically fail, how likely would we be to simply try again? Who needs to approve the cost for that? Would it be politically important to succeed currently?
- ttul 5y agoI don’t think there was a way to fix it remotely. It would just do minor science missions with whichever instruments actually worked.
- microjim 5y agoSorry - by ‘try again’ I meant build a new one and launch it
- PaulKeeble 5y agoHopefully it inserts into L2 orbit successfully and starts doing science. If the results are interesting I can well see a future mission to try and refuel it to extend its life past its projected 10+ years.
- randmeerkat 5y agohttps://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/world/james-webb-space-telescope-updates-scn/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/world/james-webb-space-telesc... “It also used less propellant than planned due to the precision of the telescope's launch aboard the Ariane 5 rocket, so "the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime," according to NASA.”
- irrational 5y ago> Next up for Webb? Five months of alignment and calibration before we start getting images I thought the L2 insertion burn was the next thing. Has that already happened?
- Laremere 5y agoIt has not happened yet. See: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html However, the alignment and calibration starts soon, before the l2 insertion burn. It will just continue for months afterwords, too.
- kurthr 5y agoFrom the Where_Is_Webb site, insertion doesn't happen for another 2 weeks. Like coasting up a hill half the time to L2 has elapsed but 75% of the way there (50% of the way in the first few days!). The next thing looks like aligning the mirror segments. See the status bellow. I think there were already two relatively early correction burns. https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html?units=metric https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html?un...
- rwmj 5y agoThe picture is a visualisation, but does the telescope have a camera pointing at itself?
- asplake 5y agoNo. https://www.space.com/amp/james-webb-space-telescope-no-cameras-reason https://www.space.com/amp/james-webb-space-telescope-no-came...
- PaulKeeble 5y agoAlas no its too dark on the cold side and far too bright on the hot side, no camera can work in these extremes. Everything we know is based on telemetry and they set up a 3D model based on the telemetry so that we could see the live state.
- dang 5y ago(This comment was posted in response to https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1479837936430596097 https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1479837936430596097, so that's the picture)
- dredmorbius 5y agoAs others have noted, no. Ground-based observations of the JWST are possible. They're rather more in the style of Seurat than Hirothropologie, and rather minimalist-pointilist at that. https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-video-image-virtual-telescope-project https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-video-image...
- amai 5y agoMaybe we could use the Hubble space telescope to make a photo from the James Webb telescope ;-)
- coldcode 5y agoI wonder when it can start observing.
- fotta 5y agoIt'll take a few weeks after L2 insertion to cool the components and another 5 months to calibrate the instruments.
- dylan604 5y agoI'm hoping that the 5 months of calibration time is one of those where the engineers were asked "how long", so they thought about it and then padded the shit out of it, then the PMs took that number and padded it yet again. After all that, it only takes a few weeks. It'll be the first milestone JWST would meet early, so not too likely. We've only waited decades, so a few more months isn't that bad. At least it is off the ground now!
- taftster 5y agoI can tell, you're an engineer. Of some variety.
- dylan604 5y agoI only play one on TV ;-) Then again, it's not a unique situation for an engineer. It's the same for any situation for construction (and related jobs) estimates, auto-repair, etc. You always want to lean on over estimating time and finishing "early" vs the opposite.
- terramex 5y agoSimilar question was just asked during press conference and the answer was "telescope is cooling a bit faster than we simulated but it is not a significant difference, it might be ready one or two days ahead of current estimation". Current timeline is for getting all 4 cameras to work, but I think only one needs cryogenic cooling, other 3 could work with just sunshield. In another answer one of the engineers said that first images will be released once telescope is fully operational (aka all 4 instruments cooled down).
- elefanten 5y agoFor those not up on the project, what are some of the earliest novel types of information we expect to receive from it?
- jazzyjackson 5y ago“Images of the first galaxies, the first black holes” iirc from Smarter Everyday’s interview with John Mather, sorry don’t have a time code for you https://youtu.be/4P8fKd0IVOs https://youtu.be/4P8fKd0IVOs
- Iv 5y ago"Meet hot methane-breathing life forms in your neighborhood!"
