Voyager 1 and 2 still alive!!!! 38,000 mph!

[amazinblue82]

Are you ready for this?

View attachment 543408

whispers around the water cooler at NASA is they have seen many images already internally and the rest of us are gonna get our socks blown off.

Example was a pic they took farther back into time than anything we ever had. Plus best ever pics of some things we knew about as well as something new we have never seen before.

Hype? Maybe but we were expecting spectacular things and looks like we are exceeding our expectations.

 

[thethee]

Honestly, as long as the pictures are clear they'll be spectacular regardless of what's on them. The engineering behind it still boggles my mind.

 

[amazinblue82]

agree with you 100% chief. We are gonna get the best, clearest (fingers crossed) pics we have ever seen.

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JWST exists to do FOUR big things: source NASA's James Webb Space Telescope: Hubble's Cosmic Successor

"According to NASA, the James Webb Space Telescope will focus on four main areas: (1) first light in the universe, (2) assembly of galaxies in the early universe, (3) birth of stars and protoplanetary systems, and (4) planets (including the origins of life.)"

Up until 200K-300K years after the "Big Bang" the Universe was dark (because it was "soupy" therefore opaque). Stick any fantastic telescope anywhere you want, there's nothing to "see" because whatever EM spectra that was there was "blocked" by the "soup". Maybe Webb has picked up that very first "light" from just after the universe became "transparent" 13+ billion years ago!?

They got pretty good ideas what the structure of universe is. Dark matter (dunno what it is but its all around us and everywhere in the cosmos) is like a "scaffolding" along which gravity attracted hydrogen/helium in sufficient concentrations until stars lit up/galaxies formed. Maybe "newborn baby pics" of the universe will also help figure out what "dark matter" is in the first place?

Some few million years letter, inside these baby galaxies, stars are lighting up everywhere and in their "discs" rocky/gas giant planets are forming. This branch of cosmology is way outside my pedestrian grasp of the nuances, but proto-solar system study (and pics) will surely teach them something.

Last, they finally might be able to "see" atmospheres around multiple thousands MORE planets that JWST can now see. Then they do spectrum analysis and determine "what" kind, if any, of atmospheres they have. Maybe like THIS blue rock's atmosphere .. then maybe (a stretch .. but still we can hope) we can find/figure out where to look for carbon-based "life" was somewhere/may still be there someplace else in the universe.

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The smartest people we have on the planet are gonna get Webb access in a couple weeks and for years to come, run experiments/review data, then quoting David Bowman: "something wonderful" is gonna happen!

.. And along the whole way there will be beautiful, clear pics like never before

 

[amazinblue82]

guess they couldn't wait until tomorrow. Deepest (furthest back in time we've ever seen) .. over 13 billion years.

Webb astounds! More to come.

Source: James Webb live updates: 1st telescope image shows ‘deepest’ view of universe ever

 

[thethee]

What a preview!

 

[amazinblue82]

What a preview!

for some perspective .. Bill Nelson, NASA administrator said yesterday (paraphrased):

"Take a grain of sand, hold it up at arm's length against the sky --- the area covered by that grain of sand is the patch of sky JWST looked at and took this picture of hundreds of thousands of galaxies, each one with hundreds of billion stars in it."

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Take Nelson's analogy then let your imagination do the rest

Put your arm down at look at how much of the sky area you see ..

every grain-of-sand-sized patch you pointed Webb at you'd find untold billions of stars --- times 5 (what some folks estimate based on what we've been finding) to get the number of planets potentially around each star.

Ask yourself the next question .. Are we "alone:?

Pure math says "unlikely".

STILL that does NOT mean ET is coming over for dinner tonight ... NOR does it mean ET didn't in fact visit THIS rock last night. Who da heck knows.

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Anyway, Webb is proving its abilities in spades .. fun's just getting started

 

[thethee]

Webb Image Galleries - NASA Science

Latest Images – 2024 Webb’s most recent images released by NASA in 2024, displayed in reverse chronological order. The image below is a SLIDESHOW. Hover over the image to see the image title and controls. Click the image to go to a detail page with more info and the ability to download the image...

www.nasa.gov

 

[thethee]

I will refrain from posting posted the full images

 

[thethee]

Livestream was a little cringe though

 

[amazinblue82]

I will refrain from posting the full images

why is that boss .. the images PLUS the first analysis of them, is ground-breaking stuff? examples

. water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet -- wont have complex life as WE know it, but adds to a cosmic narrative that WATER is more common in the universe than we thought .. in turn means chances for "complex" organic like goes up a bit.

. characteristics of star forming nebula we have never seen before?

. the pic you posted at #427 is the Southern Ring Nebula, before JWST and after. there are TWO stars at the center instead of one (Webb can see through the dust where others telescopes could not).

and some the "colorful dots" outside/on the edges of the rings are not stars but rather WHOLE galaxies much further away..

I will refrain because you did .. but still was wondering why hold back boss?

 

[thethee]

 

[thethee]

 

[thethee]

 

[thethee]

why is that boss .. the images PLUS the first analysis of them, is ground-breaking stuff? examples

. water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet -- wont have complex life as WE know it, but adds to a cosmic narrative that WATER is more common in the universe than we thought .. in turn means chances for "complex" organic like goes up a bit.

. characteristics of star forming nebula we have never seen before?

. the pic you posted at #427 is the Southern Ring Nebula, before JWST and after. there are TWO stars at the center instead of one (Webb can see through the dust where others telescopes could not).

and some the "colorful dots" outside/on the edges of the rings are not stars but rather WHOLE galaxies much further away..

I will refrain because you did .. but still was wondering why hold back boss?

Whoops.. what was I thinking?

 

[thethee]

. the pic you posted at #427 is the Southern Ring Nebula, before JWST and after. there are TWO stars at the center instead of one (Webb can see through the dust where others telescopes could not).

Actually, as I understand it, both those images are from JWST

 

[amazinblue82]

Actually, as I understand it, both those images are from JWST

I agree. Both images in #427 are from Webb.

the narrative UNDER the pic in the WEBB website was pointing out the SINGLE-appearing center star is actually 2 stars. Other words in the website seem to say BOTH are JWSP

this is HUBBLE site of the same nebula -- a single-appearing bright star. source: A Glowing Pool of Light: Planetary Nebula NGC 3132

 

[thethee]

View attachment 543843

The same subject but then imaged by Hubble:

 

[HWYCRZR]

This is way out there. To get a better perspective I will likely need progressive shots. Starting with a far away look (no zoom then progressively zooming in to the nebula.

 

[Fratzog]

I will likely need progressive shots

This doesn't give you what you are looking for but it certainly puts the scale of the universe into perspective.

 

[amazinblue82]

Hmm... I am STILL a JWST fan. However, I was a little "underwhelmed" (at first, acknowledging its infrared) with yesterday's Jupiter pic that was released.

source: Webb Images of Jupiter and More Now Available In Commissioning Data – James Webb Space Telescope

Why the initial chagrin?

Jupiter looked kinda "bland". The Hubble pic below .. that pops .. in visible light of course is what I was used to (we'll compare to Webb image "interpreted" in visible light IF they release it).

So why are the Webb guys "over the moon" so to speak?

“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped plan these observations.

Webb even got the shadow of Europa on Jupiter (dark spot a little left of the "white" Great Red Spot). Basically, they are validating in these early images that Webb can do it all .. and then if you add spectra analytics, Webb is truly that much more remarkable.

Near, far, a few light minutes ago or billions of light years ago, in equally excellent detail ... this sum-gun's abilities to astound/inform us seems unlimited.