James Webb Space Telescope is about to beam us monster amounts of cosmic data
His brother Jack would have been proud!
Posted on 07/15/2022 12:31:45 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Kewl. Can’t wait!
Toddler galaxies. Baby galaxies. What about fetus galaxies?
why is it named the “James Webb” ???
From the internet:
“Webb ran the fledgling space agency from February 1961 to October 1968. He believed that NASA had to strike a balance between human space flight and science. The man whose name NASA has chosen to bestow upon the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is most commonly linked to the Apollo moon program, not to science.”
later
More:
“Webb’s vision of a balanced program resulted in a decade of space science research that remains unparalleled today. During his tenure, NASA invested in the development of robotic spacecraft, which explored the lunar environment so that astronauts could do so later, and it sent scientific probes to Mars and Venus, giving Americans their first-ever view of the strange landscape of outer space. As early as 1965, Webb also had written that a major space telescope, then known as the Large Space Telescope, should become a major NASA effort.”
I didn’t know anything about him either - thanks for the prompt to learn more!
Ironic, isn’t it, that we are making such observational leaps just as we are discovering that the observable universe is lying to us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dh2UL7R9II
We’re looking at the universe as it once was. Quantum gravity has reduced what we see exponentially.
First good laugh of the morning.
Don't forget "MacArthur Park"
Is the data actually released to the public (as they claim) or is it filtered by the ‘scientists’ who remove any anomalies?
There is a huge trove of interviews archived, called the Apollo Oral History Project at the JSC. You can read (or listen) to many if not most of the heavy hitters of the time period.
These guys literally wrote the book on spaceflight operations. One of the characteristics that Gene Krantz and other flight directors talk about - and Webb, I think, was the architect of this, was how important a clear chain of command and responsibilities was.
They set up a system where, the Flight Director on duty had the final say. The end. Keep in mind, there are eleventy gazillion people who might have an opinion on what needs to be done (or not done) in the heat of the moment. But they quickly learned that over-ruling people - pulling rank, as it were, was a prescription for chaos, if not outright failure.
They also established a system of “flight rules” though exhaustive testing and training and practice procedures, and had all the discussion and consensus and debate beforehand. THEN, they set out to never break those mission flight rules in real life.
The wisdom of that particular technique, is based on a keen sense of human factors or dynamics. Because the tendency ordinarily is what some have termed “the paralysis of analysis”. You get a bunch of eggheads and engineers and scientists together in a room, they will argue and discuss in perpetuity. But in a crisis, during spaceflight, a decision has to be made, within a certain timeframe.
They gave very young people extraordinary duties and responsibilities - and held them accountable. It’s my understanding, you did not want to get on Mr. Webb’s bad side. He was famous for firing people right on the spot.
Typically he would troubleshoot people, by asking a question he already knew the answer to. If you didn’t know the answer, but tried blowing smoke up his ass with word salad - GONE, DRT. He was looking for “I don’t know.” That is an acceptable answer, the only answer, in fact, if that’s the case.
Compare and contrast how a government entity staffs and operates when it really wants to accomplish a task. Bullshit artists, water walkers, etc., need not apply. It would have been challenging, but I bet it was the best job in the world at one time to be involved with that, even indirectly. All the stars lined up for that operation, and they drew in a lot of really outstanding individuals.
“small sparkling window into what the universe looked like more than 13 billion years ago”
Incredible. Light can circle the earth 7 times a second, try to count that fast, and still it took that light 13 billion years to reach us. Damn, the universe is huge, almost but not quite as big as B. Husseins ego.
Ohhhhh. MONSTER amounts!
Grow up popsci....
I took Pop Mechs for 3 or 4 months recently, trash. Not remotely as engineering focused as in days gone by.
Good barbershop read...
I wonder what is being withheld...that's where the REALLY interesting stuff is.
What they're gonna give the public is lotsa purdy pitchers.
“lotsa purdy pitchers”, no raw data. They’d likely say we would not understand it, nor be able to break anything out of their proprietary format. A double layer of protection from public inspection.
“Toddler galaxies. Baby galaxies. What about fetus galaxies?” Fetus galaxies were greatly reduced because the early universe was Democrat.
That certainly fits.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
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