- wruza 5y ago"5pc from Coatesville, PA"
- micromacrofoot 5y agoOne of the more interesting things that we'll get is data about what's in the atmosphere of exoplanets https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/science/origins.html https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/science/origins.html Note that the next 5 months or so will consist of mirror cooling and calibration, so nothing until summer.
- q1w2 5y agoThis will only work for a handful of very nearby exoplanets, unfortunately.
- micromacrofoot 5y agohell I’d be excited for 1!
- q1w2 5y ago
- albertopv 5y agoI think it's one of the greatest engineering results ever, a 6 meter infrared telescope 1 million km away, just wow!
- jacquesm 5y ago1.4, not that that is a difference in degree, but it is somewhat relevant.
- dgrin91 5y agoOne of the big numbers that been thrown around is that JWST has 344 single points of failure in its mission. Now that deployment has been completed, is there somewhere that lists how many of those points we have passed?
- FiberBundle 5y agoNot sure about the points of failure, but according to [1] only four deployment stages remain. So the large majority of point of failure should have been passed already. [1] https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#1 https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer....
- ducktective 5y ago>344 single points of failure How can a system have more that one single point of failure?
- WalterBright 5y agoAirliners are designed so that no single failure can bring it down.
- funklute 5y agoThat's not entirely true. Any reasonably complex system will almost certainly have single points of failure, including airliners. Those single points of failures might be very unlikely, but they are still there. E.g. what if the front fell off?
- WalterBright 5y agoIt is entirely true. Source: I worked on 757 flight controls design for 3 years. > what if the front fell off? All structural components are redundant and have redundant attachments. The wing spars are doubled, for example.
- iammjm 5y agoAwesome news. How much longer untill it gets to its destination and sends data and observations?
- moonbug 5y agohttps://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html?units=metric https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html?un...
- neversaydie 5y agoAnother while to go - 2 weeks left to its destination, but several months (~5?) of setup and calibration once it gets there.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- brink 5y agoI've never been one for being hyped about telescopes, but I am particularly excited about the images that this one will come up with.
- ThalesX 5y agoWhat kind of images can we expect? I understood it's an infrared telescope. Will we get visually ... interesting images? Or just data?
- geraldyo 5y agoPublic perception is always part of big budget projects like this. They are most likely releasing some outstanding "enhanced" visually interesting images
- sam-2727 5y agoPress release with more details: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-telescope-reaches-major-milestone-as-mirror-unfolds https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-telescope-rea...
- dang 5y agoOk, we've changed to that from https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1479880178021060609 https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1479880178021060609 above. Thanks!
- WalterBright 5y agoWhat puzzles me is the maneuvering fuel. When that fuel runs out, the telescope can no longer orient itself. This ended the life of the Kepler telescope. But aren't there other ways to orient in space? 1. use pressure from the solar wind 2. have 3 electric motors on 3 axis. Wouldn't spinning those motors rotate the craft? Electric power to do it would come from solar panels, giving it plenty of fuel.
- ThinkBeat 5y agoThey should have made a port for refueling it. An internal fuel tank and a high-capacity tank externally Once the fuel is getting low, launch a refuel. when the new supply gets closed, eject the previous tank, dock the new one. Easy. When they managed to du an in air refuel of a SR71 in 1970s . Surely we can dock a fuel tank in 2022?
- matheusmoreira 5y agoAnd besides, it works in kerbal space program.
- simonh 5y ago> Easy. Nothing in space is easy.
- porsupah 5y agoThey did: "Unlike Hubble, Webb isn't designed to be fixed by astronauts. But it can be refueled robotically. Zurbuchen says that 'once this telescope is deployed, I'm going to put all the effort towards developing that technology, and so within the 10-year lifespan, we can go refuel it'" https://nitter.42l.fr/marinakoren/status/1474367236244750345#m https://nitter.42l.fr/marinakoren/status/1474367236244750345... https://nitter.42l.fr/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1474398711505580032#m https://nitter.42l.fr/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1474398711505580032#...
