The James Webb Space Telescope Thread

[sidis 9731]

here is the composite image from braff's video above.  it is a combination of near infrared and mid infrared light.  craziest part of about the cartwheel galaxy is that it is relatively new - only about 400 million years old and a result of a massive, high speed collision.  all the red is effectively hydrocarbon rich dust...which make for a rich stellar and planetary nursery environment.  all the blue hues in the galaxy are predominately stars.  prior to jwst, one couldn't really discern the difference between the stars and the dust that comprise the inner part of the galaxy...it all just looked like dust.

here is just the mid infrared image.

Edited August 5, 2022 by sidis

[Braff Zacklin 13406]

28 minutes ago, Elvis said:

Is Webb looking at my sausage right now?

So you're implying that an ultra-high-powered telescope would be necessary to see it?

[ClubWhatever 12086]

How did all that fucking shit start out at a single point?

[Updawg 2261]

Jeebus

[sidis 9731]

41 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

How did all that fucking shit start out at a single point?

Once we get to approximately 10^-43 seconds in time within the “Big Bang” going backwards in time (which is called the Planck Era), all of our physics and mathematics break down unfortunately. 

[Sawbonz 27392]

There are more things in heaven and earth horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy 

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

17 minutes ago, sidis said:

Once we get to approximately 10^-43 seconds in time within the “Big Bang” going backwards in time (which is called the Planck Era), all of our physics and mathematics break down unfortunately. 

 

Isnt E-43 seconds a time quantum? 

If so, it all falls apart one time quantum after the BB. Interesting.

 

[ClubWhatever 12086]

8 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

There are more things in heaven and earth horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy 

I just read Tyson”s book about Astrophysics for the masses.  He has this quote in there.  I really enjoyed that book, even if he is supposedly a sleaze.   He actually made a joke about the badass meme.  

Edited August 6, 2022 by ClubWhatever

[sidis 9731]

when the telescope first became operational, a lot of people were asking what it would look like if we pointed it at more terrestrial objects in our solar system.  welp, the jwst team turned their attention to neptune to do just that with the near-infrared camera.  below is the wide field, the close up, and annotated version showing the moons (including triton). the resolution of neptune's rings is utterly insane.  one of the more interesting things about these images is the ghostly nature of neptune.  in fact, triton far outshines neptune on these images.  the reason is because neptune's atmosphere is comprised of a lot of methane which absorbs a ton of the light wavelengths at near-infrared.  part of the reason the planet is such a deep blue in the visual spectrum.  meanwhile, triton has a 70% reflectivity so it looks a lot brighter.

Edited September 22, 2022 by sidis

[Pato del Muerto 52335]

That spiral galaxy in the lower left corner of the wide field looks pretty nifty as well

[sidis 9731]

also, catching up on some additional images from jwst, the first visual image of an exoplanet occurred earlier this month.  in the image below, you can see four different versions of the the image using the various cameras.  the bright spot in each of them is actually the exoplanet.  the star on each of the detailed shots represents where the planet's home star is in the image but the light from that stare has been blocked out.  beyond cool.

 

 

here are some cool shots of the tarantula nebula.  you can really get the contrast and depth of the dust vs. the background in a few of these.  cool imagery on star formation.

 

[sidis 9731]

6 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

That spiral galaxy in the lower left corner of the wide field looks pretty nifty as well

that barred spiral galaxy is about a billion light years away.  lots of young blue stars in it.  it is actually a good exercise in relative scale in terms of size and distance.  it takes light just over 4 hours to get from neptune to earth.  so the light from neptune captured left a few hours before it was captured.  the light from the spiral galaxy left 8,760,000,000,000 hours ago and they look the same size.

[Pato del Muerto 52335]

Thanks, I was wondering how much further back it is since it appears more or less in focus. 

[atomheartbevo 89391]

On 7/11/2022 at 10:13 PM, Sbbruin said:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-takes-star-filled-portrait-of-pillars-of-creation
 

[RamjetFDO 10554]

(disclaimer: not my work, but damned cool)

[Pato del Muerto 52335]

Mano de Dios

[YGIFS 19449]

You'd think something called "The Pillars of Creation" would be mentioned more in religious texts.  

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with space/astronomy.  I probably pushed it on her too much, but Webb has been astonishing to her.  We finally had to have the talk a couple weeks ago after she asked me about planets like ours out there in all those galaxies.  She kinda grasps how each little image represents hundreds of millions if not hundreds of billions of starts each with the possibility of 10x that many hospitable planets.  I realize I'm doing shorthand, but Dad can't explain the Drake Equation yet.  She'd get it, I don't remember it  

but i told her within her lifetime, we are absolutely going to find planets like ours out there with life, of some sort on them, and she is not to be scared no matter what other people around her do or say.  It doesn't mean she is any less special, it just means we are part of something much, much bigger than we've been led to believe.  And she smiled a bit, perhaps to appease me.  Then she asked if she could visit those planets once we find them.  I said, "Sorry, we can't leave the solar system in your lifetime...but perhaps we can at least view them or send them a signal."  she frowned.  But I finished with, "But they may be capable of visiting you during your lifetime.  And for the very simple reason, they saw that you were looking for them, they may come to say hello."  And she smiled a 1000watt grin.  

We are nowhere near the Thing.  But we were alive in the thing that got us to the thing.

Outstanding Young Texas-Exes winner, Pamela August (title is I believe Deputy Chief of Flight Ops at JSC so I believe she's there at Mission Control on the floor).  Asked me about my daughter's love of space.  Unfortunately she gets made fun of already in 2nd grade by girls who think space is only for boys and she should be into other stuff.  Pamela wrote her a very nice note about sticking with her love of the stars.  And my daughter crushed it when she asked, "Why do you want to go Mars young lady?"  And my girl replied, "Because it's what's next for us."  Pamela gave us a standing offer for private tour at JSC next time we're in Houston.  And we're totally doing it.  God bless y'all at NASA and beyond.  I can't believe where we're at already.

Edited October 20, 2022 by YGIFS

[Hermanator 6928]

57 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

You'd think something called "The Pillars of Creation" would be mentioned more in religious texts.  

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with space/astronomy.  I probably pushed it on her too much, but Webb has been astonishing to her.  We finally had to have the talk a couple weeks ago after she asked me about planets like ours out there in all those galaxies.  She kinda grasps how each little image represents hundreds of millions if not hundreds of billions of starts each with the possibility of 10x that many hospitable planets.  I realize I'm doing shorthand, but Dad can't explain the Drake Equation yet.  She'd get it, I don't remember it  

but i told her within her lifetime, we are absolutely going to find planets like ours out there with life, of some sort on them, and she is not to be scared no matter what other people around her do or say.  It doesn't mean she is any less special, it just means we are part of something much, much bigger than we've been led to believe.  And she smiled a bit, perhaps to appease me.  Then she asked if she could visit those planets once we find them.  I said, "Sorry, we can't leave the solar system in your lifetime...but perhaps we can at least view them or send them a signal."  she frowned.  But I finished with, "But they may be capable of visiting you during your lifetime.  And for the very simple reason, they saw that you were looking for them, they may come to say hello."  And she smiled a 1000watt grin.  

We are nowhere near the Thing.  But we were alive in the thing that got us to the thing.

Outstanding Young Texas-Exes winner, Pamela August (title is I believe Deputy Chief of Flight Ops at JSC so I believe she's there at Mission Control on the floor).  Asked me about my daughter's love of space.  Unfortunately she gets made fun of already in 2nd grade by girls who think space is only for boys and she should be into other stuff.  Pamela wrote her a very nice note about sticking with her love of the stars.  And my daughter crushed it when she asked, "Why do you want to go Mars young lady?"  And my girl replied, "Because it's what's next for us."  Pamela gave us a standing offer for private tour at JSC next time we're in Houston.  And we're totally doing it.  God bless y'all at NASA and beyond.  I can't believe where we're at already.

We need all the brilliant people, men and women combined, we can get in the quest to explore our boundaries. 

There's a good YouTube channel by a British female astronomer where she explains a lot of things for the layman. It sounds like your daughter is pretty young but she may get a kick out of it and could possibly grow into some of the more complicated topics, and seeing women living that life and doing the work can only be good in balancing out the negative stereotypes she's already facing. 

https://youtube.com/c/DrBecky

[YGIFS 19449]

Have some rep.  That looks awesome.  We finally have a quiet weekend next weekend and plan to watch this with her.  

Every morning she asks me when the next Artemis launch window is gonna be...and every day I have to tell her (but I don't say it out loud)...lemme go check with the science nerds with football and drinking issues on surly.  But Webb imagery has been such a reboot and reinvigoration of her interest the last couple months.  Plus I found the box of stuff I had signed for her when she was a baby by some other astronauts and NASA personnel.  Some of it is a little heavy on the "girls in space!" stuff, but I just tell her, "We need more girls interested in space...but first and foremost...NASA needs to keep your interested in science and exploring, then they need you to work harder at math just like Daddy needs to, and finally...they need you to keep asking tough questions.  That's how you get us up there."  But yeah, she has my penchant for understanding complex systems but my same gift for math which is to answer the easy questions, throw your pencil, and storm away from the table.  Not saying I'm telemetry material...

[Homercles 10205]

19 hours ago, RamjetFDO said:

(disclaimer: not my work, but damned cool)

The sheer scale of ‘things’ in space absolutely blows my mind.  Isn't this structure at least a light year in overall length?  In addition to being a gorgeous image with mind-bending implications, I’d love to know what it actually looks like in visible light even though the IR data has more scientific value…I’d assume redshift is not a factor given how ‘close’ it is.  
 

Provided the Great Filter is behind us (which I think is unlikely), the only reason I’d want to live ‘forever’ would be to get the answers to questions I hope mankind ultimately answers…a unified theory of everything, is heat death the legit end state for the universe, do strange stars exist (outside of Randy Quaid), is our singularity concept what actually happens in the core of a black hole, etc.  

Given all that, the JWST is a small step towards better understanding of our universe and I’m so glad to see it’s incredibly delicate launch going so well. 

[Hermanator 6928]

9 minutes ago, Homercles said:

The sheer scale of ‘things’ in space absolutely blows my mind.  Isn't this structure at least a light year in overall length?  In addition to being a gorgeous image with mind-bending implications, I’d love to know what it actually looks like in visible light even though the IR data has more scientific value…I’d assume redshift is not a factor given how ‘close’ it is.  
 

Provided the Great Filter is behind us (which I think is unlikely), the only reason I’d want to live ‘forever’ would be to get the answers to questions I hope mankind ultimately answers…a unified theory of everything, is heat death the legit end state for the universe, do strange stars exist (outside of Randy Quaid), is our singularity concept what actually happens in the core of a black hole, etc.  

Given all that, the JWST is a small step towards better understanding of our universe and I’m so glad to see it’s incredibly delicate launch going so well. 

The longest one on the left is about 4 to 5 light years long. So about 24 trillion miles. Almost as big as our national debt. 

Also the hubble image there is showing it in the visible light spectrum. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Hermanator

[ohchaucer 1443]

Could someone explain to me like I’m five what the consensus is (or if there is one) on whether the Great Filter is ahead or behind us? And are we really closer to the final step at an interstellar scale?

[IDIOTsavant 8437]

On 8/5/2022 at 4:21 PM, Braff Zacklin said:

So you're implying that an ultra-high-powered telescope would be necessary to see it?

Of course. It’s Elvis. Who knows what planet he’s on right now.

[sidis 9731]

2 hours ago, ohchaucer said:

Could someone explain to me like I’m five what the consensus is (or if there is one) on whether the Great Filter is ahead or behind us? And are we really closer to the final step at an interstellar scale?

there's no consensus...can't really be.  it's one of many theories to answer the fermi paradox and by no means the accepted theory on why we, as a 10-30 thousand year old existence in the 14 billion year old universe haven't observed or been visited by an extraterrestrial civilization that it would take about ten seconds for any functional adult to come up with.

in terms of the strict parameters of your question, within the constraints of the theory, humans are currently on step 7 of 8 of the great filter hypothesis.  in my opinion, i believe we are currently in the great filter step to the extent we accept the theory.  certainly step 1 is the most fundamentally necessary step and the overwhelming majority of the exoplanets we are currently capable of studying don't meet 1 for life (as we currently know and understand it as it relates to conditions necessary for it to exist).  however, that is merely a matter of numbers and jwst has already identified a reasonably decent candidate.  once those conditions are there, then steps 2-7 are just a matter of time and conditions remaining consistent (no exogenous variables such as extinction events like asteroids, etc...).  a civilization being in step 7 also requires them not to destroy themselves as we see every day here in addition to exogenous variables.  but the reason i say 7 to 8 is probably the hardest is due to the constraints of physics and the length of any single part of the species' lifetime.  distance, velocity, and time constraints are so significant that making the jump to 8 requires technology that would resemble magic or sci-fi to us currently.

but we are only at a few thousand years into 7.  so who knows...it is a purely philosophical question in which a few steps could be argued as the most improbable to the extent we accept the fermi paradox as something that doesn't have an obvious explanation.

Edited October 21, 2022 by sidis

[Hermanator 6928]

2 hours ago, ohchaucer said:

Could someone explain to me like I’m five what the consensus is (or if there is one) on whether the Great Filter is ahead or behind us? And are we really closer to the final step at an interstellar scale?

There's no consensus if the proposed solution to the Fermi Paradox is legitimate much less to any particular point being a great filter. 

If it is real then could be anything from the filter point of abiogenisis being more rare than we believe all the way up to stuff like once an intelligent species masters a certain level of AI they create their own demise and AI creatures don't have a desire to populate other places due to not having the same evolutionary desires as a biological species. 

One popular thought is that the trait in any biological species that would lead it to quest for intergalactic travel will ultimately be what causes it's undoing before that level of technology can be achieved. The greed, desire for power, etc it takes to achieve such things will make any civilization that has them wipe itself out before it can reach that level. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, sidis said:

once those conditions are there, then steps 2-7 are just a matter of time and conditions remaining consistent (no exogenous variables such as extinction events like asteroids, etc...).  

I agree with you that abiogenesis and the last step of colonization space are large filters (last step may not even be possible), but I don't think progression up to 7 is just a matter of time.  Human's acquisition of language that enables an infinite variety of hierarchically structured expressions is not well understood, but some believe that development is as unlikely as abiogenesis (I think Chomsky takes this view, although I can't recall where I read that).   

Edited October 21, 2022 by axiom of foundation

[sidis 9731]

15 hours ago, axiom of foundation said:

I agree with you that abiogenesis and the last step of colonization space are large filters (last step may not even be possible), but I don't think progression up to 7 is just a matter of time.  Human's acquisition of language that enables an infinite variety of hierarchically structured expressions is not well understood, but some believe that development is as unlikely as abiogenesis (I think Chomsky takes this view, although I can't recall where I read that).   

Fair point. It is easy and convenient to oversimplify fairly complicated processes and evolutions when speaking  in cosmic timelines. but in terms of 2-7, you are really talking about the tail end of 6 through 7. Plenty of species on earth alone (and who knows about countless other worlds) would easily meet 2-6. The leap to 7 is undoubtedly the big one given that of the countless variety of living organisms on earth, only one has gotten there. But it is baseless speculation to try and extrapolate as to the probability of that occurring when the sweet spot conditions like earth exist and enough time elapses without extinction events…we have no idea whether the likelihood of those conditions coming together is more likely…or life evolving to step 7 is more likely once life gets to 6 as we are unfortunately only far along enough on 7 to have an observation number of one. 

for now, largely philosophical. 

[thunderlounge 7749]

 

[sidis 9731]

some new kickass stuff out of JWST.

first is galaxy cluster MACS0647.  what is cool about this image is that it would have made albert einstein piss his pants in excitement.  it would have been so cool and validating for him to see this image because the gravitational lensing predicted by his general theory of relativity and a departure from newtonian physics is perfectly demonstrated here.  this is probably one of the ultimate exemplifications of gravitational lensing.  a system on the other side of MACS0647 called the MACS0647-JD system shows up three times in this single image due to the lensing.  the three blow ups of the more distant system getting lensed all over the image are to the right.

 

next is a mid-infrared capture of the pillars of creation.  contrasted with the more famous near infrared images released recently, all the stars appear to disappear and what you see instead is all of the gas/dust/soup that forms the elemental foundations of stellar nurseries because the stars do not emit much mid-infrared light.  the stars are still there, but this camera is designed to ignore that light and focus on more precise matter.  the stars that you do see are there because a) red ones because they are brand new and they still have a ton of dust/gas surrounding them that's being illuminated; and b) blue ones are old and have cast off most of their gasses.  in terms of the dust, the red dust at the top is more diffused and cooler.  all the blue dust is basically a big stellar gang bang conditions in which its smacking together so intensely that it eventually collapses on itself and forms a star.  fucking beautiful.  the near infrared image to contrast is below the mid-infrared image.

Edited November 3, 2022 by sidis

[YGIFS 19449]

Have some rep, beautiful images.  Stunning.  

Looks like the four horseman in a way.  Behold, a light horse.  And his name that said on him was "Life"  

[thunderlounge 7749]

Your English is worse than your Spanish. 

[Steamboat1874 4032]

Fucking amazing.

I love watching How The Universe Works too. Great show with great animation and sound.

Love all of the scientists the use on it too.

[sidis 9731]

some new images from jwst.

first is a resolution of part of the wolf-lundmark-melotte dwarf galaxy.  the wlm galaxy is fairly small but it is very close to the milky way in our local galactic hood.  it is a galaxy low in heavier elements beyond hydrogen and helium so it is an ideal galaxy to study early galaxy and stellar formation in less rich areas.  the near infrared cam's ability to resolve extremely low light starts 3 million light years away is the most obvious leap on from this image.  all the blue and cyan is <2.5 micron light.  below the image is a comparison of the same image with the next best resolution we previously had.

 

the next one is absolutely incredible.  L1527 nebula.  this is a protostar captured in near infrared in the early stages of its formation still feeding on the material cloud surrounding it.  the large dust accumulations around it are sporadic stellar "burping" ejections.

 

last is a spectroscopy analysis of the atmosphere of exoplanet wasp-39b.  jwst measured changes in the light as it passed through the atmosphere of this planet as it traversed its star.  the spectroscopy shows significant presence of potassium, h20 water, carbon dioxide, sodium, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide.

[tbone_ 14020]

Very cool.

Are you saying that first picture is a snapshot of 3 millions years ago (3 million light years away)?

[sidis 9731]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

Very cool.

Are you saying that first picture is a snapshot of 3 millions years ago (3 million light years away)?

the blue/cyan stars are from approximately 3 million years ago.  the larger galaxies in the background of the image are substantially farther away (billions of light years) and, as a result, are substantially older than the stars in the wlm dwarf galaxy.  here's a crude diagram to simplify (not to scale):

[sidis 9731]

lots of cool new stuff...

just like they did with neptune, jwst turned its near infrared cameras on jupiter to generate this image.  you can make out its faint rings and auroras at its poles.  the white dot at the left edge of the rings is one of its moons and only 20 km in diameter...pretty wild to resolve that.  brighter white dot to the left of the image is a 150 km diameter moon.

 

here are some resolved clouds on saturn's moon titan.

 

some higher resolution, zoomed in shots in infrared of the hydrogen jets and outflows from new star formations in the carina nebula.

 

here is an image of the debris disk resulting from a red dwarf star.  the star is 32 light years away yet they resolved these images which are about 60 astronomical units wide (1 astronomical unit is distance from sun to earth).  so this is looking at a diameter about the same as the distance between the sun and jupiter from 32 light years away.  this is insane.  the blue image is at a wavelength where finer dust particles scatter the light and and the orange image is larger material.

 

here's a look at the heart of the phantom galaxy comparing the famous hst optical images with the jwst (along with a composite).  amazing how much more shit is there than we can see (right click to check out full size).

 

[sidis 9731]

one more, this is the chamaeleon molecular cloud 630 light years away.  it is extremely cold to the point that it is comprised of complex ice molecules including ammonia, methane, methanol, carbonyl sulfide...  this is essentially the cloud of shit that is necessary to start forming stellar nurseries and planets.

[CooterBrown 17901]

 
here's a look at the heart of the phantom galaxy comparing the famous hst optical images with the jwst (along with a composite).  amazing how much more shit is there than we can see (right click to check out full size).

 

Any theories on what that “hole” is near the bottom left? You can see the stars behind the galaxy which I would assume are even tens of thousands of light years further away.

Not saying it’s a worm hole but it’s a worm hole.

[sidis 9731]

that would be nice but the real explanation is far more boring unfortunately.

it is entirely a function of different wavelengths of light and what scatters light at each wavelength.  you'll notice that in the optical image from hst (which is optical), there does not appear to be a hole but instead light, (blueish colored) non-dense dust and gasses.  in jwst, it looks like it is just an empty hole of space.  that is because jwst is capturing the infrared wavelength instead of optical.  infrared is a longer wavelength than the visible light from hst and passes through denser regions of space than optical without the light scattering...meaning it looks like nothing is there.  so the distant high energy infrared light sources appear to just pass through the gas/dust untouched through a hole even thought it isn't really a hole.  it's just a non-dense area of dust/gas and matter in that portion of the galaxy in which the infrared just passes right through without scattering.  you see the same thing in the top right of the image.

a terrible, but easily understood analogy would be imagine everything in the left picture is skin.  that's what we see when we look at it with our eyes.  now imagine everything on the right is bones.  when we look at it in x-ray wave lengths, it looks like the skin goes away and all that is left is bones.  sure, there was non-dense skin that doesn't scatter x-ray light there, but there are no bones either so it looks like a big hole in the image.  why there is such a drastic change in density there is simply a function of the governing dynamics of galactic formation.

Edited January 25, 2023 by sidis

[CooterBrown 17901]

Sounds like something the government would tell us to avoid telling us the truth.

[Smax 3800]

6 hours ago, sidis said:

that would be nice but the real explanation is far more boring unfortunately.

it is entirely a function of different wavelengths of light and what scatters light at each wavelength.  you'll notice that in the optical image from hst (which is optical), there does not appear to be a hole but instead light, (blueish colored) non-dense dust and gasses.  in jwst, it looks like it is just an empty hole of space.  that is because jwst is capturing the infrared wavelength instead of optical.  infrared is a longer wavelength than the visible light from hst and passes through denser regions of space than optical without the light scattering...meaning it looks like nothing is there.  so the distant high energy infrared light sources appear to just pass through the gas/dust untouched through a hole even thought it isn't really a hole.  it's just a non-dense area of dust/gas and matter in that portion of the galaxy in which the infrared just passes right through without scattering.  you see the same thing in the top right of the image.

a terrible, but easily understood analogy would be imagine everything in the left picture is skin.  that's what we see when we look at it with our eyes.  now imagine everything on the right is bones.  when we look at it in x-ray wave lengths, it looks like the skin goes away and all that is left is bones.  sure, there was non-dense skin that doesn't scatter x-ray light there, but there are no bones either so it looks like a big hole in the image.  why there is such a drastic change in density there is simply a function of the governing dynamics of galactic formation.

 

 

Reads like a fancy way of saying, it's a wormhole

[sidis 9731]

JWST has been busy (as have I unfortunately...causing a delay in some worthwhile updates).

a beautiful picture of NGC 1365.  nice detail on the "bar" part of a double-barred spiral galaxy formation about 56 million light years away from us in mid-infrared.  incredible to get resolution to individual stars in the core and newly-formed clusters in the inner star formation ring.

 

ngc 1433.  also mid-infrared.  crazy double ringed structure that appears to be a bar from a distance nestled in the rest of the galaxy.  this one is 46 million light years and has a supermassive black hole at its center that is hungry AF and consumes material at an astounding rate.

 

wr 124 star in both near infrared and mid-infrared composite.  the stellar emissions are not smooth for this star but instead somewhat randomized as betrayed by the stellar dust cloud surrounding it.

 

the one you've all been waiting for...uranus.  in near infrared both zoomed in and a wider field.  something cool about this is that you can see the polar cap on the planet because, just as a reminder, uranus is the only planet that is tilted entirely on its side and rotates on that basis and causing rather extremes seasons.  you're effectively looking at its "north pole."  the two other bright spots on the planet are not lens flares but actually clouds.

 

supernova (or exploding star) remnant we all know as cassiopeia a in mid infrared...this is about ten light years across.  never has extreme violence been so beautiful.

 

another comparison of jwst with hubble and their relative sensitivity.  the same deep field that took over 11 days of exposure time on hst vs. .83 days on jwst.  significant disparity in sensitivity to say the least.

 

finally, super cool spectroscopy result on an exoplanet about 40 light years away called vhs 1256b.  this planet orbits two stars at once which is unique.  this is showing what the composition of the planet's clouds in its atmosphere.  i'll put the full explanation of its findings below in spoiler.

 

Spoiler

Based on observations of many other exoplanets by many telescopes, the researchers know to look for signatures of clouds in particular areas in the spectrum. Signatures of silicates appears before and after 10 microns, a particular wavelength of infrared light.

There is likely a layer of very small grain silicate clouds higher up in the atmosphere. These silicates are finer, more like smoke particles, and are responsible for creating the plateau near 10 microns. Somewhat larger grain clouds are likely a bit deeper. Some particles in these clouds may be about the size of small grains of silt.

The combined evidence of fluctuations in the planet’s brightness over time and the different cloud layers in the spectrum point to turbulent weather on VHS 1256 b. “These detections reflect that the planet’s cloud patterns change fairly rapidly,” explained Beth Biller of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. If the researchers were to take more, and longer, observations of the planet, they would see the spectrum shape shift as the locations of the clouds move, reflecting that the clouds are rapidly shifting through the planet’s atmosphere during its 22-hour rotation.

But these aren’t like clouds high in Earth’s atmosphere. These clouds are hot – akin to the temperature of a candle flame. Earth’s upper atmosphere is thin and would feel extremely cold.

The researchers also made extraordinarily clear detections of water, methane and carbon monoxide with Webb, and found evidence of carbon dioxide. It’s too early to tell what this combination of molecules might mean, though, since the data need to be fully modeled. “Webb’s high-resolution data are stressing our existing models,” notes Polychronis Patapis of ETH Zurich in Switzerland. “Existing models can ingest one or two features, but not as many as Webb has shown us of this target.” This is an extraordinarily exciting moment for researchers – it means there is an amazing amount to learn as they revamp models to fit these data.

Webb’s observations of VHS 1256 b highlight many of its technical strengths. Not only do its instruments detect a wide range of near- and mid-infrared light, Webb’s position in space means that the telescope can observe more infrared light than is accessible on Earth – and it captures the details in high resolution. (Earth’s atmosphere filters out some near-infrared and all mid-infrared light.) “Webb has effectively doubled the wavelength range that we’re able to capture,” said Brittany Miles of the University of Arizona, the paper’s lead author. “To top that off, we only needed seven hours to capture the spectrum, which is practically overflowing with details.”

VHS 1256 b is about 40 light-years away in the constellation Corvus. It orbits not one, but two stars, which are tightly orbiting one another. The planet lies about four times farther from its stars than Pluto is from our Sun. Although a single day on this planet is 22 hours long, it takes 10,000 years to complete a single orbit or year.

 

[Red Five 40626]

15 hours ago, sidis said:

 

 

This is amazing. You can actually see General Zod. 

[Handcruser 2805]

JWST has been busy (as have I unfortunately...causing a delay in some worthwhile updates).
a beautiful picture of NGC 1365.  nice detail on the "bar" part of a double-barred spiral galaxy formation about 56 million light years away from us in mid-infrared.  incredible to get resolution to individual stars in the core and newly-formed clusters in the inner star formation ring.

 
ngc 1433.  also mid-infrared.  crazy double ringed structure that appears to be a bar from a distance nestled in the rest of the galaxy.  this one is 46 million light years and has a supermassive black hole at its center that is hungry AF and consumes material at an astounding rate.

 
wr 124 star in both near infrared and mid-infrared composite.  the stellar emissions are not smooth for this star but instead somewhat randomized as betrayed by the stellar dust cloud surrounding it.

 
the one you've all been waiting for...uranus.  in near infrared both zoomed in and a wider field.  something cool about this is that you can see the polar cap on the planet because, just as a reminder, uranus is the only planet that is tilted entirely on its side and rotates on that basis and causing rather extremes seasons.  you're effectively looking at its "north pole."  the two other bright spots on the planet are not lens flares but actually clouds.


 
supernova (or exploding star) remnant we all know as cassiopeia a in mid infrared...this is about ten light years across.  never has extreme violence been so beautiful.

 
another comparison of jwst with hubble and their relative sensitivity.  the same deep field that took over 11 days of exposure time on hst vs. .83 days on jwst.  significant disparity in sensitivity to say the least.

 
finally, super cool spectroscopy result on an exoplanet about 40 light years away called vhs 1256b.  this planet orbits two stars at once which is unique.  this is showing what the composition of the planet's clouds in its atmosphere.  i'll put the full explanation of its findings below in spoiler.

 
Spoiler

Based on observations of many other exoplanets by many telescopes, the researchers know to look for signatures of clouds in particular areas in the spectrum. Signatures of silicates appears before and after 10 microns, a particular wavelength of infrared light.
There is likely a layer of very small grain silicate clouds higher up in the atmosphere. These silicates are finer, more like smoke particles, and are responsible for creating the plateau near 10 microns. Somewhat larger grain clouds are likely a bit deeper. Some particles in these clouds may be about the size of small grains of silt.
The combined evidence of fluctuations in the planet’s brightness over time and the different cloud layers in the spectrum point to turbulent weather on VHS 1256 b. “These detections reflect that the planet’s cloud patterns change fairly rapidly,” explained Beth Biller of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. If the researchers were to take more, and longer, observations of the planet, they would see the spectrum shape shift as the locations of the clouds move, reflecting that the clouds are rapidly shifting through the planet’s atmosphere during its 22-hour rotation.
But these aren’t like clouds high in Earth’s atmosphere. These clouds are hot – akin to the temperature of a candle flame. Earth’s upper atmosphere is thin and would feel extremely cold.
The researchers also made extraordinarily clear detections of water, methane and carbon monoxide with Webb, and found evidence of carbon dioxide. It’s too early to tell what this combination of molecules might mean, though, since the data need to be fully modeled. “Webb’s high-resolution data are stressing our existing models,” notes Polychronis Patapis of ETH Zurich in Switzerland. “Existing models can ingest one or two features, but not as many as Webb has shown us of this target.” This is an extraordinarily exciting moment for researchers – it means there is an amazing amount to learn as they revamp models to fit these data.
Webb’s observations of VHS 1256 b highlight many of its technical strengths. Not only do its instruments detect a wide range of near- and mid-infrared light, Webb’s position in space means that the telescope can observe more infrared light than is accessible on Earth – and it captures the details in high resolution. (Earth’s atmosphere filters out some near-infrared and all mid-infrared light.) “Webb has effectively doubled the wavelength range that we’re able to capture,” said Brittany Miles of the University of Arizona, the paper’s lead author. “To top that off, we only needed seven hours to capture the spectrum, which is practically overflowing with details.”
VHS 1256 b is about 40 light-years away in the constellation Corvus. It orbits not one, but two stars, which are tightly orbiting one another. The planet lies about four times farther from its stars than Pluto is from our Sun. Although a single day on this planet is 22 hours long, it takes 10,000 years to complete a single orbit or year.

 

I wonder if there are any good deals on rental properties in these pics.

[sidis 9731]

jwst observations made by team called ceers led by some astronomers/researchers from ut are challenging some previously held theories feeding the standard model on early universe galactic and stellar formation.  this image in particular...

in layman's terms, the zoomed red dot is a galaxy that's been named maisie's galaxy (along with five other identified galaxies since) which is named after the lead researcher's (a research at the university of texas) daughter. based on its preliminary measurement of redshift, masie's galaxy is approximately 500-700 million years after the theoretical timing of the big bang.  

critically, follow up analysis and measurement is necessary to confirm the preliminary estimates so all this is still in the preliminary phase.  it is possible that some supermassive black holes are effectively brightening and distorting measurements of mass or that certain types of dust are affecting the apparent redshift (and perception of distance) so that's why more precise spectroscopy using jwst is necessary.

however, if the timing and mass are correct based on spectroscopy, these infant time period galaxies are absolutely fucking massive...one even larger than the milky way is today.  that isn't expected/predicted under the standard model of cosmology and raises some significant questions about how these early stage galaxies formed so massively, so quickly...and how they consumed and converted nearly 100% of their gas into stellar formation when we typically see only about 10% conversion in more mature galaxies.  it would require quite a bit of revision to the standard model and a need to better understand why/how there was more matter to available in forming early stars and galaxies than previously believed.  lots of implications with regards to dark matter halos and the rate of expansion in the universe.

and taking a step back and having a just smoked a bowl moment, you are looking at an image of something that's light left on its journey to us approximately 13 billion years ago. 

here are some other cool images from the same ceers survey images...clicking on the below should blow it up.

1 is a spiral galaxy with a large number of blue star-forming clumps and star clusters. 2 is an alignment of a bright galaxy with several smaller galaxies forming an arc. 3 is an interacting system of galaxies colliding. 4 is two interacting spiral galaxies...and the arrow is pointing to an active supernova. 5 is another spiral galaxy and 6 is a grouping of red galaxies and a good sized galaxy showing a tidal tail.

[sidis 9731]

JWST Update...a few really cool additions.

First up is a mid-infrared image of the Fomolhaut stellar system.  This is an incredible resolution of a baby star with the protoplanetary debris disk beginning to separate and take shape.  once can observe a couple of pretty obvious rings (including never before seen inner belts) that will continue to refine and the inner belt will aggregate into planets the same way as our solar system.  the outer belt in this image is about 14 billion miles from the star.  in comparison, pluto is 3.7 billion miles from our sun.

 

next is the now famous galactic protocluster shot of the earliest observed galaxies.  the five highlighted galaxies have a measured redshift of 7.9 which equates to approximately 650 million years after the big bang.  looking at light that left its source about 14 billion years ago.

 

while this picture isn't all that inspiring...it is showing the saturnian moon enceladus expelling a massive plume of h2o vapor.  we now can follow the water to see that it helps contribute to the planet's famous rings.  pretty strong evidence that enceladus is pretty damned close to earth's oceans in terms of molecular makeup...it is saltwater.  no word yet on rednecks with salt life bumper stickers roaming the area.

 

here is a great zoom of orion's bar.  zooming in with the mid infrared cam, you can make out a protoplanetary disk in the massive molecular cloud.  however, it is all deformed because the orion bar is in the process of getting ripped apart by stellar radiation.

[sidis 9731]

some good stuff from jwst...

more near infrared outer solar system portraits to go along with neptune, uranus, and jupiter...saturn's turn.  the reason the planet looks so dark compared to the rings is the composition - the planet has a lot of methane which absorbs infrared light while the rings are made up of a lot of ice and dust which do not.

 

here's a supernova in mid-infrared from 22 million light years away.  some of these observations are supporting the theories that supernovae provided a substantial source of early universe dust that was so critical to its evolution.

 

below is some spectroscopy on the now famous ancient galaxies recently discovered showing tell tale signs of black holes with a mass similar to the one at the center of the milky way.  these are galaxies that formed and existed only about a billion years after the big bang in the era of reionization so pretty remarkable.  the researchers that discovered these two black holes are at the university of texas.

 

this is the rho ophiuchi cloud complex which is the closest star formation region to us.  lots of baby stars visible if you zoom in with protoplanetary disks that will eventually become solar systems.  perhaps the great programmer has a sense of humor as it looks like south austin's mom's clitoral hood over a gaping vagina to me spurring life to me.

 

this is a phenomenal, phenomenal picture of two stars in their early formation stage in near infrared.  the disk of gas surrounding them is still adding to their mass as they grow.  the big lobes around them are prior ejections of gas from the stars' formations.  that happens when the star effectively "eats" too much material too fast and start spinning too fast, they eject out the material through two sided jets which helps normalize the star's spin and regulating how much mass the star retains. 

 

also, if you haven't noticed it yet on netflix, definitely recommend unknown: cosmic time machine.  https://www.netflix.com/title/81473680

[Brisketexan 104534]

3 minutes ago, sidis said:

some good stuff from jwst...

more near infrared outer solar system portraits to go along with neptune, uranus, and jupiter...saturn's turn.  the reason the planet looks so dark compared to the rings is the composition - the planet has a lot of methane which absorbs infrared light while the rings are made up of a lot of ice and dust which do not.

 

here's a supernova in mid-infrared from 22 million light years away.  some of these observations are supporting the theories that supernovae provided a substantial source of early universe dust that was so critical to its evolution.

 

below is some spectroscopy on the now famous ancient galaxies recently discovered showing tell tale signs of black holes with a mass similar to the one at the center of the milky way.  these are galaxies that formed and existed only about a billion years after the big bang in the era of reionization so pretty remarkable.  the researchers that discovered these two black holes are at the university of texas.

 

this is the rho ophiuchi cloud complex which is the closest star formation region to us.  lots of baby stars visible if you zoom in with protoplanetary disks that will eventually become solar systems.  perhaps the great programmer has a sense of humor as it looks like south austin's mom's clitoral hood over a gaping vagina to me spurring life to me.

 

this is a phenomenal, phenomenal picture of two stars in their early formation stage in near infrared.  the disk of gas surrounding them is still adding to their mass as they grow.  the big lobes around them are prior ejections of gas from the stars' formations.  that happens when the star effectively "eats" too much material too fast and start spinning too fast, they eject out the material through two sided jets which helps normalize the star's spin and regulating how much mass the star retains. 

 

also, if you haven't noticed it yet on netflix, definitely recommend unknown: cosmic time machine.  https://www.netflix.com/title/81473680

None of this explains why aliens are so interested in probing my butt.  So......meh.

[atomheartbevo 89391]

42 minutes ago, sidis said:

also, if you haven't noticed it yet on netflix, definitely recommend unknown: cosmic time machine.  https://www.netflix.com/title/81473680

Good to know - Netflix has had some really off/on documentaries so I stopped catching most of them.

[sidis 9731]

17 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Good to know - Netflix has had some really off/on documentaries so I stopped catching most of them.

this one will definitely make you feel a little bit better about humanity and a good reminder that there are still some awesome people out there working together for worthwhile stuff who don't suck.