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Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope

64 points by baal80spam 1y ago

fusslo 1y ago
1hr 38 minutes hell yes I'm watching this. I need to find a 'download' button to watch it at 1.5x tho edit: actually, right click the video player when it's playing and there are speed controls
- CamperBob2 1y ago
  Also on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMGENDH_QI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMGENDH_QI .
  - creativenolo 1y ago
    Werid that a path to getting a download is a YouTube link but here we are
    - MarceColl 1y ago
      I think it was a path to be able to see it in 1.5x, not to download it
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
jesuslop 1y ago
Things are kinda weird. We had a reasonable notion of "now", as in... a photo. Came 1905 relat. and that blows the idea up, there is no more a consensual concept of "now". But though not consensual, the photo definition, even if dependent on the observer, is still there. One thing that an earlier documentary on the Webb experiment impressed on me is that with that "now" so defined, the farther the things I see are the earlier, so it is legit that we are seeing big bang "now" (modulo some shit occluding). It is geometrically also weird. We can look around 2D in 360 degrees and see bbang photons coming from everywhere, look 3D spherically around every direction receiving bbang photons. Yet all photons are sourced in a single point-like event (bbang, or post bbang "first light" in fortunate ESA terms). Photons came to us from behind in spacetime from our causal past light-cone, but that cone joins base with the forward oriented bbang causal future light cone, so any valid signal one gets must be inside that region of joined cones. The pic has to be the same as in "suspension" in topology wiki page.
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  A couple of nits: The finite speed of light was known before 1905. It was known by 1676. Second, we see "big bang photons" in the CMB, but we're not seeing the big bang. We're seeing the glow from stuff at the time when the universe became transparent, that is, no longer a plasma.
TheAmazingRace 1y ago
Honestly, I'm impressed how they managed to nail the design so well with JWST. And sidebar, love the RAD-hardened IBM PowerPC CPU on the telescope.
- nullc 1y ago
  >And sidebar, love the RAD-hardened IBM PowerPC CPU on the telescope Do they mention that it runs javascript?
chrisweekly 1y ago
I saw this at the Museum of Science in Cambridge, MA, in all its IMAX glory. The images are profoundly beautiful, and the ideas about seeing so far back in time are a real trip (even for the relatively well-informed layperson). Also, the telescope's creation, how close it came to being scrapped, the long-shot odds and multiple SPoFs that it survived... makes for a really engaging story.

64 points by baal80spam 1y ago

1hr 38 minutes hell yes I'm watching this. I need to find a 'download' button to watch it at 1.5x tho edit: actually, right click the video player when it's playing and there are speed controls

CamperBob2 1y ago
Also on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMGENDH_QI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSMGENDH_QI .
- creativenolo 1y ago
  Werid that a path to getting a download is a YouTube link but here we are
  - MarceColl 1y ago
    I think it was a path to be able to see it in 1.5x, not to download it
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

jesuslop 1y ago

Things are kinda weird. We had a reasonable notion of "now", as in... a photo. Came 1905 relat. and that blows the idea up, there is no more a consensual concept of "now". But though not consensual, the photo definition, even if dependent on the observer, is still there. One thing that an earlier documentary on the Webb experiment impressed on me is that with that "now" so defined, the farther the things I see are the earlier, so it is legit that we are seeing big bang "now" (modulo some shit occluding). It is geometrically also weird. We can look around 2D in 360 degrees and see bbang photons coming from everywhere, look 3D spherically around every direction receiving bbang photons. Yet all photons are sourced in a single point-like event (bbang, or post bbang "first light" in fortunate ESA terms). Photons came to us from behind in spacetime from our causal past light-cone, but that cone joins base with the forward oriented bbang causal future light cone, so any valid signal one gets must be inside that region of joined cones. The pic has to be the same as in "suspension" in topology wiki page.

AnimalMuppet 1y ago
A couple of nits: The finite speed of light was known before 1905. It was known by 1676. Second, we see "big bang photons" in the CMB, but we're not seeing the big bang. We're seeing the glow from stuff at the time when the universe became transparent, that is, no longer a plasma.

TheAmazingRace 1y ago

Honestly, I'm impressed how they managed to nail the design so well with JWST. And sidebar, love the RAD-hardened IBM PowerPC CPU on the telescope.

nullc 1y ago
>And sidebar, love the RAD-hardened IBM PowerPC CPU on the telescope Do they mention that it runs javascript?

chrisweekly 1y ago

I saw this at the Museum of Science in Cambridge, MA, in all its IMAX glory. The images are profoundly beautiful, and the ideas about seeing so far back in time are a real trip (even for the relatively well-informed layperson). Also, the telescope's creation, how close it came to being scrapped, the long-shot odds and multiple SPoFs that it survived... makes for a really engaging story.