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Looks like rather than tracking Santa, we’ll be tracking the launch of the telescope on Christmas day. NASA Webb Telescope on Twitter: “Due to adverse
[See the full post at: We’re tracking the telescope this year!]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
If you are up right and early on Christmas Day to see what is waiting for you under the Christmas tree, you might as well turn the on the TV or laptop, or smart phone, tablet, whatever you fancy, and watch this:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-coverage-invites-public-to-view-webb-telescope-launch
” Live launch coverage in English will begin at 6 a.m. on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The public can also watch live on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, and Daily Motion. NASA also will offer a launch broadcast in Spanish beginning at 6:30 a.m. on the agency’s Spanish-language social media accounts and online. NASA will hold a prelaunch briefing at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, and a postlaunch news conference approximately 30 minutes after the live launch broadcast ends on Saturday, Dec. 25.
Presumably there will be a way to watch this later that day, or even at a later day, probably in YouTube and a few other places.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
? says:
official NASA launch countdown clock:
https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/countdown.html
currently on schedule for Christmas morning lift off…
The James Webb launched without problems early today and is already in the trajectory that will take it to a point beyond the Moon where the gravitational attractions of the Sun and Earth cancel out the centrifugal force along the once-per-year rotating line defined by the centers of the Sun and the Earth. There it will remain for the rest of its mission, collecting data with its very large, 21 feet (6.5 m) in diameter parabolic reflector, from farthest away and with greatest detail than has been possible with any space telescope until now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
Actual launch and orbit acquisition from about 1:21 to 1:53 hours into the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nT7JGZMbtM
The James Webb Space Telescope will be 100 times as powerful as the Hubble and it will observe in the infrared, below the frequency of the optical range that is visible to us. Infrared light can pass through most of the dust clouds that blanket interstellar space, allowing the unimpeded and clear observation of both near and distant stars and galaxies, including our own, in unprecedented detail. It will be powerful enough to analyze the light passing through the atmospheres of the planets of other stars, looking for gases that are related to the presence of life, among many other things.
The point of null gravity, known as the Lagrange Point 2, or L2 point, is some million kilometers from Earth, beyond the Moon’s orbit, and would move in sync with the Earth around the Sun, with a period of one year, same as Earth’s. At the same time, the Webb is going to be orbiting the null gravity point L2 in an elliptical orbit known as a “halo orbit”, where in a neighborhood that extends for several thousand kilometers around of L2, the combined gravitational force of Sun and Earth and the centrifugal force of the once-a-year near circular trajectory around the Sun points towards this point and increases with distance from it, while the other centrifugal force in play, around the elliptical orbit trajectory, points in the opposite direction and the halo orbit is where all these forces balance, so the telescope keeps its distance within desired bounds from the L2 point and from Earth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point
This launch today is the first big part of the mission, and also the first successfully completed of several nerve-raking phases: getting to it final destination, unfolding itself from its tightly folded launch configuration to its working configuration, the deployment and testing of the optical system and the computer system controlling this and the spacecraft, crowned by ground control receiving the first good quality telescopic images of stars and galaxies, or “first light.” All this will take until next summer before, with plenty of luck, this priceless instrument (and already costing over US$ 10,000,000,000 in cold cash) that has taken close to one quarter of a century to become reality, from initial back-of-the-envelope scribblings to its launch today, is expected to start its mission proper, observing the sky beyond and providing clues to a number of still unresolved questions on the nature of the Universe, and prompting the asking of new ones.
This joint project of NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, if successful, shall be a precious gift to humanity’s profound and noble curiosity about the great mysteries of material reality: to that of those of us who are alive now, and to that of those who shall be after us, for generations to come.
Godspeed!
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
And the Webb has now been placed in its intended orbit around L2!
Excerpts From Joel Achenbach’s article in today’s Washington Post. Emphasis is mine:
“NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope on Monday fired its thrusters for five minutes and reached its final destination, a special orbit around the sun where it will spend the rest of its life scrutinizing the universe and capturing light emitted soon after the big bang.
The telescope has been cruising through space for a month since its Christmas launch from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana. The final course correction, the third engine burn since launch, placed the Webb in a gravitationally stable position known as L2, where it will always be roughly 1 million miles from Earth on the opposite side of our planet from the sun.
A NASA representative said the engine burn ended at 2:05 p.m. and worked as planned.”
…
“Beyond the fact that the telescope seems to have followed commands from mission controllers to a T, the launch itself and two subsequent engine burns were so efficient that the Webb did not expend very much fuel to get where it is going. The extra fuel will prolong the lifetime of the telescope by years, well beyond its official 10-year target.”
“We doubled the mission life. The budget was for 10 years. With this new estimate, we’re about 20-plus years,” Durning [NASA’s Deputy Manager for the Webb] said.
…
” “The bulk of the single point failures have been retired but some remain,” [Michael] Turner [University of Chicago’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics] wrote. “It looks like a real telescope, but has to be aligned. Science wouldn’t start until the next five months of commissioning are done. But we are doing it, we being the human race.”
