NASA Release New Webb Test Image

5 days to go before the first full colour images are released and NASA have released a new test image captured using Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor instrument.

This engineering image represents a total of 32 hours of exposure time at several overlapping pointings of the Guider 2 channel. The observations were not optimized for detection of faint objects, but nevertheless the image captures extremely faint objects and is, for now, the deepest image of the infrared sky.

The unfiltered wavelength response of the guider, from 0.6 to 5 micrometers, helps provide this extreme sensitivity. The image is mono-chromatic and is displayed in false color with white-yellow-orange-red representing the progression from brightest to dimmest. The bright star (at 9.3 magnitude) on the right hand edge is 2MASS 16235798+2826079.

There are only a handful of stars in this image – distinguished by their diffraction spikes. The rest of the objects are thousands of faint galaxies, some in the nearby universe, but many, many more in the distant universe. Credit: NASA, CSA, and FGS team.

blogs.nasa.gov...

Think we're gonna need a bigger scope.

a reply to: gortex

Images like this give me chills .

Look how clear that image is all of those Galaxies just in that one small capture of the Universe .

Our Petty issues on Earth seem to fade away when I see images like this.

I would like to see how the resolution of galaxies in that image compares against hubble.

Looks like a Hubble picture, but with the name Webb sticked to it.

I mean... I would have picked an iconic picture of Hubble, and shown what Webb can offer, by showing the same region, but with groovy details.

That's so generic that generic becomes boringly generic... Sorry...

I've waited almost 2 decades to see the same old same old... :/

Maybe later?...

I can see my house.

a reply to: gortex


We're on a planet within a solar system that is one of several solar systems in a galaxy. Each galaxy has its own set of innumerable solar systems.

Every speck on that picture is an entire galaxy, and it's just a tiny portion of the universe.

a reply to: coamanach

I've waited almost 2 decades to see the same old same old... :/

Maybe later?...

This is a test image , it was released as a taster for the proper (colour) images which will be released on Tuesday.

a reply to: asabuvsobelow

To think in each of those galaxies, could be 200 million stars surrounded by their own solar systems, full of planets. The chances that Earth is the only planet with life on seem improbable.

a reply to: gortex

I do think we're going to be getting some spectacular images from this telescope when they've finished setting it up.

Can't wait for pics of the moon.

originally posted by: gspat
Can't wait for pics of the moon.

I think the moon is too close for it to image.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

They said they'd never image the moon with hubble either...

a reply to: gortex

Looking at the image. at the bottom right there is a " circle of galaxies " possibly 11 in total, and one situated in the centre.

In reality they are probaly hundreds of light years apart, but it looks quite interesting.

Check out this vid-someone found the location of the photo and aimed their back yard telescope at the area for 6 hours.

He matches up the images,and it gives an idea of the scale-from our perspective its literally 1 pixel in the whole sky,and yet it is filled with countless distant galaxies..and the entire damned sky is like that in all directions.
Nope! I still cannot fathom it.

It won't embed-

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Makes one wish to live forever...

It's always a mind bender for me to see all those galaxies and the possibilities.

⭐+🇺🇸

originally posted by: gspat
Can't wait for pics of the moon.

It might (technically) be able to image the moon, but it will never look that general direction.

Looking back at the moon would mean looking back toward the direction of the sun, and Webb does not want to do that. It will keep itself pointed away from the general direction of the sun (and hence the Moon) throughout its operational life.

Besides, the power of Webb does not come from high magnification. It comes from being able to detect infrared radiation with great sensitivity. The reason infrared was chosen for Webb is that it's target are mostly extremely distant objects -- such as distant galaxies.

The visible light that was emitted from those galaxies have travel so far while those galaxies are moving away from us (due to expansion of the universe) that the visible light wavelengths have become red-shifted to become infrared. So if we want to see that visible light that was emitted from those galaxies so many years ago, then we need to look in the infrared.

Webb's infrared can be used for other things, but looking at the Moon would almost certainly be better done from more powerful ground-based telescopes or (to avoid atmospheric distortion) from Lunar orbit -- like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.

The LRO cameras have pictures of the moon with (in many cases) 30 cm resolution, which means LRO camera images are able to see a basketball-sized object on the Moon. That's better than Webb would be able to do. The link to the LRO camera images I posted above is zoomable, and allows you to see those basket-ball sized objects

a reply to: alldaylong

OR....

It could be a black hole with gravitational lensing effect.

Gavitational Lensing Effect

originally posted by: coamanach
Looks like a Hubble picture, but with the name Webb sticked to it.

I mean... I would have picked an iconic picture of Hubble, and shown what Webb can offer, by showing the same region, but with groovy details.

The NGST will be using Hubble spectrum and combining images a lot of the times, the NGST operates in a very narrow spectrum and the Hubble operates in mostly the visible light spectrum.

The new approach to astronomy is called Multimessenger astronomy, everytbing is being built to compliment each other and to link together and combine data when looking at the same region or object in space, even gravitational wave detectors will come into play to form a more complete image of what we are looking at.

Believe it or not as beautiful and complex as it all is out there we are only seeing a very small amount of it at any given time.

Multimessenger astronomy is going to take it to the next level...

astronomy.com...

Another test image has slipped out following yesterday's release event images
, this one is Webb's view of Jupiter and some Moons which was taken to test Webb's fast tracking abilities.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: gspat
Can't wait for pics of the moon.

It might (technically) be able to image the moon, but it will never look that general direction.

Looking back at the moon would mean looking back toward the direction of the sun, and Webb does not want to do that. It will keep itself pointed away from the general direction of the sun (and hence the Moon) throughout its operational life.

Besides, the power of Webb does not come from high magnification. It comes from being able to detect infrared radiation with great sensitivity. The reason infrared was chosen for Webb is that it's target are mostly extremely distant objects -- such as distant galaxies.

The visible light that was emitted from those galaxies have travel so far while those galaxies are moving away from us (due to expansion of the universe) that the visible light wavelengths have become red-shifted to become infrared. So if we want to see that visible light that was emitted from those galaxies so many years ago, then we need to look in the infrared.

Webb's infrared can be used for other things, but looking at the Moon would almost certainly be better done from more powerful ground-based telescopes or (to avoid atmospheric distortion) from Lunar orbit -- like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.

The LRO cameras have pictures of the moon with (in many cases) 30 cm resolution, which means LRO camera images are able to see a basketball-sized object on the Moon. That's better than Webb would be able to do. The link to the LRO camera images I posted above is zoomable, and allows you to see those basket-ball sized objects

Someone's going to owe me a coffee in a few years when the image gets released...