James Webb Telescope

[Chas.Alpha]

The James Webb infrared observatory has made it into orbit around the L2 point. Final adjustments of the mirrors will begin and the telescope should be ready for images by late May/early June. It is expected that Webb will have 10-100 times the resolution of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope and is expected to peer back some 13 billion years to the beginnings of our universe! At $10 billion dollars, that’s a lot of bucks for the (Big) bang!

[Fuzz]

Cheap, cheap!! At less than $1 per year to look into the past, that's a bargain!!

[Chas.Alpha]

I completely agree...🤔👍🥂

[MrBirdman]

I’m thrilled. If you read more about the deployment, it’s almost unbelievable they thought they could pull it off. Over 400 single point failures (meaning if the given step doesn’t work, the telescope is space junk). It worked though. Amazing. Can’t wait for the first pictures in 5 months or so. 

[HDGSN]

An engineering marvel - I was surprised to read it is not the first satellite in L2 orbit. On one of my space related podcasts, they had one of the engineers on who put the cost another way - it was only $1 per American per year from development to now. A small price to pay for 7-10 years of never before seen evidence of our universe.

[Fuzz]

15 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

I’m thrilled. If you read more about the deployment, it’s almost unbelievable they thought they could pull it off. Over 400 single point failures (meaning if the given step doesn’t work, the telescope is space junk). It worked though. Amazing. Can’t wait for the first pictures in 5 months or so. 

Hopefully they remebered to take the lens cap off.

[MrBirdman]

11 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Hopefully they remebered to take the lens cap off.

Not sure if you guys outside the US realize, but when the Hubble first went up it was always out of focus because they had ground the mirror to the wrong shape. They later were able to essentially give it glasses, but it was a “traumatic” experience for NASA and they were committed to ensuring it didn’t happen again. 

[PigFish]

Many of the most impactful events on humanity have played out in the last 100 years. If we cannot observe history, learn from it and teach it to our young, spending billions on a telescope to 'look back' is damn waste! Why do I want to look back a the stars when we are destroying our earthly history and the advancement that we have made, celebrating failure of the past instead.

Sorry folks, I like to correlate. What is the point of the history of the universe over billions of years if we won't teach children where we went wrong over the past 100 years?

-the Pig

[Fuzz]

30 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

Not sure if you guys outside the US realize, but when the Hubble first went up it was always out of focus because they had ground the mirror to the wrong shape. They later were able to essentially give it glasses, but it was a “traumatic” experience for NASA and they were committed to ensuring it didn’t happen again. 

Pretty sure that is fairly common knowledge, at least it was when I was in high school.

[SmokyFontaine]

The company I used to work for did some of the cryogenic materials testing for this. Pretty neat project.

[BEVOSREVENGE]

15 hours ago, PigFish said:

Many of the most impactful events on humanity have played out in the last 100 years. If we cannot observe history, learn from it and teach it to our young, spending billions on a telescope to 'look back' is damn waste! Why do I want to look back a the stars when we are destroying our earthly history and the advancement that we have made, celebrating failure of the past instead.

Sorry folks, I like to correlate. What is the point of the history of the universe over billions of years if we won't teach children where we went wrong over the past 100 years?

-the Pig

If you threw $10B at education it would not solve the problem of those who attempt to teach children what to think instead of how to think.

Thankfully, those responsible for this great achievement used their education well and the telescope looks devoid of political stickers, so this is a minor victory for mankind (and I will take it).

 

[Ford2112]

Finally we get to see some decent images of Uranus

[Drguano]

4 minutes ago, Ford2112 said:

Finally we get to see some decent images of Uranus

That is an oxymoron…

[ha_banos]

Don't be daft. There is no oxymoron in space.

[Greenhorn2]

20 hours ago, PigFish said:

Many of the most impactful events on humanity have played out in the last 100 years. If we cannot observe history, learn from it and teach it to our young, spending billions on a telescope to 'look back' is damn waste! Why do I want to look back a the stars when we are destroying our earthly history and the advancement that we have made, celebrating failure of the past instead.

Sorry folks, I like to correlate. What is the point of the history of the universe over billions of years if we won't teach children where we went wrong over the past 100 years?

-the Pig

I'm going to side with the Pig on this one. 

[Chas.Alpha]

1 hour ago, Greenhorn2 said:

I'm going to side with the Pig on this one. 

I am not. With near-sighted vision, we're lucky to have made it to the point that we can start a campfire...

5 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Finally we get to see some decent images of Uranus

Hubble took care of that. Webb will go much further back...

[Vortigan]

22 hours ago, PigFish said:

Many of the most impactful events on humanity have played out in the last 100 years. If we cannot observe history, learn from it and teach it to our young, spending billions on a telescope to 'look back' is damn waste! Why do I want to look back a the stars when we are destroying our earthly history and the advancement that we have made, celebrating failure of the past instead.