Not only do the mirrors have to be aligned, but the scientific instruments that will study the captured light must also be cooled, calibrated and checked out, said Heidi Hammel, a planetary astronomer and vice president of science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. She does not expect the telescope to be able to perform scientific observations until June or July.
But no one wants to rush the process, she said.
“NASA takes the time to get these things right. For these big programs, like the Mars lander and the James Webb Space Telescope, we don’t really have an option to let it fail,” Hammel said.
If any of this looks simple or automatic, that’s a mistaken impression, she said.
“It took 20 years of work to make it look easy,” she said.”
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
It’s taken its time, first the long journey to its current location, one million kilometers farther away than the Moon in a direction opposite to that to the Sun. Then, the long months calibrating and adjusting the optics.
And now, finally, the Webb space telescope is ready to be used, delivering images of extraordinary clarity, particularly when compared with the previous largest NASA infrared telescope, the Spitzer, thanks to its much larger mirror and that its optical sensitivity is centered at a higher frequency, with shorter wavelengths.
The size of the mirror and the shortest wavelength of the signal determine the resolution of a telescope, particularly an infrared one: the closest two things can be together to be seen as separate instead of as a single blurry thing.
Now that the telescope full-functionality has been established, the first observations made for astronomical studies, as planned, will begin in July.
https://apnews.com/article/science-business-galaxies-ebad0bf8bbe27f6937640cef45fc023b
To all those who have made this possible, and to he astronomers that are going to use it to explore the Universe not just in space, but also in time to closer than ever before to the Big Bang:
Good work and good luck!
Two pictures of the same galaxy and some closer stars, one made with the older Spitzer telescope, the other with the Webb.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
The Webb’s mirror has been dinged by a micrometeoroid “at least as small as a grain of sand”, but traveling fast enough to do damage.
But “not to worry, we have been expecting this, just not so soon: maybe once in five years. We can take care of this now by adjusting the hexagonal segments that make up the composite mirror” is the message out of NASA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27bEcQ_uffg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaT3yt-Y9e0
The Webb is expected to be fully operational by July 12th this year.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
Today in the morning, here in the contiguous USA, NASA will show several of the first images marking the beginning of the official mission of the Webb Telescope that is finally ready for business:
“Watch: See the images revealed in real-time and hear from experts about the exciting results on NASA TV at 10:30am Eastern on July 12” :
President Biden has released a recent image of the telescope in a special White House ceremony that, as explained by a NASA expert present at it and also by an astronomer interviewed afterwards on Australian ABC TV, is the deepest ever picture of the Universe, showing many galaxies as they were more than thirteen billion years ago. A grain of sand held at arm’s length will cover an area of the sky equal to the one seen in the image. Some of the most distant galaxies appear to be stretched and curved out of shape by a natural effect known gravity-lensing predicted by Einstein’s General Relativity, caused by the powerful gravitational fields of closer by galaxies that are very near to, or in the line from the telescope to those older ones behind them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyuLrLth2QY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j69f7TTkS1Y
More from Scientific American about the making of the Webb itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBDHqquK_8k
The six-pointed spikes around the brightest objects are artifacts caused by the sightly imperfect joints between the six-sided smaller mirrors that fit together to form the large mirror of the telescope.
Deepest view of the Universe ever obtained, and one of the very first collected with the now fully operational Web:
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
the new Webb_DreamCatcher that will appear on Webb’s website ,
(Just for the goodpeople’s reassurance, this is free of rights and a is gift of the artist @hsiyinl)
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Thanks Fred. And to anyone interested, the information on the beginning today of the official scientific mission of the Webb, to be streamed by NASA and including the first pictures of perhaps some of the farthest things in the Universe in unprecedented detail, is here #2459848
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
This may be the first time that the main one of the faint rings of Jupiter has been shown clearly in pictures other than those taken by space probes when passing near the giant planet.
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune (if ordered by their distances to the Sun) all three have rings, the largest and most notable ones being those of Saturn.
https://apnews.com/article/astronomy-science-jupiter-galaxies-15c134706adf880d692f8bee60b53868
The world’s newest and biggest space telescope is showing Jupiter as never before, auroras and all.
Excerpt:
“Scientists released the shots Monday of the solar system’s biggest planet.
The James Webb Space Telescope took the photos in July, capturing unprecedented views of Jupiter’s northern and southern lights, and swirling polar haze. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow Earth, stands out brightly alongside countless smaller storms.
One wide-field picture is particularly dramatic, showing the faint rings around the planet, as well as two tiny moons against a glittering background of galaxies.”
….
“The infrared images were artificially colored in blue, white, green, yellow and orange, according to the U.S.-French research team, to make the features stand out. ”
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
Be careful out there, it’s very cold.
James Webb JPEG with malware
On Wednesday’s stormcast, Johannes talked about a JPEG picture (coming from the James Webb telescope) that malware authors had laced with malware.
https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/James+Webb+JPEG+With+Malware/29010/
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