- WalterBright 5y agoThe astronauts had some serious, unexpected difficulties fixing the Hubble in orbit, and had to improvise. I'm skeptical that blasting a fuel coupling into space, and then trying to figure out how to connect it to a robot, will end well.
- WalterBright 5y agoSince 90% of the cost is probably in R+D of the telescope, one could build and deploy another for another 10%. Why isn't this done? Why is every space telescope completely unique?
- Server6 5y agoWhy would we need two? I would think the next one 20+ years from now would hopefully be exponentially better.
- alimov 5y agoSo that more researchers have access. Afaik access is shared and researchers have to make a proposal and get it approved before use, which to me suggests some kind of queue
- bokchoi 5y agoRedundancy would be good reason.
- BurningFrog 5y agoTo get twice the science done, of course.
- ajuc 5y agoIn 10 years we can send a bigger, simpler, cheaper, one-piece, non-foldable telescope in Starship for a fraction of the cost. The biggest saving wouldn't even be the launch costs - it would be the simple design allowed by relaxing the volume and mass constraints.
- davesque 5y agoThis feels perhaps like a silly comment, but I have this intuition that the data collected by JWST could prove to be some of the most important ever collected.
- gitgrump 5y agoI keep telling people that, no matter what, we're going to learn something cool about the universe. I'm so excited to see these images. I mean, imagine humans 10,000 years ago, just surviving, maybe figuring out agriculture, and thinking about their place in the world. They looked up at the stars in wonder. Now, we've progressed to the point where we can polish gold down to the nanometer, and we're sending a giant hunk of origami circuits out to L2 to squint back to nearly the beginning of time as part of our eternal quest for answers. Your comment is not silly.
- davesque 5y agoI suppose I meant it felt silly in the sense that it would probably come across as seeming vague. And I may as well say a few more words. If I had anything specific in mind, it was the possibility that the JWST could find evidence of compounds in the atmospheres of distant planets that made it seem likely that there is life on those planets. Even if that doesn't happen, the fact that it feels like it's even on the table is amazing. I'm also thinking back to when the Hubble came online and they started releasing the deep field images. And there was this moment where we all realized, "Wow, those things up in the sky that we all casually assumed were stars...many of them are actually galaxies. And all those black spaces in between are full of...more galaxies." Maybe astronomers already knew this; I don't know. But the average person didn't and it was hard to deny once we started seeing those images. Not sure if it's justified, but I expect similar kinds of moments when the JWST starts collecting its first images.
- bsder 5y agoPeople (including me!) really don't have a feel for just how far some of these instruments push things. The Hubble Deep Field was a surprise to quite a few established astronomers. LIGO is measuring things way smaller than nucleons. The JWST can see so far back in time hat you can measure deltas from the beginning of the visible universe. I know that I just don't have an appreciation for just how hard these things are to do.
- asteroidbelt 5y agoNo mention of ESA again, looks like it is solely NASA project, which it is not. Shame.
- kitd 5y agoI was under the impression that ESA's role was to get it into orbit, and is thus largely done. Is that wrong?
- asteroidbelt 5y agoFrom Wikipedia: > NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range. It was built by the European Space Agency at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands. and more.
- spixy 5y agoTo be fair ESA contributed only with ~10% of total budget, and I guess much of that was the rocket.
- asteroidbelt 5y agoI don’t see how that’s fair. If that’s insignificant, why invite them? If that’s significant, why not mention them?
- tnle 5y agoFrom the article, near the very top: "A joint effort with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency, the Webb mission will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe."
- asteroidbelt 5y agoThey changed the link. It pointed to a tweet initially.
- pfdietz 5y agoSo now we just have to worry about the spacecraft ever losing attitude control, since exposing the telescope and its instruments to sunlight now will permanently damage them.
- tannhaeuser 5y agoCan't wait for the first science results from JWST. Any predictions?
- thanatos519 5y ago"We apologise for the inconvenience." written in the deep IR background.
