James Webb: A $10bn machine in search of the end of darkness

[Steel Icarus]

They're all great images but the Stephan's Quintet image is amazing.

If life does exist elsewhere, and in one of those 4 galaxies - I don't even know how or what question to ask in the sense of would they be aware? Andromeda and our own Milky Way are due to collide aren't they? if mankind is still around when would it affect us/destroy us?

Life...finds a way

 

[stdP]

Some commentary on the pics above from The Conversation if anyone fancies reading up on the background:

James Webb Telescope: a scientist explains what its first, amazing images show – and how it will change astronomy

Even experts were not prepared for the crispness of the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope.

theconversation.com

The Carina Nebula has to be my favourite. I can't wait to see them produce some pics of the Homunculus Nebula, an object within Carina containing the Eta Carinae star system.

Andromeda and our own Milky Way are due to collide aren't they? if mankind is still around when would it affect us/destroy us?

Although it might sling our star about a bit, unless the solar system directly collides with something it shouldn't make a huge amount of difference since we're almost wholly gravity bound to the sun itself.

 

[bcuster]

The Carina Nebula has to be my favourite. I can't wait to see them produce some pics of the Homunculus Nebula, an object within Carina containing the Eta Carinae star system.

it looks like a guppy!

 

[2hats]

If life does exist elsewhere, and in one of those 4 galaxies - I don't even know how or what question to ask in the sense of would they be aware? Andromeda and our own Milky Way are due to collide aren't they? if mankind is still around when would it affect us/destroy us?

Our galaxy and Andromeda most probably have already started colliding - their haloes (outermost regions) are likely already interacting. The process is going to take 5+ billion years to complete. But space, even inside a galaxy, is mostly empty. Stars and planets are, by and large, not going to smash into each other. If there are any humans left then likely they won't be viewing it from the surface of the Earth (stellar evolution, at the very least, will see to that).

​

 

[killer b]

They're all great images but the Stephan's Quintet image is amazing.

If life does exist elsewhere, and in one of those 4 galaxies - I don't even know how or what question to ask in the sense of would they be aware? Andromeda and our own Milky Way are due to collide aren't they? if mankind is still around when would it affect us/destroy us?

fairly sure not even the most optimistic forecasts have us still about in 3.5 billion years

 

[stdP]

it looks like a guppy!

The biggest, brightest and most bonkers guppy in the observable universe, the best and likely sole candidate for a chance to carefully observe a supernova within our lifetimes

 

[bcuster]

Our galaxy and Andromeda most probably have already started colliding - their haloes (outermost regions) are likely already interacting. The process is going to take 5+ billion years to complete. But space, even inside a galaxy, is mostly empty. Stars and planets are, by and large, not going to smash into each other. If there are any humans left then likely they won't be viewing it from the surface of the Earth (stellar evolution, at the very least, will see to that).

​

that is absolutely amazing!

 

[Numbers]

fairly sure not even the most optimistic forecasts have us still about in 3.5 billion years

I know mate, thus why I didn’t even know/could comprehend what I was trying to ask.

2hats thanks x10 x10 xEleventymillion xU75

 

[BigTom]

Webb Compare

Someone has made a website with hubble and webb pictures in a side by side comparison.

 

[Dystopiary]

The Sun should last another 5 billion years (before starting to become a red giant, before becoming a white dwarf).
I reckon it's possible we could last until then. Maybe not hugely likely, but possible. I'm in an optimistic mood.

 

[weltweit]

The Sun should last another 5 billion years (before starting to become a red giant, before becoming a white dwarf).
I reckon it's possible we could last until then. Maybe not hugely likely, but possible. I'm in an optimistic mood.

I think by then even I, with my love of being alive, might be wanting the curtains to come down.

 

[ska invita]

This is the kind of space science i can get behind - absolutely incredible

What are scientist hoping to learn from pictures about the early universe? Are there any particularly burning questions that they hope will be uncovered here, or is it more a case of digging and seeing what comes out of it?

BTW re infrared pictures, which these are, this in an infrared picture of earth from a weather satellite

another

 

[killer b]

The Sun should last another 5 billion years (before starting to become a red giant, before becoming a white dwarf).
I reckon it's possible we could last until then. Maybe not hugely likely, but possible. I'm in an optimistic mood.

there's been five mass extinctions just in the last half-billion years, reckon we'd likely catch one of those sooner or later

 

[WouldBe]

Our galaxy and Andromeda most probably have already started colliding - their haloes (outermost regions) are likely already interacting. The process is going to take 5+ billion years to complete.

Gives us some breathing space to find somewhere new to live.

 

[WouldBe]

What are scientist hoping to learn from pictures about the early universe? Are there any particularly burning questions that they hope will be uncovered here, or is it more a case of digging and seeing what comes out of it?

It will be like archeology when they find a stone age site with a curly wurly wrapper at the bottom.

