1st image of James Webb Space telescope(JWST)

[Lidgar]

View attachment 253518

star forming region;

I set that as my desktop background today. The contrast and detail is amazing.

 

[Rabulias]

I can't wait until they point the JWST at some nearby exoplanets.

 

[Horwath]

20 years of work and $10 billion to get an image like a child's kaleidoscope. Meanwhile, America's infrastructure is at least 30 years outdated and our schools lag behind the rest of the world.

NASA gets less than half percent of federal budget. And 20 countries are on the project.

I'm sure that more than double of that gets skimmed from the contracts of certain department that gets 30% of the budget, so you as much as I agree that US, and my country, and every country in the world should invest more in education, infrastructure and science, pointing finger at JWST is off target as possibly you can get.

but please, no more politics, this should be about breathtaking new pictures of cosmos.

 

[Horwath]

I can't wait until they point the JWST at some nearby exoplanets.

for the first program, exoplanets got the most time.

 

[Rabulias]

for the first program, exoplanets got the most time.

Good to know. I certainly don't want to dismiss the significance of these first photos, but to most folks, we have seen pictures of dozens of distant galaxies in a single picture before (just not these galaxies and/or not as clearly). There's probably a logistical or efficiency reason for the order, but I would have started with pictures that are unlike anything we have seen before. I guess they won't be as pretty as these images, which may be another reason to start with these impressive pictures. And while these photos are important for research into the development of the universe (a big deal, agreed), I feel planets are a more relatable scale for most people.

 

[Morrus]

And while these photos are important for research into the development of the universe (a big deal, agreed), I feel planets are a more relatable scale for most people.

The science communication aspect for NASA is not it’s highest priority. It’s highest priority is the actual research, not what’s most relatable. Otherwise they’d just search for aliens!

 

[Ryujin]

Good to know. I certainly don't want to dismiss the significance of these first photos, but to most folks, we have seen pictures of dozens of distant galaxies in a single picture before (just not these galaxies and/or not as clearly). There's probably a logistical or efficiency reason for the order, but I would have started with pictures that are unlike anything we have seen before. I guess they won't be as pretty as these images, which may be another reason to start with these impressive pictures. And while these photos are important for research into the development of the universe (a big deal, agreed), I feel planets are a more relatable scale for most people.

It's not exactly like pics of exoplanets are going to look like pics of Mars, just because they have better resolution now. you're still looking at a grain of sand, 2 miles away, with binoculars by comparison. Starfield pics show what the thing is ultimately capable of.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

20 years of work and $10 billion to get an image like a child's kaleidoscope. Meanwhile, America's infrastructure is at least 30 years outdated and our schools lag behind the rest of the world.

This is objectively the wrong target of your dissatisfaction.

10 billion over 20 years? Lol there are departments that get more than that spent on them for no good reason every year.

Fact is, NASA is one of the thing we should spend more on, along with infrastructure and education.

 

[Rabulias]

The science communication aspect for NASA is not it’s highest priority. It’s highest priority is the actual research, not what’s most relatable. Otherwise they’d just search for aliens!

Obviously the research itself is paramount, but communication and outreach is still a high priority as they write the press releases, and make the rounds on all the news and talk shows. They want to promote the benefits to keep people supportive of their funding and their mission. As I mention in my post there are probably solid logistical/efficiency reasons for the order of projects, not driven by PR. My post was expressing my personal druthers.

It's not exactly like pics of exoplanets are going to look like pics of Mars, just because they have better resolution now. you're still looking at a grain of sand, 2 miles away, with binoculars by comparison. Starfield pics show what the thing is ultimately capable of.

Oh I understand the exoplanet pictures will not be as clear as some folks may be expecting/hoping. I still remember seeing the first early, blurry photos of multi-star systems. As blurry as they were, I was still fascinated by them. As I touched on in my post, they may ultimately be disappointing to the general public (not as "sexy"), so would be a bad choice for a first batch of pictures to release. But the idea of analyzing planetary atmospheres is enticing to me.

And as I understand it, these starfield pictures do not show the full extent of the JWST's capabilities - it will eventually see further back to 300-400 million years after the Big Bang (just not as clear as these photos).

 

[Stalker0]

though the pics are gorgeous, for me is the greater wonder of how the telescope was installed. Dozens of interconnected system that had to work absolutely seemlessly. Several stages of unloading and unfolding the telescope, in which every single peace had to work within issue, or the telescope would fail.

And it went off without a hitch from what we can tell. An absolute marvel of human engineering, a new wonder of the world.