Science Nerd

Are you a science-nerd or maybe at least science-curious? Today is a special day in the world of astrophysics. The first set of images from the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) will be released today at 9:30 Central. The JWST was launched this past Christmas and traveled over a million miles from earth to a special stable orbit point using the earth as a shield to minimize sun light-pollution in images. A teaser photo was release Monday so my post today is OBVIOUSLY not my photo!!! I just could not find the 10 billion dollars to put the JWST in space - though we all contributed via taxes over the past decade getting it built and deployed. I hate taxes but support efforts like this. The technology development touches all of us.

The above photo is from one small spot in the sky. It was described as about the size of a grain of sand held at arms length. It shows thousands of galaxies and stars in that tiny section of sky looking back billions of light years. This small section of space has also been studied by the Hubble Telescope (HT) (32 years old).

A side-by-side comparison is shown below. It took Hubble weeks of time to collect the information for the image on the left. The JWST image was gathered in just 12.5 hours. The clarity of gravitational lensing (gravity from more near galaxies bending light from galaxies further away - Einstein confirmation) in the JWST image is incredible.

There are four primary sensors on the JWST with each capable of multiple modes and simultaneous study across the sky. The technology is absolutely incredible and mind-boggling. One of the sensors operates just 6°K above absolute zero to be able to detect the smallest heat signatures in the sky. Just to reach a stable temperature like this uses fascinating technology. Deep space is cold but reaching these temperatures is amazing. The low heat from the electronics of the instruments is enough to spoil the sensor.

I can remember the days following the Hubble launch and decades of images since. What we are about to see is far beyond that and I'm excited just thinking about it.

Thanks,

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