First science image released from Webb
Click for original image.
The first science image from the James Webb Space Telescope has now been unveiled.
That image is to the right, reduced to post here. From the press release:
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.
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.
The smeared concentric arrangement of many reddish objects surrounding the picture’s center strongly suggests we are seeing distortion by the gravity of this galaxy cluster.
While nothing in this image appears at first glance to be different than many earlier Hubble images, it looks at objects in the infrared that are much farther away than anything ever seen before, farther than Hubble in the optical could see. To understand the new discoveries hidden in such an image will likely take several years of further research. For example, before astronomers can understand what this image shows they need to determine the red shift of each galaxy, thus roughly determining its distance and the overall 3D structure of the objects visible. Moreover, the consequences of the gravitational lensing must be unpacked.
The White House briefing itself was somewhat embarrassing to watch, as Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and NASA administrator Bill Nelson all struggled to explain what this image shows, and failed miserably. Moreover, the briefing had technical problems, started very late, and it appeared that Bill Nelson especially had no idea what he was looking at. The briefing also ended very abruptly when it shifted to reporters’ questions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
The first science image from the James Webb Space Telescope has now been unveiled.
That image is to the right, reduced to post here. From the press release:
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.
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.
The smeared concentric arrangement of many reddish objects surrounding the picture’s center strongly suggests we are seeing distortion by the gravity of this galaxy cluster.
While nothing in this image appears at first glance to be different than many earlier Hubble images, it looks at objects in the infrared that are much farther away than anything ever seen before, farther than Hubble in the optical could see. To understand the new discoveries hidden in such an image will likely take several years of further research. For example, before astronomers can understand what this image shows they need to determine the red shift of each galaxy, thus roughly determining its distance and the overall 3D structure of the objects visible. Moreover, the consequences of the gravitational lensing must be unpacked.
The White House briefing itself was somewhat embarrassing to watch, as Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and NASA administrator Bill Nelson all struggled to explain what this image shows, and failed miserably. Moreover, the briefing had technical problems, started very late, and it appeared that Bill Nelson especially had no idea what he was looking at. The briefing also ended very abruptly when it shifted to reporters’ questions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Its almost like two different images.
If you could separate the bent distorted galaxies out of the picture I bet those that are left over would more than likely be in front of the gravity well.
Redshift would better tell.
White House attempt to associate itself with a scientific achievement that it had nothing to do with, and knows nothing about, backfires sadly. Really? Who could have seen that coming?!
Way cool. _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._ Impressively tiny slice of space. Approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on a boat, too.
When I found out President Biden would reveal the image, my first thought was ‘Uh oh’.
I was expecting a red image, the colors are neat. There’s no details on how they colorized it, I wonder if it was just aesthetics?
The description of clown world briefing sounds spot-on for where we are right now. Pathetic is generous.
Would help if astronomers are able to measure what percentage of the mass of these far away, 4 billion years old galaxies is dark matter. Compare that ratio to that of dark matter in the milky way. Maybe that would tell us that the percentage of dark matter in a galaxy increases with its age.
Bob, are you at a point where you can say whether JWST was worth the money. You mention that the above image doesn’t substantially give us much more than we learned from Hubble and the consequences of JWST’s cost over-runs negatively impacted other programs.
Wow
DougSpace: I did not say this “image doesn’t substantially give us much more than we learned from Hubble.” I said the image appeared comparable to Hubble’s deep fields, and then outlined what it likely saw that was new.
I have no doubt at all that Webb, working correctly now in space, will give us amazing and ground-breaking discoveries. For this we must celebrate.
I will also never believe the money was well spent. For the $11 billion spent on Webb we could have launched at least a half dozen better managed space telescopes that would have each produced as many discoveries as Webb. And in the process we would have likely learned the engineering to build a Webb-type telescope in far less time, and launched it for far less.
Whoa !!
Once again ….
The Heavens Proclaim …..
I think that the whole thing was anticlimactic, and this is why there are so many comments expressing disappointed expectations.
The launch was hyped as a very expensive, ten billion dollar, one-chance-only spacecraft riding on top of a rocket with only a 99% success history. Then a hundred deployment events all had to work exactly correctly. Then it had to reach the exact right orbit a million miles away, without overshooting. Then we had to wait for first light and then for first scientific image. To make the announcement, NASA gathered the President, the Vice President, and the NASA Administrator. And what did they say?
“Look, pretty stars!”
Wouldn’t it have been better for Administrator Nelson to have given some examples of what new possibilities may be found in the image, and couldn’t it have been in different false colors to emphasize that it contains different information than Hubble gathers? “This galaxy has a bunch of this kind of star, and that galaxy has a bunch of that kind of star. With further examination of even more distant (more historical) galaxies, we can see how galaxies formed and how their stars evolved to form the galaxies of today. This will give us more understanding about the universe and how it works.”
Robert’s post today gives a better comparison of how Webb gives additional information, but that thing they showed us yesterday was ho-hum astronomy as usual. https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/more-webb-images-released/
Ten billion dollars, and all we got was yet another Hubble picture.
For this letdown of an announcement, we didn’t need a president or a Vice President, neither of whom had anything to do with this telescope. The written press release was better than that boring, baffling show. Does anyone remember what any of them said, without reviewing the forgettable video?