 

[moochedit]

FFS don't give a countdown and then not immediately show the stuff we're all here for

Yeah not seen it live today as at work but last night the delay was really annoying

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The Sun should last another 5 billion years (before starting to become a red giant, before becoming a white dwarf).
I reckon it's possible we could last until then. Maybe not hugely likely, but possible. I'm in an optimistic mood.

The oceans will boil off long before then due to the Sun getting hotter.

The sun won’t die for 5 billion years, so why do humans have only 1 billion years left on Earth?

In a few billion years, the sun will become a red giant so large that it will engulf our planet. But the Earth will become uninhabitable much sooner than that. After about a billion years the sun will…

theconversation.com

 

[Dystopiary]

The oceans will boil off long before then due to the Sun getting hotter.

The sun won’t die for 5 billion years, so why do humans have only 1 billion years left on Earth?

In a few billion years, the sun will become a red giant so large that it will engulf our planet. But the Earth will become uninhabitable much sooner than that. After about a billion years the sun will…

theconversation.com

Thought it'd take a lot longer than that, bah!

 

[weltweit]

The James Webb telescope may be the most expensive camera ever but it doesn't have a lens hood and has already been damaged by a dust particle. Now if it had a protective UV filter perhaps the dust wouldn't have damaged it, who knows!

 

[2hats]

To provide some context:

​

Try it for yourself.

 

[petee]

The oceans will boil off long before then due to the Sun getting hotter.

so that'll be it for the gulls then.

 

[yield]

To provide some context:

​

Try it for yourself.

Love that. It's all made of stars

 

[a_chap]

so that'll be it for the gulls then.

 

[2hats]

so that'll be it for the gulls then.

At a minimum they'll be dead along with us when the food chain collapses, long before the Sun branches off the main sequence, as solar luminosity ramps up (inevitable consequence of p-p burn-up of hydrogen and progression up the main sequence). Somewhere in the range 0.5-1 gigayears hence.

The James Webb telescope may be the most expensive camera ever but it doesn't have a lens hood and has already been damaged by a dust particle. Now if it had a protective UV filter perhaps the dust wouldn't have damaged it, who knows!

How would that work? How would you chill it to near absolute zero? What would be the point of a 'lens cap' on an instrument that is almost constantly imaging? The micrometeoroid environment is most certainly an interesting one, of concern, and needs to be carefully monitored (is being). The major impact thus far, during commissioning (22-24 May), caused significant damage to one mirror segment, but consequent wavefront error is still within acceptable margins (the observatory still exceeds design requirements; the damage is well under the noise floor inherent in the overall telescope and science instrument combination). The project team might yet impose pointing restrictions to minimise time spent looking along the velocity vector, which obviously, statistically has higher micrometeoroid impact rates and energies (reschedule observations to eschew that orientation).

 

[petee]

At a minimum they'll be dead along with us when the food chain collapses

that's okay, as long as the gulls go.

 

[NoXion]

At a minimum they'll be dead along with us when the food chain collapses, long before the Sun branches off the main sequence, as solar luminosity ramps up (inevitable consequence of p-p burn-up of hydrogen and progression up the main sequence). Somewhere in the range 0.5-1 gigayears hence.

That's assuming that we and/or our descendants (whether they be post-humans, artificial intelligences, or some newly-evolved sapient species) don't build a sunshade and/or engage in stellar husbandry by siphoning off excess helium+plus other elements.

 

[2hats]

That's assuming that we and/or our descendants (whether they be post-humans, artificial intelligences, or some newly-evolved sapient species) don't build a sunshade and/or engage in stellar husbandry by siphoning off excess helium+plus other elements.

If our descendants/replacements aren't capable of interstellar travel by then, or at least terraforming another handy planet, then I doubt they will be re-plumbing their nearest star.

Back on topic, a Horizon special on the JWST, BBC2, 9pm 8pm tonight.

BBC Two - Horizon, 2022, Super Telescope: Mission to the Edge of the Universe

The inside story of Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope and the capture of its first images.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[weltweit]

..

How would that work? How would you chill it to near absolute zero? What would be the point of a 'lens cap' on an instrument that is almost constantly imaging?

I was only being flippant 2hats

 

[Supine]

If our descendants/replacements aren't capable of interstellar travel by then, or at least terraforming another handy planet, then I doubt they will be re-plumbing their nearest star.

Back on topic, a Horizon special on the JWST, BBC2, 9pm tonight.

BBC Two - Horizon, 2022, Super Telescope: Mission to the Edge of the Universe

The inside story of Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope and the capture of its first images.

www.bbc.co.uk

8pm! Looks good

 

[WouldBe]

If our descendants/replacements aren't capable of interstellar travel by then, or at least terraforming another handy planet, then I doubt they will be re-plumbing their nearest star.

Multi generational space ship.