I’m sure it’s a great picture and all, but I honest to god don’t have a clue why I waited till have past twelve (dutch time) to see that, or why on earth that deserved a live reveil by the president… Let alone the rushed speech and the lack of close-up. Weird….
dtolman
5317
The lensing is likely from a foreground galaxy. This is the most impressive of the lensed galaxies being seen:
Keep in mind every dot you see in that image, regardless of size, is likely a galaxy. Space is BIG.
ScottyA
5318
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
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. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
Nice! Thanks! I was wondering why the lensing was so prominent in the center but pretty much absent on the periphery.
ScottyA
5320
Yea. This is bananas. I’m extremely geeked out now. I can’t wait until they get serious about some deep field shots!
Houngan
5321
Yeah, that’s pretty amazing. I theoretically knew gravitational lensing was a thing, but to see it . . . seen is awesome.
I can’t wait to see the shots of nebulae and galaxies as well. Plus those will “sell” a lot better to the public as well.
dtolman
5323
Here’s an image that Biden should have started with - HST vs JWST
Wow 13-billion light years, that’s some serious distance.
Pretty good WaPo article
https://wapo.st/3uHVUSu
Meanwhile, at ground level…
As far as unexpected rocket explosions go, that one went really well.
I’m not saying we didn’t get our hair mussed…
They for sure should have at least done some sort of comparison between the two shots. But even comparing them it’s not a particularly “Wow!” image for gen-pop. Still, it’s awesome to me and I can’t wait to see what they show tmrw and going forward.
Keep in mind that Hubble needed 10 days to capture that deep field. Webb outdid Hubble with less than 1/10th of the observation time.
Oh there are obvious improvements to be sure. But as an image meant to fire the public imagination you don’t want to have to explain it. On first blush it’s just a clearer version of what we’ve already seen and without the comparison or having looked at the earlier image recently (which I had actually) it’s just too similar and not enough oomph.
So whos gonna be the first one to slap an RTX Off/On on top of that
And that’s one lousy day of exposure. It’s completely staggering. 13 billion light years, clear back to a few hundred million years after the big bang, and look at that clarity and resolution.
It’s going to be a fun couple of decades in astronomy. Time to go revise all my astro course materials for fall…
Tim_N
5334
Does this mean we’re going to get photos like these every couple of days? Thanks, Biden!
JMR
5335
Full resolution pic is found here
This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast. Learn more about how to watch.
