Coolest Webb Page Ever

mike808 posted a pic said Wed, Dec 29th 2021 at 4:51pm ET

Now with temperature data!
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html?units=english
/image Webb Space Telescope
$args

21 comments, 4 replies
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2many2no said Wed, Dec 29th 2021 at 8:51pm ET:

/image hot side hot cold side cold

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mike808 said Wed, Dec 29th 2021 at 4:53pm ET:

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mike808 said Sun, Jan 9th 2022 at 2:31am ET:

Fully deployed!

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mike808 said Sun, Jan 2nd 2022 at 3:15pm ET:

As of 2022-01-02 14:14 CDT

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Tripod2 said Tue, Jan 4th 2022 at 12:12am ET:

https://www.lightyear.fm/.

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stolicat said Tue, Jan 4th 2022 at 1:33am ET:

Love the explanation of the L2 orbit - didn’t quite understand it before until I saw the animation here:
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html

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mike808 said Fri, Feb 11th 2022 at 8:28pm ET:

Really!

FIRST LIGHT !!!

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/11/photons-received-webb-sees-its-first-star-18-times/

Here is a labeled version for which mirrors are which.

This image mosaic was created by pointing the telescope at a bright, isolated star in the constellation Ursa Major known as HD 84406. This star was chosen specifically because it is easily identifiable and not crowded by other stars of similar brightness, which helps to reduce background confusion. Each dot within the mosaic is labeled by the corresponding primary mirror segment that captured it. These initial results closely match expectations and simulations. Credit: NASA

Go Science!

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- This image is actually a small section of the whole image because they didn’t know where the mirrors would end up, so they had to cast a wide net to start with and make sure they got that target star in Ursa Major (the constellation with the Big Dipper).
  
  mike808 said Fri, Feb 11th 2022 at 8:31pm ET
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Tripod2 said Tue, Jan 4th 2022 at 12:13am ET:

That’s an amazing space place too!

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mike808 said Mon, Jan 17th 2022 at 9:08pm ET:

Mirrors are deploying!
They have 3mm to go and then the focusing adjustments begin.

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mike808 said Mon, Jan 24th 2022 at 8:12pm ET:

We’re home! Welcome to L2!
Brr! It’s cold! Like 50° above absolute zero cold!

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mike808 said Sat, Feb 5th 2022 at 11:19pm ET:

The 3D viewer is cool!
Like 53° Kelvin cool!

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mike808 said Fri, Feb 11th 2022 at 8:23pm ET:

FIRST LIGHT!

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mike808 said Fri, Feb 18th 2022 at 9:31pm ET:

Things are moving along.
The image mosaic (above the lego set), shows 18 randomly positioned copies of the same star, served as the starting point for the alignment process.

To complete the first stage of alignment, the team moved the primary mirror segments to arrange the dots of starlight into a hexagonal image array.

Each dot of starlight is labeled with the corresponding mirror segment that captured it.
Credits: NASA (top); NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale (bottom)

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mike808 said Wed, Mar 16th 2022 at 9:18pm ET:

Purty pictures.

It’s full of stars…

The oblong thingys are galaxies. Post processing by JJ Abrams for added lens flare.

While the purpose of this image was to focus on the bright star at the center for alignment evaluation, Webb’s optics and NIRCam are so sensitive that the galaxies and stars seen in the background show up. At this stage of Webb’s mirror alignment, known as “fine phasing,” each of the primary mirror segments have been adjusted to produce one unified image of the same star using only the NIRCam instrument. This image of the star, which is called 2MASS J17554042+6551277, uses a red filter to optimize visual contrast.
Credits: NASA/STScI

Here’s the simulation overview of what’s going on.

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mike808 said Sat, May 14th 2022 at 6:22pm ET:

Here’s an animated GIF overlaying the two images to really show how much better the images we will get from JWST.

Comparison of how much sharper JWST is compared to Spitzer. Image Credit: Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech; MIRI: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

In this comparison animated gif, we see Spitzer’s and JWST’s view of a part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the largest companion galaxy that orbits our own, the Milky Way. Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera, which observes light with a wavelength of 8 microns, identifies the stars and the interstellar gas in the nearby galaxy.

But JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), sees the same with unprecedented clarity. The emission of “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,” important molecules in interstellar space, is seen clearly with all their strands and nebulosity. This is the difference between Spitzer’s 0.85-meters (2.8 feet) primary mirror and JWST’s whopping 6.5-meter (21 feet) one.

While the space telescope continues to be tested, NASA officials confirmed yesterday that the first scientific images are expected to be delivered in mid-July, though it’s still hush hush what the target will be.

(Source)

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f00l said Tue, Jan 25th 2022 at 12:06am ET:

Let us now deploy the (in this instance, well-earmed and justifiable) term

AWESOME.

/giphy awesome space

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- PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!
  
  mediocrebot said Tue, Jan 25th 2022 at 12:06am ET
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mike808 said Sat, Feb 5th 2022 at 11:12pm ET:

Most Recently Completed:
WEBB IS ORBITING L2
Next Steps: Cooldown, Alignment, Calibration

Nominal Event Time: Launch + 30 days

Status: Webb is in L2 Orbit and Cooling

Telescope deployment is complete. Webb is now orbiting L2. Ongoing cooldown and eventual instrument turn-on, testing and calibration occur. Telescope mirror alignment and calibration also begin as temperatures fall within range and instruments are enabled.

Stay tuned…this page will track these milestones and keep you informed of where Webb is on the path to our first science images.

The telescope and scientific instruments started to cool rapidly in the shade of the sunshield once it was deployed, but it will take several weeks for them to cool all the way down to stable operational temperatures. This cooldown will be carefully controlled with strategically-placed electric heater strips. The remaining five months of commissioning will be all about aligning the optics and calibrating the scientific instruments.

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- mike808 said Sat, Feb 5th 2022 at 11:13pm ET
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mike808 said Sun, Feb 13th 2022 at 1:27am ET:

@compunaut @kyeh
Unlike the Titanic, this ship got there.

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- @mike808 That’s pretty fabulous!
  
  Kyeh said Sun, Feb 13th 2022 at 2:51am ET
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mike808 said Sun, Apr 10th 2022 at 8:28pm ET:

Chillin’ with Webb
Current State/Step : Final Cooling - MIRI
Precedes Mirror Alignment Step 7

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mike808 said Thu, Apr 28th 2022 at 6:36pm ET:

It’s full of stars!

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/04/28/nasas-webb-in-full-focus-ready-for-instrument-commissioning/

Alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After full review, the observatory has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful onboard science instruments. Upon completing the seventh and final stage of telescope alignment, the team held a set of key decision meetings and unanimously agreed that Webb is ready to move forward into its next and final series of preparations, known as science instrument commissioning. This process will take about two months before scientific operations begin in the summer.

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mike808 said Mon, May 2nd 2022 at 10:43pm ET:

Just how awesome is JWST?

More infrared astronomy-pr0n:

From here at universetoday.com.

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