James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update

Copper

Stephan’s Quintet (galaxy group, 290 million lyr)

As seen from Hubble

The comparison will be interesting

https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/25/2606-Image.html

Klaus

@Copper said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:

The comparison will be interesting

I have no clue about astronomy, but I'd guess that in some ways the two aren't comparable since they deal, AFAIK, with very different parts of the light spectrum.

Copper

Link to video

89th

Copper

Mr. Biden gave us a sneak peak today

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.

alt text

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Copper said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:

Mr. Biden gave us a sneak peak today

That's a lot of galaxies.

A whole lot.

taiwan_girl

@Copper said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:

Mr. Biden gave us a sneak peak today

Wow amazing stuff!!

mark

It's a giant leap forward in resolution and light gathering power.

The level of detail in the small galaxies, and the blatantly obvious gravitational lensing, has me very impressed and excited about what we are going to discover with this telescope.

I mean seeing friggin dust lanes and spiral arms, in galaxies that far away, is just incredible.

mark

It's a shame we have to put up with the diffraction spikes from the spider vanes. Hubble has the same issue.

No practical way to get rid of them. Hauling a 21 foot diameter refactor into space would not work very well. lol

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

@Copper said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:

Mr. Biden gave us a sneak peak today

Here's the same region as taken by Hubble.

Side by side:

Screen Shot 2022-07-11 at 8.49.46 PM.png

Copper

The picture on the right is better.

Billions of dollars better?

I can't say, because I'm sure I don't really understand how to compare them.

They are close enough that I believe they are the same subject.

EDIT: I found this comment, I haven't verified it

The fact that hubble captured better looking deep fields is irrelevant, what matters is that this is the same piece of sky, Webb on the left in 12 hours of exposure, Hubble on the right in weeks of exposure!

George K · "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08

I saw someone comment that the amount of space in that photograph is that amount of sky which would be obscured by a grain of sand - held at arm's length.

Copper

@George-K said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:

I saw someone comment

That was me quoting the NASA source a few posts back.

89th

What is trippy is what we are seeing in that picture is 3 times older than when the Earth was even formed.

So much of it doesn't even exist (as seen) now. It's like we have a live camera that shows us the distant past. Tangent, that would be a cool museum feature...if you had a "live camera" that just ported the user to 1880s new york or something.