NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears:
Six months have passed since a European rocket lofted the James Webb Space Telescope into orbit. Since that time, the ultra-complex telescope has successfully unfolded its expansive sunshield, commissioned its science instruments, and reached an observation point more than 1 million km from Earth.
This white-knuckle period in space followed nearly two decades of effort to design, build, and test the telescope on Earth prior to its launch on Christmas Day, 2021. But now, all of that effort is in the rearview mirror, and Webb's massive 6.5-meter diameter mirror is gazing outward and collecting scientific data and images. It is the largest and most powerful telescope that humans have ever put into space, and it's already revealing new insights about our cosmos.
"The images are being taken right now," said Thomas Zurbuchen, who leads NASA's scientific programs, during a news conference on Wednesday. "There is already some amazing science in the can, and some others are yet to be taken as we go forward. We are in the middle of getting the history-making data down."
NASA said it plans to release several images beginning at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) on July 12, the result of Webb's "first light" observations. On Wednesday, space agency officials said the images and other data would include the deepest-field image of the universe ever taken—looking further into the cosmos than humans ever have before—as well as the spectrum of an atmosphere around an exoplanet. By looking in the infrared, Webb will be able to identify the fingerprints of small molecules, such as carbon dioxide and ozone, that will offer meaningful clues about the habitability of worlds around other stars.
NASA's deputy administrator, Pam Melroy, said she was blown away by the images Webb has produced so far. "What I have seen moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer, and as a human being," she said.
[...] Unfortunately, we will have to wait nearly two full weeks to see the final products from Webb's first observations. NASA said it will not be releasing any images early, even on an embargoed basis. But we've waited 20 years for Webb to come online and offer a truly worthy successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. I suppose we can wait a little while longer.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @12:05PM
Chevrolet can do that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by OrugTor on Friday July 01 2022, @12:25PM (3 children)
I am moved without seeing images. Thank you, scientists and engineers, for showing us what humans can achieve when we are not warring with each other.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @01:25PM (1 child)
What have they achieved with this telescope?
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Friday July 01 2022, @02:22PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @10:36PM
This [aliexpress.com] puppy will bring her to tears for a fraction of the cost of a James Webb telescope.
(Score: 5, Informative) by FatPhil on Friday July 01 2022, @01:53PM (13 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @02:03PM (5 children)
Grammar Nazi says: I thought our made-up word for this was "underwhelmed."
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 01 2022, @02:25PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @07:34PM (2 children)
Take some acid. Go outside. Stop being a weenie.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 01 2022, @10:37PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Saturday July 02 2022, @11:02AM
(Score: 4, Touché) by Immerman on Saturday July 02 2022, @12:26AM
All words are made up words. Some were just made up a longer time ago than others.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Friday July 01 2022, @02:41PM (3 children)
Scientists live or die based on published and cited papers. Publishing first is everything for citations. There have been scandals where one team used connections to get insider info about what another team was working on, then used their greater status to redirect telescope time to their own project where they did the observations the 'original work' team planned and then published ahead of them. (aka, stealing their work via control over instrument time)
The scientists in control (or influencing) of the data flow want any discoveries via Webb data to happen in their name. Releasing new data would risk being scooped. Presumably the political folks also want to avoid scientist drama.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @05:34PM (1 child)
Another issue is releasing an image that hasn't been properly calibrated, so as not to give the wrong impression.
An extreme case of that happened way back in the 70s with Viking where somebody rushed out a color composite image from the surface of Mars. They took the first images taken in the red, blue, and green filters and simply stuck them in their respective RGB channels to make a color image. The problem was that the camera sensitivities was not the same in all three wavelengths, so they didn't scale the colors to the proper sensitivity. The camera was not as sensitive in the blue, so when combined with equal weight, the image they put out greatly over-represented the blue channel and the sky came out looking blue like on Earth. When they later put together a color composite properly, the sky came out reddish/orangish, but it was too late for some of the nutters. Forevermore they've claimed blue skies on Mars, and that means life on Mars and NASA/JPL has been covering it up ever since! That first image that came out was a mistake release of the "real" data, and they've been doctoring the pictures for the last 50 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2022, @07:38PM
On the other hand, keeping the nutters busy chasing NASA conspiracies keeps them away from important stuff. Like vaccines, for example. Oops, too late.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 01 2022, @10:40PM
If you pre-release some data - it's still your data. No-one can claim it's theirs. If you're too slow coming to new valid conclusions from your data, then that's your problem. Solve that problem, and don't be so paranoid keeping your cards close to your chest.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Saturday July 02 2022, @12:57AM (1 child)
I too miss the days when NASA launched Buzz instead of building buzz.
Usually it's just a day though, at least for Mars images. "We're going to make a big announcement about some stuff tomorrow". It's useless. Just shut your pie hole and release the information at a press conference when you're ready.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday July 02 2022, @09:00AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 02 2022, @09:07AM
It will probably be good stuff. But if there was anything Earth-shattering like a green exoplanet or alien megastructures, the description of it would leak out in advance.