JWST

[Ymx]

Carina Nebula



Stephans Quintet



Southern Ring Nebula



SMACS 0723

[Slick]

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... k=VyowVs82

What are these chaps then? (southern ring nebula above)

[Biffer]

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... k=VyowVs82

What are these chaps then? (southern ring nebula above)

It’s a planetary nebula around a binary star. Basically one of the stars has flung out lots of gas and dust, sometimes as an explosion but more usually periodically from a red giant in its late stages. That dust and gas continues to fly out (and be pushed out by further emissions and the pressure from the other star) and it’s hot, so it emits infrared radiation, which is what JWST was built to detect.

[Slick]

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... k=VyowVs82

What are these chaps then? (southern ring nebula above)

It’s a planetary nebula around a binary star. Basically one of the stars has flung out lots of gas and dust, sometimes as an explosion but more usually periodically from a red giant in its late stages. That dust and gas continues to fly out (and be pushed out by further emissions and the pressure from the other star) and it’s hot, so it emits infrared radiation, which is what JWST was built to detect.

Thank you! That’s awesome. I’ve read about nebula etc in a few books but struggle to retain all the info.

In all seriousness, you have a real talent for explaining these things and it’s hugely appreciated.

Ever thought about a book yourself?

[Biffer]

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... k=VyowVs82

What are these chaps then? (southern ring nebula above)

It’s a planetary nebula around a binary star. Basically one of the stars has flung out lots of gas and dust, sometimes as an explosion but more usually periodically from a red giant in its late stages. That dust and gas continues to fly out (and be pushed out by further emissions and the pressure from the other star) and it’s hot, so it emits infrared radiation, which is what JWST was built to detect.

Thank you! That’s awesome. I’ve read about nebula etc in a few books but struggle to retain all the info.

In all seriousness, you have a real talent for explaining these things and it’s hugely appreciated.

Ever thought about a book yourself?

Nah, I’d be embarrassed to do that and I don’t have any record or credibility to do it. My first degree was Astronomy and Physics, and I now work at a UK national lab where the MIRI instrument on JWST was built. I don’t do any of the cool science and engineering stuff though (it’s actually mostly engineering we do), I do business development and working with industry / economic development stuff. I’m fortunate to work with some horrifyingly intelligent people who explain these things to me. They do astonishing stuff and think it’s just normal.

[Slick]

It’s a planetary nebula around a binary star. Basically one of the stars has flung out lots of gas and dust, sometimes as an explosion but more usually periodically from a red giant in its late stages. That dust and gas continues to fly out (and be pushed out by further emissions and the pressure from the other star) and it’s hot, so it emits infrared radiation, which is what JWST was built to detect.

Thank you! That’s awesome. I’ve read about nebula etc in a few books but struggle to retain all the info.

In all seriousness, you have a real talent for explaining these things and it’s hugely appreciated.

Ever thought about a book yourself?

Nah, I’d be embarrassed to do that and I don’t have any record or credibility to do it. My first degree was Astronomy and Physics, and I now work at a UK national lab where the MIRI instrument on JWST was built. I don’t do any of the cool science and engineering stuff though (it’s actually mostly engineering we do), I do business development and working with industry / economic development stuff. I’m fortunate to work with some horrifyingly intelligent people who explain these things to me. They do astonishing stuff and think it’s just normal.

Team up with someone else?

I’m not blowing smoke up your arse for the sake of it, I’ve spent years loving this stuff and the majority of the time been disappointed by claims of “explanations in simple language” etc. I appreciate some of it just can’t be made simple to your average punter but there is a lot of rubbish out there and I’ve genuinely found your input over the years invaluable and use it to explain stuff to my son regularly.

Anyway, I’ll move on, but as I say, it is a gift

[Slick]

Also surprising given your rugby input

[Biffer]

Cheers, appreciate it.

[Kawazaki]

I’m fortunate to work with some horrifyingly intelligent people who explain these things to me. They do astonishing stuff and think it’s just normal.

I know a fella via the NCT group I was a part of before my oldest was born. He got a first in physics from Cambridge and he'd completed his PhD at Durham before he was 26 years old. His doctoral research was all to do with black holes. He's extremely modest about his academic achievements and resisted lots of offers to stay in academia. He's an analyst for the Bank of England now earning a fraction of what he could be if he'd joined one of the many hedge funds that try and headhunt him periodically. I sometimes think he's wasting a clearly brilliant mind but he's happy doing a 40hr week and being able to spend time with his children plus he must have worked so hard to get to the academic level he did so young.

p.s I met his parents at a BBQ once and they were terrifying! They must have pushed him so hard.

p.p.s His wife got a first from Cambridge as well, be interesting to see how smart their daughters turn out to test the old nature/nurture question!