- jl6 5y agoMore great news. Congratulations to all who have worked on the project. I understand the reasons for not putting a camera on or near the JWST, but I’m still a little sad that we’ll probably never get to see the thing in situ in all its operational glory. Maybe one day when it finally expires, we can launch a “sample return” mission to tow it back.
- daveslash 5y agoRE>> "I understand the reasons for not putting a camera on or near the JWST" What are the reasons? I'm sorry ~ I'm ignorant on the topic, but I'd love to learn more. Why/what are the reasons?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- JohnBooty 5y agoGreat blog post from NASA themselves explaining it: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/06/why-doesnt-webb-have-deployment-cameras/ https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/06/why-doesnt-webb-have-... the post is really not very long and I would suggest getting it straight from the horse's mouth, but for those not willing to devote a click here are arguably the most relevant bits! "deployment surveillance cameras would not add significant information of value for engineering teams commanding the spacecraft from the ground." "Webb’s built-in sense of ‘touch’ (for example, switches and various mechanical, electrical, and temperature sensors) provides much more useful information than mere surveillance cameras can," said Geithner. "We instrumented Webb like we do many other one-of-a-kind spacecraft, to provide all the specific information necessary to inform engineers on Earth about the observatory’s health and status during all activities."
- amelius 5y agoPerhaps one day they could send a robot mechanic along with the mission, and then a camera could be of value.
- ThinkBeat 5y agoIt says it will arrive in 14 days or so at L2. Right now, it is moving 0.3933km/s which according to Google is 1415.88km/h. That is pretty fast. What speed does it need to be at for insertion and steady state? How long will it be breaking? (If at all, or of it is not already doing it).
- baq 5y agoAbout 0. It’s climbing a hill and has just enough energy to get to the top. A small burn then will be all it takes to put it in an orbit around L2.
- lovecg 5y agoIt also needs to get as close as possible to the top of the hill without going over. L2 is not a stable point: you’re either falling back to Earth or drifting away. If it goes over it can never get back as it can only fire in one direction - away from Earth (to protect the instruments from the Sun). So it’s a continuous balancing act where it falls downhill towards Earth a bit, then jumps up without going over the edge, rinse and repeat.
- physicles 5y agoThis answers a question I’ve had for a long time: how can the telescope station-keep without any thrusters pointing “up”, away from the sun? Answer: very, very carefully.
- sailingparrot 5y ago> How long will it be breaking? (If at all, or of it is not already doing it). All* of it's acceleration was given by the rocket at launch, it has been constantly "braking" since then as it's being pulled by earth's gravity, and it will reach L2 at same time it reaches a speed of 0. * Not actually all in truth, since for margin of safety reason, the Ariane rocket purposefully imparted a lower than necessary speed, and the more precise thrusters on the JWST will be used to top it off with 3 different short burns (2 of which already happened), always staying just short of the required speed. The idea being that you want to make sure to be always missing a little bit of speed and readjust as needed, but never too much, as that is not recoverable, and the telescope would just drift away for ever.
- maxdo 5y agoCurious did they do a sample data with current temp? Since the deployment is complete. I know it will be not as good as at L2, but still.
- gliptic 5y agoThey have to wait for the instruments to cool down some more first. Data is expected in 5-6 months.
- mywacaday 5y agoWhat I love about this project is that I had an active worry about its success, very few things in life inspire that kind of emotion. Well done to all involved, a true lifetime achievement. Can't wait for the images!
- awb 5y agoThe cost: 23 years and $10B The benefit: “JWST’s instruments are designed to make discoveries across the spectrum of astronomy — ranging from the worlds and mini-worlds in our own solar system to alien planets circling distant stars, from the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy to the edge of the observable universe.” (https://www.geekwire.com/2021/high-cost-high-risk-high-hopes-theres-a-lot-riding-on-the-10b-james-webb-space-telescopes-launch/ https://www.geekwire.com/2021/high-cost-high-risk-high-hopes...) Extremes on the cost/benefit helped create some extreme emotions, I agree!
