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Yes, they plan the year in advance. All submissions for time are based on anonymous proposals too so there's no bias in selection, plus they're open to the publ
by _joel 4y ago
Yes, they plan the year in advance. All submissions for time are based on anonymous proposals too so there's no bias in selection, plus they're open to the public so amateur astronomers that have the skill to be able to write such a proposal, can get time on it, just the same as any other instituion.
- ISL 4y agoI'd encourage those with the skill to do so to apply for telescope time. A friend of mine, with no prior observational experience, had a good idea for a Chandra observation, applied in partnership with an astronomer, and got the time necessary to make the measurement. It really does happen. Things like a Sagan 'pale blue dot' image would be a longer shot, but astronomers are humans, too -- if there's a very cool and human idea out there, the committees might be receptive there. (i.e., catching the glint of light off a Mars Observer solar panel or some such thing).
- ars 4y agoIs it capable of seeing Pioneer, or is that way too small?
- ISL 4y agoMy guess is that it is too small, but the RTG is warm.... :).
- zanesterling 4y agoSadly seems like it's way too small. Pioneer 10 is ~2.9m long [1] and 2.0e7 km from Earth [2]. JWST is just 1.5e6 km from Earth, so that doesn't make much of a difference. Doing the trig, you get the arc-width of P10 is 2atan(w/2d) = 2atan(2.9m/4.0e7km) = 7.33e-14 rad. JWST has a resolution of 0.1 arcsecond = 4.8e-7 rad [3]. So we're off by "just" a factor of 10,000,000 on resolution :-( It's too bad, that would be so cool. [1] https://www.space.com/17651-pioneer-10.html#:~:text=This%20spacecraft%2C%20powered%20by%20four,570%20pounds%20(258%20kilograms) https://www.space.com/17651-pioneer-10.html#:~:text=This%20s.... [2] https://theskylive.com/how-far-is-pioneer10#:~:text=The%20distance%20of%20Pioneer%2010,equivalent%20to%20132.216479%20Astronomical%20Units https://theskylive.com/how-far-is-pioneer10#:~:text=The%20di.... [3] https://www.spaceanswers.com/astronomy/ten-reasons-why-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-will-kick-some-cosmic-butt/ https://www.spaceanswers.com/astronomy/ten-reasons-why-nasas...
- lordalch 4y agoMy understanding is that due to Webb's location at L2, it can never point back at the Earth, because that would basically be pointing directly at the sun.
- _joel 4y agoIt also can't be pointed as the the optics need to be actively cooled, hence the giant sunshield and cooling pumps, so it'll never point towards earth/sun
- sbierwagen 4y agoI read that as meaning "Pale blue dot" in the sense that Carl Sagan wasn't a professional astronomer or a NASA employee, he just said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if you tried taking a photo of Earth from the Pioneer probe" and they did it.
- ISL 4y agoSagan was a professional astronomer in Cornell's astronomy department, but his rationale for making the pale-blue-dot image was less as a scientific endeavor and more as a way to tell us more about ourselves. Incidentally, there was a lot more to that imaging campaign -- Voyager captured a "Family Portrait" of our solar system as its last imaging hurrah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Portrait_(Voyager) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Portrait_(Voyager)
- sbierwagen 4y agoThe JWST call for proposals page is here: https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportunities-and-policies/jwst-cycle-2-guaranteed-time-observations-call-for-proposals https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-opportunities-and-policies/...