The first image taken by the James Webb space telescope was released today. And WOW!!!
Each dot of light in the image represents an entire galaxy which is made up of hundreds of billions of stars.
It took 13 billion years for the light to reach Earth (light travels at 168,000 MPH per second.
The entire area of the image covers the amount of sky that a grain of sand held at arms length would.
Mind boggling.
AW
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/07/11/nasa-james…
AW,
It is mind blowing.
But…my BIL an MIT physics professor tells me that because of our problems with radiation in space we are not going to colonize space at all. We are not leaving this planet.
The planet is heaven, treat her as such.
If it took 13 billion years for the light to travel to the telescope, it’s likely that a lot of the stars and galaxies in the picture have disappeared in the interim.
intercst
If it took 13 billion years for the light to travel to the telescope, it’s likely that a lot of the stars and galaxies in the picture have disappeared in the interim.
Absolutely. Many have merged, as well, like the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy will in about 4.5 billion years.
The time and distance measures of space, while calculable, are unfathomable.
AW
The time and distance measures of space, while calculable, are unfathomable.
AW,
That is the greatest mathematical problem we face. We do not know the relationship of our small earth bound measurements against the energy and distances that make up the universe. We really do not know where to begin as a point of comprehension. It is not the distance to the local 711 times whatever.
Several of the galaxies appear to be distorted, or stretched out. This could be due to the gravitational lens effect, where light is bent as it travels past a closer galaxy, or group of galaxies. If these distortions are gravitational lensing, it is a demonstration of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. A large mass actually changes the shape of space around it.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-…
The first image taken by the James Webb space telescope was released today. And WOW!!!
Here you can compare Hubble and Webb images:
www.nicholaseggleston.com/JamesWebbHubble/index.htm
DB2
Several of the galaxies appear to be distorted, or stretched out.
Pete,
The NYTs just published a close up image of this. It turns out four of those clusters were galaxies colliding and pushing and stretching.
It took 13 billion years from our perspective.
Zero time had elapsed from the perspective of the light waves.
That could well be true, but there is also gravitational lensing in that first Webb image of dozens of galaxies.
https://www.engadget.com/james-webb-space-telescope-first-im…
The combined mass of all the galaxies pictured acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying the much more distant celestial bodies seen in the background. Some of the galaxies have never-before-seen features that astronomers will soon study to learn more about the history of our universe.
As a nuclear engineer, my career was based on E = mc^2 being true. Einstein’s general theory on gravitation was proven correct decades ago, but it nice to see the visual proof in images such as this.
Gorgeous images but how do we know if the stuff is still there? We are seeing the past. Stuff could have exploded or drifted past the event horizon where the universe is expanding at the speed of light (from our point of view).
As time goes by the more we see the less there is to see. In the end the solar system will be the only thing this side of the event horizon but by then it will have blown up.
Transitory?
The Captain
sailing on a cloudless, moonless night far away from light pollution is a sight to behold even with the naked eye
Zero time had elapsed from the perspective of the light waves.
I know, right?
I keep trying to put myself in their shoes, er…photons, but I just can’t keep up.
Pete
But…my BIL an MIT physics professor tells me that because of our problems with radiation in space we are not going to colonize space at all. We are not leaving this planet.
Clarke’s Law: “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
But…my BIL an MIT physics professor tells me that because of our problems with radiation in space we are not going to colonize space at all. We are not leaving this planet.
Clarke’s Law: “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
Warrl’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Listen very carefully to the explanation of why it’s impossible - there’s a decent chance the scientist will accidentally tell you how to do it.
But…my BIL an MIT physics professor tells me that because of our problems with radiation in space we are not going to colonize space at all. We are not leaving this planet.
The problem is accumulated genetic damage during long periods in space. However, given continued advances in genetic technology over future centuries it may well be possible to repair the damage upon arrival at the destination.
DB2
Warrl’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Listen very carefully to the explanation of why it’s impossible - there’s a decent chance the scientist will accidentally tell you how to do it.
When you’re in your car and get into a fender bender, you pull over to the side of the road. When you’re in your spaceship, where do you pull over?
The Webb telescope has been up for 6 months and it’s already taken 5 hits from micrometeoroids. Four have been within the “manageable” level, the most recent one above that. Here’s a photo:
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/07/12/science/12webb-li…
Reminds me of the opening to “Passengers”, except the phrase should be “We’re gonna need a bigger shield.”
When you’re in your car and get into a fender bender, you pull over to the side of the road. When you’re in your spaceship, where do you pull over?
The Webb telescope has been up for 6 months and it’s already taken 5 hits from micrometeoroids. Four have been within the “manageable” level, the most recent one above that.
Neil Stephenson’s SF novel Seveneves spends a lot of time dealing with the hazards of living in space and the possible technical solutions to them - if you like “hard” science fiction, it’s a good read (though it bogs down a bit at the end):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seveneves
TL;DR - space is a terrible place for humans to try to live, and everything up there is always trying to kill you.
That said, we’ve had humans live for nearly a year in a spacecraft in earth orbit. That’s nowhere close to the time involved with interstellar distances, but an interplanetary trip to Mars is probably about that length of time (each way). So it might be feasible to get humans to Mars and back without it being certain that space will kill them (though it very possibly still might).
Albaby
TL;DR - space is a terrible place for humans to try to live, and everything up there is always trying to kill you.
As if covid, the flu, malaria, cholera, and what not is not trying to kill you right here
on ‘safe’ earth.
The Captain
When you’re in your car and get into a fender bender, you pull over to the side of the road. When you’re in your spaceship, where do you pull over?
As humans spread from Africa across the globe I’m sure it wasn’t particularly safe. The people who, 40,000 years ago, sailed across the Pacific to settle on the scattered islands surely had their share of fatalities. But humans don’t care, we take risks. Maybe the conditions back home got so miserable it was worth the risk. Disease, war, famine, tyranny. Maybe it was teenagers daring each other to sail over the horizon. Human nature hasn’t changed and if there were cheap, even barely functional, spaceships, and a clear destination, people would flood to stars.
Maybe the conditions back home got so miserable it was worth the risk. Disease, war, famine, tyranny. Maybe it was teenagers daring each other to sail over the horizon.
I’m thinking Elon Musk.
DB2
