Thread: The Webb Space Telescope - Fully Operational and Providing Stunning Images of the Universe!

By now most of you have seen the first remarkable images from the Webb Space Telescope. For those who have not, or would like a specific link to them all with expert descriptions, check out the NASA link below (1).

These are surely some of the most spectacular images from space obtained to date. The detail, particularly in "Webb’s First Deep Field" (SMACS 0723), reveals a remarkable number of extremely distant objects, most if not all are galaxies many billions of years old.

Some folks looking at these images might wonder how a telescope, which captures light primarily in infrared, can produce images with such striking visible color. How could this be? The means by which this is accomplished is somewhat involved, but one that is used on many images generated from many telescopes. For those interested in how this is done, visit another NASA site (2).

After a long delay to launch and a much larger price tag, most will agree that it was all worth it in the end. Let's hope that the telescope, estimated to last for 20 years due to a nearly perfect launch, will provide a vast stream of extraordinary science.


"First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope"

1. https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages


"The Truth About Hubble, JWST, and False Color"

2. https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/...e-false-color/

Images of Jupiter from the Webb Telescope have been released by NASA*. They represent a unique perspective of the gas giant in the IR. Quoting from the link:

" “The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise,” said John Stansberry, observatory scientist and NIRCam commissioning lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute."

Looks like this telescope has a rather large number of targets it can image and obtain data from, including some asteroids.


"Webb Images of Jupiter and More Now Available In Commissioning Data"

* https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/...ssioning-data/

A study based out of Cornell University has evaluated early data from Webb's first Deep Field, and calculate that the number of disc galaxies is 10 times greater in the early Universe than predicted by earlier Hubble results. The abstract can be seen in preprint form (1).

A review of this paper is available in the BBC science section (2).

Used to read there were hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. But others claim the number is in the trillions.

Does anyone have even a remote clue about how many there really are? And how many are very large, like ours, or very small, the LMC. Seems like a tough nut to crack. How could anyone ever know?

One imagines that some are still forming, even after 13.8 billion years. There are a lot of massive voids in the Universe which may have very diffuse clouds of gas which could take a long time to form galaxies. A WAG perhaps, but not impossible.


"Panic! At the Disks: First Rest-frame Optical Observations of Galaxy Structure at z>3 with JWST in the SMACS 0723 Field"

1. https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.09428


"'Nasa's James Webb telescope reveals millions of galaxies"

2. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62259492

I feel like Donald Trump did.

"STOP the cont!!!

NASA has issued a list of Science Observations for the Webb Telescope (1).

From large asteroids and trojans to Deep Fields, there is something there for just about everyone.

The biggest issue is getting approval for time on the instrument. It would seem that there are quite a few targets, but most are not those of the greatest interest and value.

My favorite in this list will be the earliest AGNs, which clearly indicate the presence of SMBHs. If primordial black holes formed in the very early universe, they may have generated galaxies much earlier than predicted by other means. It may place the notion of population III stars into question as to their role in SMBH formation.

Direct collapse primordial black holes would provide a reason to look for the much earlier appearance of AGNs than those currently confirmed (2). This telescope may very well answer some serious questions regarding the time-line on the appearance of galaxies, and how their SMBHs were formed.


"Approved Programs"

1. https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-e...roved-programs


"'Direct Collapse' Black Holes May Explain Our Universe's Mysterious Quasars"

2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/startsw...h=674bc45e71f0

Some great photos being posted over here
https://www.physicsforums.com/thread...1#post-6657974

Originally Posted by geordief

Some great photos being posted over here
https://www.physicsforums.com/thread...1#post-6657974

A related article covers some of this with more information than provided in that thread *. Although that thread has images not seen in most searches.

Thanks for the link, was not aware of some of these.


"Two Weeks In, the Webb Space Telescope Is Reshaping Astronomy"

* https://www.quantamagazine.org/two-w...nomy-20220725/

Originally Posted by geordief

Some great photos being posted over here
https://www.physicsforums.com/thread...1#post-6657974

The data from that other forum is actually raw data from the Webb Telescope feed now on the website of The Space Telescope Science Institute. This site includes raw data for a lot of instruments, and is somewhat tricky to work with.

There is an "easy guide" to do this posted below*. You really need to know specifics like the exact name of the image you want to review, and a number of other aspects. The link below has a youtube video on how to get the raw data downloaded, and a text version. It might be best to try both of them for anyone who wants to try this out. And this may only work with Windows, not sure.

The text version on accessing the data is pretty clear, but omits an important step. Where it says to 'type in NGC3324' (the Carina nebula raw data set) and press search, etc. You actually need to hit 'enter' after typing NGC3324 or the search button won't light up. The text omits that part, assuming we all should know this. Downloads (just for one session) can take a while as shown by the small rotating 'ring', which must stop before proceeding.

It is not at all intuitive unless you are really a pro in looking over this. Did a bit of poke-and-hope and managed to find some interesting things. But there is usually no commentary or legends, so you almost have to be an expert on the images to get a lot out of them. It also downloads the data to a drive so you have to go look for it somewhere else. And these data files are very large, some 100s of GBs. Probably best for most of us to wait until they are processed and released, with commentary by the astronomers who are working with them now.

But anybody with more images, please let us see them!



"The Easiest Way to Download Raw Data from the James Webb Space Telescope"

* https://www.astroexploring.com/blog/...ope-in-windows

Just found this.

https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/gallery

Looks fairly full of images

What do you think?

Any good?

Originally Posted by geordief

Just found this.

https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/gallery

Looks fairly full of images

What do you think?

Any good?

These are great, with commentary.

But the raw images are of many different objects not shown in the above link. Some kind of gas or dust among star fields. And many are of distant galaxies, etc.

Go back to that forum link and look at some of those images that are on page 10. It is loaded with a lot of detailed raw image data, etc. They look like screen grabs from the raw data link I have posted above, and even some processed data. A few have some kind of gas or dust among star fields.

Look at post #337 as that has a lot of unique images of this kind. They may be in the LMC because I recall seeing original MIRI data of this sort when it first became operational. If you can master the Space Telescope Science Institute's website, there will be many cool things to see, and as soon as they are available.