[Biffer]

I’m fortunate to work with some horrifyingly intelligent people who explain these things to me. They do astonishing stuff and think it’s just normal.

I know a fella via the NCT group I was a part of before my oldest was born. He got a first in physics from Cambridge and he'd completed his PhD at Durham before he was 26 years old. His doctoral research was all to do with black holes. He's extremely modest about his academic achievements and resisted lots of offers to stay in academia. He's an analyst for the Bank of England now earning a fraction of what he could be if he'd joined one of the many hedge funds that try and headhunt him periodically. I sometimes think he's wasting a clearly brilliant mind but he's happy doing a 40hr week and being able to spend time with his children plus he must have worked so hard to get to the academic level he did so young.

p.s I met his parents at a BBQ once and they were terrifying! They must have pushed him so hard.

p.p.s His wife got a first from Cambridge as well, be interesting to see how smart their daughters turn out to test the old nature/nurture question!

Most PhDs in Maths and theoretical physics end up in banking and finance. Only around 5% of PhD students end up with a career in academia. It’s part of the value of basic scientific research to the economy that is generally not widely appreciated.

[Kawazaki]

I’m fortunate to work with some horrifyingly intelligent people who explain these things to me. They do astonishing stuff and think it’s just normal.

I know a fella via the NCT group I was a part of before my oldest was born. He got a first in physics from Cambridge and he'd completed his PhD at Durham before he was 26 years old. His doctoral research was all to do with black holes. He's extremely modest about his academic achievements and resisted lots of offers to stay in academia. He's an analyst for the Bank of England now earning a fraction of what he could be if he'd joined one of the many hedge funds that try and headhunt him periodically. I sometimes think he's wasting a clearly brilliant mind but he's happy doing a 40hr week and being able to spend time with his children plus he must have worked so hard to get to the academic level he did so young.

p.s I met his parents at a BBQ once and they were terrifying! They must have pushed him so hard.

p.p.s His wife got a first from Cambridge as well, be interesting to see how smart their daughters turn out to test the old nature/nurture question!

Most PhDs in Maths and theoretical physics end up in banking and finance. Only around 5% of PhD students end up with a career in academia. It’s part of the value of basic scientific research to the economy that is generally not widely appreciated.

I looked him up, his thesis is online on a site hosted by Cornell University in NY but it's definitely him. The PDF is Durham Uni.

https://arxiv.org/abs/0810.1534

This is the abstract

Abstract
The braneworld paradigm provides an interesting framework within which to explore
the possibility that our Universe lives in a fundamentally higher dimensional space-
time. In this thesis we investigate black holes in the Randall-Sundrum braneworld
scenario. We begin with an overview of extra-dimensional physics, from the original
proposal of Kaluza and Klein up to the modern braneworld picture of extra dimen-
sions. A detailed description of braneworld gravity is given, with particular emphasis
on its compatibility with experimental tests of gravity. We then move on to a dis-
cussion of static, spherically symmetric braneworld black hole solutions. Assuming
an equation of state for the “Weyl term”, which encodes the effects of the extra
dimension, we are able to classify the general behaviour of these solutions. We then
use the strong field limit approach to investigate the gravitational lensing properties
of some candidate braneworld black hole solutions. It is found that braneworld black
holes could have significantly different observational signatures to the Schwarzschild
black hole of standard general relativity. Rotating braneworld black hole solutions
are also discussed, and we attempt to generate rotating solutions from known static
solutions using the Newman-Janis complexification “trick”.

[Guy Smiley]

Add my vote to the positive feedback, Biffer...

[Ymx]

I saw this and freaked out. Headline was a bit click bait though. Thank fuck !

https://news.sky.com/story/meteoroid-hi ... e-12655489

Meteoroid hit has caused ‘significant uncorrectable’ damage to James Webb Space Telescope

Like any spacecraft, the telescope has encountered micrometeoroids and its sensors have detected six deformations on the telescope's primary mirror panels that have been attributed to strikes.

NASA has reported that a meteoroid hit on the James Webb Space Telescope has caused "significant uncorrectable" damage to one of the panels it uses to stare into deep space.