- devenvdev 5y agoI don't understand why is it considered extreme cost. IIRC it's around $1/us citizen/year. For example the budget for keeping us safe from ourselves is much higher.
- mywacaday 5y agoThat's a great point, Makes me wonder what long term projects my own government have. Does anyone know of other inspiring long term projects in progress? The ITER fusion project is one that comes to mind.
- rkuykendall-com 5y agoYou could probably find any by searching your country's name here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_megaprojects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_megaprojects It seems to cover all sorts of categories, and the James Webb Space Telescope is there (though listed as still under construction).
- 5y ago
- wruza 5y agoDo we see anything up there yet?
- yholio 5y agoA months long alignment period will follow, where the hexagonal segments are bent and turned by thousands of actuators until they are all focused to wavelength precision. The first images will follow, but not before the dark side cools enough to not flood any interesting target into locally generated infrared.
- wolverine876 5y agoSomething I am wondering about the L2 orbit ... per NASA: > Webb's orbit [~ around L2] ... is actually similar in size to the Moon's orbit around the Earth! This orbit (which takes Webb about 6 months to complete once) keeps the telescope out of the shadows of both the Earth and Moon. Unlike Hubble, which goes in and out of Earth shadow every 90 minutes, Webb will have an unimpeded view that will allow science operations 24/7. https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html Wouldn't remaining in Earth's shadow result in less interference, with Earth providing an extra sunshield? And "an unimpeded view" of what? I can't believe those cold, sensitive optics, with that carefully engineered sunshield, will point anywhere but away from the Sun.
- ehsankia 5y ago> with Earth providing an extra sunshield Maybe it needs the sun for its solar power? > And "an unimpeded view" of what? If hubble is looking at sometihng not perpendicular to its orbit, during half the 90 minutes the target will be "behind" the earth, right? So it can only look at things that are to the left or right of its orbit.
- Rebelgecko 5y agoThe advantage of L2 is that the sun and earth will always be in the same direction (more or less) so it's easy to cancel it out. I don't think there's an orbit that would stay in Earth's shadow constantly that would have the same properties (without needing a ton of fuel)
- jrockway 5y agoI think it needs to get some sun to power the solar panels, right? No sun = no electricity = no science.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 1970-01-01 5y agoAs all the unfolding SPOFs have finally been overcome, the title deserves an exclamation point.
- MichaelMoser123 5y agoI wonder if there are some aliens looking at this, and wondering if another advanced civilization has put this together (just like we were wondering with ʻOumuamua). To me James Webb looks definitely like alien technology, if it manages to pass 50 deployment stages, depending on 178 deployment mechanisms... The team working on this did an incredible job! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUAvXYW5bmI&t=195s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUAvXYW5bmI&t=195s
- abadger9 5y agoi'm sure they might when the light reaches them, given the context of planets in our neighborhood, probably in a few hundred/thousand years?
- MichaelMoser123 5y agonot if they know how to bend it ;-) I was told that even the speed of light is hackable!
- devenvdev 5y agoFor some light speed hacking porn I'd recommend reading Cixin Liu's In Remembrance of Earth trilogy. It has a few deus ex machina moments but overall it's just pure fun.
- causi 5y agoI can't help but be a little sad. JWST will be an incredible tool for scientific discovery, but its sensitivity range means it will never produce the kind of compelling imagery that Hubble did. Those pictures played a role in inspiring many of the people in the field today.
- cycomanic 5y agoI would not be so sure about that. Many (most) astronomy photos are false color photos from quite different wavelength regions (often several different overlayed ones). So I do expect some fascinating images to come out of jwb as well.
- ckarmann 5y agoExactly this. Just google "infrared images of space", it's all false colors but still incredible pictures.
- causi 5y agoFascinating, sure, but Hubble has almost six times the frequency range of Webb. In terms of magnification and dust penetration Webb is leagues ahead, but for a given magnification Hubble just sees a wider variety of stuff.
- dreamcompiler 5y agoTo me the second most exciting idea about JWST is that it might give us fairly definitive proof that other intelligent life exists in the galaxy. The most exciting idea is if that happens we'll realize they might have built their own version of JWST and proven we exist.