Sorry folks, I like to correlate. What is the point of the history of the universe over billions of years if we won't teach children where we went wrong over the past 100 years?

-the Pig

 

I do tend to feel similarly about The SETI program, certainly. It would be lovely if we could find a way to live in harmony with each other before concerning ourselves with looking for anyone else! We can't even manage to leave other lifeforms on Earth alone and in peace!

[bishop532]

22 hours ago, PigFish said:

Many of the most impactful events on humanity have played out in the last 100 years. If we cannot observe history, learn from it and teach it to our young, spending billions on a telescope to 'look back' is damn waste! Why do I want to look back a the stars when we are destroying our earthly history and the advancement that we have made, celebrating failure of the past instead.

Sorry folks, I like to correlate. What is the point of the history of the universe over billions of years if we won't teach children where we went wrong over the past 100 years?

-the Pig

I’m a pretty cynical guy about a lot of things and I agree with what you said in a lot of ways, but I think we can be both complete screwups as a species *and* at the same time we can create something incredible like this and benefit from it. Just like individual people are complex, I think our species is too. The good mixed with the bad is what makes us human. 

I would flip what you said im your second paragraph, and argue what is the point of teaching our children where we’ve gone wrong recently if we don’t take the time to understand the eons that existed before us (and therefore how things have changed in the short time we have been around)? How can we teach them where we went wrong without understanding where the baseline was? 

Not at all saying that we aren’t completely dropping by the ball right now as humans. We definitely are. Just saying that science is important, and understanding the distant past is too.

[RedLantern]

1 hour ago, bishop532 said:

I’m a pretty cynical guy about a lot of things and I agree with what you said in a lot of ways, but I think we can be both complete screwups as a species *and* at the same time we can create something incredible like this and benefit from it. Just like individual people are complex, I think our species is too. The good mixed with the bad is what makes us human. 

I would flip what you said im your second paragraph, and argue what is the point of teaching our children where we’ve gone wrong recently if we don’t take the time to understand the eons that existed before us (and therefore how things have changed in the short time we have been around)? How can we teach them where we went wrong without understanding where the baseline was? 

Not at all saying that we aren’t completely dropping by the ball right now as humans. We definitely are. Just saying that science is important, and understanding the distant past is too.

Some good points and I'd like to add, curiosity is essential to our humanity. 

[Fuzz]

10 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Finally we get to see some decent images of Uranus

[Greenhorn2]

7 hours ago, Heels82 said:

Missed a golden opportunity to drop Piggly Wiggly's slogan!  Hope things are well!

Dude, haven't seen a piggly wiggly in years! I'm on the sunny side of the grass.

[PigFish]

On 1/26/2022 at 12:05 AM, BEVOSREVENGE said:

If you threw $10B at education it would not solve the problem of those who attempt to teach children what to think instead of how to think.

Thankfully, those responsible for this great achievement used their education well and the telescope looks devoid of political stickers, so this is a minor victory for mankind (and I will take it).

 

I did not say spend it on the teachers union. The comment was rhetorical.

 I read an interesting paper once about a universal planetary model that refuted the current “bounce back” model use to predict global warming. They, those who supported the bounce model, proven wrong empirically by their multiple cataclysmic prediction errors, rejected the sensible universal planetary model, and changed their reference from warming to ‘climate change.’

History is empirical. Theory is often garbage, sold to raise money in the academic set until the next round of ‘funding’ and new scarier theory’s are concocted.

Being pro-science, but against raping the tax payer to support an industry rife with grafters and charlatans, I would spend the money on something real, that on people who do politicize, and frankly largely reject truth to theory for the sake of grant money.

What is a better use of the money. Return it to the people that spent their life force earning it… 

-Piggy

 

On 1/26/2022 at 12:51 PM, bishop532 said:

I’m a pretty cynical guy about a lot of things and I agree with what you said in a lot of ways, but I think we can be both complete screwups as a species *and* at the same time we can create something incredible like this and benefit from it. Just like individual people are complex, I think our species is too. The good mixed with the bad is what makes us human. 

I would flip what you said im your second paragraph, and argue what is the point of teaching our children where we’ve gone wrong recently if we don’t take the time to understand the eons that existed before us (and therefore how things have changed in the short time we have been around)? How can we teach them where we went wrong without understanding where the baseline was? 

Not at all saying that we aren’t completely dropping by the ball right now as humans. We definitely are. Just saying that science is important, and understanding the distant past is too.

I understand you comments and held generally similar view’s at one point. Today I am far more pragmatic and prefer the Occam’s razor approach. This would be to no longer deny what is before my eyes for a romantic view of mankind, and trust in the simplicity of knowing, that there is a sucker born every minute!

 I have separated myself from the sucker class!