The orbiting observatory was launched last December and recently released a full set of new observations, including what is said to be the "deepest" and most detailed picture of the cosmos to date.

Like any spacecraft, it has encountered micrometeoroids and its sensors have detected six deformations on the telescope's primary mirror panels that have been attributed to strikes.

"Each micrometeoroid caused degradation in the wavefront of the impacted mirror segment, as measured during regular wavefront sensing," said NASA.

Some of these degradations are correctable by adjusting the maths that NASA applies to the data that each panel collects, according to a commissioning paper published last week.

However one strike - which occurred between 22 and 24 May - was caused by a larger micrometeoroid and resulted in "significant uncorrectable change" to segment C3 according to the document.

Fortunately, this change is not especially impactful on how the telescope as a whole functions - and NASA has said that its performance is continuing to exceed expectations - but it fundamentally reduces the accuracy of the data collected.

However, the strike has caused some concern about the impact that future strikes of these larger micrometeoroids might have.

"It is not yet clear whether the May 2022 hit to segment C3 was a rare event," the document said.

There could be a chance that it was "an unlucky early strike by a high kinetic energy micrometeoroid that statistically might occur only once in several years" the NASA team considered.

But potentially "the telescope may be more susceptible to damage by micrometeoroids than pre-launch modelling predicted".


Image:
The white spot shows the damage caused to the panel
"The project team is conducting additional investigations into the micrometeoroid population [and] how impacts affect beryllium mirrors," it added.

Another potential method to mitigate the strikes could involve minimising the amount of time that the JWST spent "looking in the direction of orbital motion, which statistically has higher micrometeoroid rates and energies".

A growing amount of orbital debris has regularly forced the International Space Station's controllers to carry out "avoidance manoeuvres" to prevent it from being hit.

[Biffer]

JWST has already taken an image of a galaxy older than any other one previously seen.

[Ymx]

Sounds like it needs to take as many as quickly as possible. They’ve plonked it in a dodgy part of the system.

Edit: actually it’s a Lagrange point isn’t it. So not any choice if they want it to follow the earth.

[Ymx]

I actually can’t believe this is a real picture. It’s stunning, and such high granularity.

[Ymx]

Another stunner



It’s like a spiritual hand.

[tabascoboy]

Well it's not deep space but a new image of Uranus ( stop sniggering at the back )

Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system’s other ice giant, the planet Uranus. The new image features dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet’s atmosphere. The Webb data demonstrates the observatory’s unprecedented sensitivity for the faintest dusty rings, which have only ever been imaged by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet in 1986, and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics.
.
When Voyager 2 looked at Uranus, its camera showed an almost featureless blue-green ball in visible wavelengths. With the infrared wavelengths and extra sensitivity of Webb we see more detail, showing how dynamic the atmosphere of Uranus really is.

On the right side of the planet there’s an area of brightening at the pole facing the Sun, known as a polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus – it seems to appear when the pole enters direct sunlight in the summer and vanish in the fall; these Webb data will help scientists understand the currently mysterious mechanism. Webb revealed a surprising aspect of the polar cap: a subtle enhanced brightening at the center of the cap. The sensitivity and longer wavelengths of Webb’s NIRCam may be why we can see this enhanced Uranus polar feature when it has not been seen as clearly with other powerful telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck Observatory.

[Biffer]

Well it's not deep space but a new image of Uranus ( stop sniggering at the back )

Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system’s other ice giant, the planet Uranus. The new image features dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet’s atmosphere. The Webb data demonstrates the observatory’s unprecedented sensitivity for the faintest dusty rings, which have only ever been imaged by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet in 1986, and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics.
.
When Voyager 2 looked at Uranus, its camera showed an almost featureless blue-green ball in visible wavelengths. With the infrared wavelengths and extra sensitivity of Webb we see more detail, showing how dynamic the atmosphere of Uranus really is.

On the right side of the planet there’s an area of brightening at the pole facing the Sun, known as a polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus – it seems to appear when the pole enters direct sunlight in the summer and vanish in the fall; these Webb data will help scientists understand the currently mysterious mechanism. Webb revealed a surprising aspect of the polar cap: a subtle enhanced brightening at the center of the cap. The sensitivity and longer wavelengths of Webb’s NIRCam may be why we can see this enhanced Uranus polar feature when it has not been seen as clearly with other powerful telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck Observatory.

Never see the rings as clearly as that before. Astonishing.