- ryanSrich 5y agoHow so? What technology specifically would give the JWST an advantage in discovering new life? Genuinely curious.
- dreamcompiler 5y ago1. Its resolution might be high enough to image [big] surface features on exoplanets, and alien megastructures if they exist[0]. 2. JWST has extraordinary spectral analysis capabilities and it should be able to characterise gases in extrasolar planetary atmospheres [1]. [0] https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/telescopes/a19346/james-webb-telescope-alien-megastructure/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/telescopes/a19346/jam... [1] https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/science/origins.html https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/science/origins.html
- russellbeattie 5y agoHeh. Can you imagine the world-wide debate over whether or not we should reach out to the alien intelligence? Apparently, SETI's policy is to NOT respond. Which makes sense to me.
- ryanSrich 5y agoLooking for intelligent life or hoping we’re found by one is likely very foolish. To me, the dark forest theory is the most compelling explanation for the Fermi paradox.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Simon_O_Rourke 5y agoCongratulations to the team, it's been a long road but it's satisfying to see so many folks efforts paying off. I remember seeing a full size mock up of the JWST nearly ten years ago, and thinking it was just too big, complex and far out to succeed. But dedicated people made it happen.
- rmk 5y agoHow does this compare to the 'man on the moon' projects of China? It appears that from a purely scientific standpoint, this telescope will have a bigger impact than those of other space programs. Is my thinking on the right track here? Also, is this complementary in function (and mission) to the Hubble? It appears to me that the spectrum is split up between Hubble and James Webb. As an aside, it is interesting that the telescope is named in honor of a Lawyer turned administrator of NASA, James Webb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Webb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Webb). He must have been very capable indeed (or perhaps had the talent of attaching himself to very successful programs) because he was tapped by Kennedy to lead NASA at a time when the space race was at its peak. What's also weird is that James Webb worked as an administrator in all sorts of Government departments before being tapped to run NASA.
- FlyingSnake 5y ago> How does this compare to the 'man on the moon' projects of China? I don’t think space research has to be a zero sum game with one prescribed approach. The nature of research is that we need a multiple pronged approach into the unknown. If CNSA wants to pursue ‘Man on the Moon’ or JAXA wants to study asteroids, I see this as a win for humanity.
- nullc 5y agoPrograms like man on the moon make their contribution to mans knowledge through the engineering required to achieve the end, rather than in what they discover when they get there. > Also, is this complementary in function (and mission) to the Hubble? It appears to me that the spectrum is split up between Hubble and James Webb. Hubble's IR compliment was spitzer until it ran out of liquid helium. Webb is spitzer's replacement, with orders of magnitude more resolution. Spitzer has qualified a lot of interesting mid IR targets to go look at in more detail. In general non-vis space telescopes are more interesting than visible spectrum ones: Our vision only covers one octave so the odds that some random important physical process will best be observed in the visible spectrum isn't that great. The visible spectrum is also the same spectrum that is well transmitted by the atmosphere so many vis observations can be conducted from earth with much larger and less costly instruments. Adaptive optics can mitigate atmospheric distortion at least somewhat, but there is no solution to non-transmission but space. The atmospheric transmission has a two fold impact too: To study the atmosphere of extrasolar planets we need to study wavelengths that their atmospheres block. ... which, of course, are also wavelengths that our atmosphere blocks.
- DisjointedHunt 5y agoI'd like to see the scientific community get more throughput. While the launch of this telescope is great, it cost wayyy more than anyone expected and took far too long. I hope all the applause doesn't drown out the criticism on the badly run operations and manufacturing capabilities at NASA that contributed to the delays.
- gfykvfyxgc 5y agoI’m glad we got this good news. I would have been truly depressed if it had failed.
- usrbinbash 5y agoMost excellent! An incredible feat by all the engineers working on this!
- gtsnexp 5y agoWhen is first-light scheduled for?
- amai 5y agoCouldn't we make a photo of the deployed James Webb telescope from the Hubble space telescope?