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Every science publication keeps saying that headline... but the images I see back are so boring it's never going to last in the public mind the way the Hubbel d

Every science publication keeps saying that headline... but the images I see back are so boring it's never going to last in the public mind the way the Hubbel did. Maybe the next gen will bring more exciting visible light images. Or maybe they will add enough CGI to make Webb stand out. Until then, I'll just keep being told how amazing Webb is without really feeling it.

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tetris11 3y ago
I do see comparison images between Hubble and JWST, and there is a marked difference when you zoom in on the number of background stars... but yes, nothing dramatically new jumps out visually. I suppose most of the gains come from tracking new blobs of pixels instead of hazy blurs, and that's enough to make some really cool models. I do hope one day to be able to have such resolution that one can witness an alien lifeform with the same accuracy as a spy satellite today. Childish, far-future wish, I know.
vanderZwan 3y ago
Hubble was something never seen before (in the public eye). JWT is higher resolution, in spectra completely unavailable to Hubble. For astronomers it is a giant leap. We will learn new things that we simply could not before. However, when the output is converted to "human-visible frequencies", it inevitably looks similar to the Hubble's output. It's a bit like why I personally find 4K a significantly less impressive leap than HD was over SD. So I understand why it may superficially look the same to you, and that that is what is blocking you from "feeling" why it's as big of a deal as the media makes it out to be. However, the only real "cure" for that is to dive into the science, at least a little bit, to get some perspective of what all these images represent. EDIT: to give a point of comparison: objectively from a visual standpoint, The Pale Blue Dot is not an impressive image to look at. But if you know the story behind it and what it represents, it becomes powerful. Now I'm not saying JWT images will ever be as meaningful to us as PBD will be, since that last one is inherently more personal, but the idea is the same. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

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tetris11 3y ago

I do see comparison images between Hubble and JWST, and there is a marked difference when you zoom in on the number of background stars... but yes, nothing dramatically new jumps out visually. I suppose most of the gains come from tracking new blobs of pixels instead of hazy blurs, and that's enough to make some really cool models. I do hope one day to be able to have such resolution that one can witness an alien lifeform with the same accuracy as a spy satellite today. Childish, far-future wish, I know.

vanderZwan 3y ago

Hubble was something never seen before (in the public eye). JWT is higher resolution, in spectra completely unavailable to Hubble. For astronomers it is a giant leap. We will learn new things that we simply could not before. However, when the output is converted to "human-visible frequencies", it inevitably looks similar to the Hubble's output. It's a bit like why I personally find 4K a significantly less impressive leap than HD was over SD. So I understand why it may superficially look the same to you, and that that is what is blocking you from "feeling" why it's as big of a deal as the media makes it out to be. However, the only real "cure" for that is to dive into the science, at least a little bit, to get some perspective of what all these images represent. EDIT: to give a point of comparison: objectively from a visual standpoint, The Pale Blue Dot is not an impressive image to look at. But if you know the story behind it and what it represents, it becomes powerful. Now I'm not saying JWT images will ever be as meaningful to us as PBD will be, since that last one is inherently more personal, but the idea is the same. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot