James Webb Space Telescope - Images & Discussion

Fully deployed!

More than 2/3rds of the way to to L2. Several residents-of-Earth-made objects there already it seems. Getting crowded.

Ariane 5 was chosen for it's heavy-lift capability, as well as it's launch point closer to the equator (contributes to lift capability). I read that the Ariane doubled the life of the telescope by reducing the amount of on-board propellant that was needed to get to where it is https://arstechnica.com/science/202...t-which-doubled-the-webb-telescopes-lifetime/.

I'm in the business and you wouldn't believe how dependent your design is on the booster selection. From big-picture dynamics (velocity, acceleration, trajectory) to structural dynamics (vibrations), everything about the payload structure is tailored to the predictions from the booster folks. I've seen numerous redesigns and strengthening exercises due to some new data obtained from a previous launch. You don't go and change the type of booster at a whim and you know what booster you are going to use early in the design phase.

So yeah, track record had something to do with it as when the choice needed to be made, none of the commercial alternatives had any track record (or didn't exist). Those existing US candidates that could have been used (Titan IV, Delta Heavy) were already spoken for. Ariane 5 was the only one that made sense.

I was around for the f-up (although I didn't work for the culprit). In fact you could say that NASA was the culprit for not funding testing of the finished telescope. But how do you test a telescope? With an aerospace product, you don't just take it out in the backyard and look at the moon. Testing would have involved an elaborate facility that didn't exist at the time.

But the James Web has deformable mirrors just because they knew that trying to obtain a surface that survived the rigors of launch in correct alignment wasn't possible. Hubble had a glass mirror, made as stiff as possible on purpose. Oh, and we've got a lot of experience with deformable mirrors that we didn't have in the '80s.

have fun
kfw

"I'm standing on the landing,
There's no one there but me,
That's where you'll find me,
Looking out on the deep blue sea."

Given the obsession with texting and similar apps it might be this.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...mic-targets-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images

NASA Shares List of Cosmic Targets for Webb Telescope’s First Images

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will soon reveal unprecedented and detailed views of the universe, with the upcoming release of its first full-color images and spectroscopic data.

Below is the list of cosmic objects that Webb targeted for these first observations, which will be released in NASA’s live broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12. Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media as well as on the agency’s website.

These listed targets below represent the first wave of full-color scientific images and spectra the observatory has gathered, and the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations. They were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

• Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun.
• WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014.
• Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth.
• Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 million light-years away, Stephan’s Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.
• SMACS 0723: Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations.

The release of these first images marks the official beginning of Webb’s science operations, which will continue to explore the mission’s key science themes. Teams have already applied through a competitive process for time to use the telescope, in what astronomers call its first “cycle,” or first year of observations.

More information on how to join NASA for the release of Webb’s first images is available online. For more about Webb’s status, visit the “Where Is Webb?” tracker.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/...livers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced 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.

This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.

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Just going to leave this here... in case it inspires anything in anyone. Click for high resolution.