James Webb Space Telescope

[Kyng]

And now, we have a pretty stunning picture of Jupiter, from the telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam):


(Source: Nasa)

There's more explanation in this blog post, if you're interested .

[Kyng]

Apparently, astronomers have a weird problem: the James Webb Space Telescope is too good !

Once they receive data from the telescope, they need to use theoretical models to interpret it. And right now, those models aren't accurate enough - which means we could be misinterpreting the telescope's data:

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/nasa...67124.html

A bit annoying, but certainly a 'better' problem than anything being wrong with the telescope itself!!!

[Kyng]

Another image - this time of the Pillars of Creation:



You can find a larger version on the NASA website. Just compare it to the Hubble version... it's quite a major leap forward !

[ZandraJoi]

Kyng Oh I love these! Seeing Jupiter in a different light is wonderful. The Pillars of Creation is just so breathtaking, is it not? Imagine that it is SO HUGE beyond our comprehension!

[Kyng]

Kyng Oh I love these! Seeing Jupiter in a different light is wonderful. The Pillars of Creation is just so breathtaking, is it not? Imagine that it is SO HUGE beyond our comprehension!

Indeed, that's the other thing that's so remarkable about these astronomical objects - and it's not really something that's conveyed by these pictures, as spectacular as they are!

[Kyng]

And now, here's a different view of the Pillars of Creation:


(Source: NASA)

Quite eerie, I must say... has a real 'Halloween' look to it!

[Pyrite]

Yes, it's curious to see how these images change depending on what light you are collecting. In the case of the 'ghostly' one above, this was mid-IR light as opposed to near-IR, which was the first image.

In any case, these images are breathtakingly beautiful! Makes you realise just how vast the universe is.
 

Apparently, astronomers have a weird problem: the James Webb Space Telescope is too good !

Once they receive data from the telescope, they need to use theoretical models to interpret it. And right now, those models aren't accurate enough - which means we could be misinterpreting the telescope's data:

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/nasa...67124.html

A bit annoying, but certainly a 'better' problem than anything being wrong with the telescope itself!!!

Yeah...from my experience in academia this isn't surprising. You make a big leap forward in terms of your data quality, and suddenly you realise you now need better models and hypotheses to interpret the data. Can tell you that there's lots of people working to improve the theory side of things too though, so I wouldn't worry!

[ZandraJoi]

And now, here's a different view of the Pillars of Creation:


(Source: NASA)

Quite eerie, I must say... has a real 'Halloween' look to it!

I think the orange backdrop is what makes it have more of a Halloween feel versus the blue from the first one.

[Kyng]

The JWST has just confirmed its first new exoplanet, which is almost exactly the same size as Earth (with 99% of our home world's diameter):

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/202...exoplanet/

We don't yet know what its atmosphere is like, but we do know it isn't methane-dominated, like Titan's is. Perhaps we'll find out more soon!

[Pyrite]

Today marks one year since the JWST first entered service and began doing science. NASA have published the following image to celebrate! It is of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, which is a star-forming region (the closest such one to Earth).

Spoiler

It always amazes me how high definition the images we get from JWST are! In this case we are looking at many stars similar in size to the Sun. Will be interesting if we uncover anything more about star formation from these images and other work being done.