Posted on 05/10/2022 9:33:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
Webb MIRI and Spitzer Comparison Image
Comparison of a Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument image of the Large Magellanic Cloud and a past image of the same view using the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right)
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light-years away, provided a dense star field to test Webb’s performance.
Here, a close-up of the MIRI image is compared to a past image of the same target taken with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope’s Infrared Array Camera (at 8.0 microns). The retired Spitzer telescope was one of NASA’s Great Observatories and the first to provide high-resolution images of the near- and mid-infrared universe. Webb, with its significantly larger primary mirror and improved detectors, will allow us to see the infrared sky with improved clarity, enabling even more discoveries.
Webb MIRI vs Spitzer IRA
Comparison of a Webb MIRI image of the Large Magellanic Cloud and a past image of the same view using the Spitzer IRAC. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (top), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (bottom)
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For example, Webb’s MIRI image shows the interstellar gas in unprecedented detail. Here, you can see the emission from “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,” or molecules of carbon and hydrogen that play an important role in the thermal balance and chemistry of interstellar gas. When Webb is ready to begin science observations, studies such as these with MIRI will help give astronomers new insights into the birth of stars and protoplanetary systems.
In the meantime, the Webb team has begun the process of setting up and testing Webb’s instruments to begin science observations this summer.
Webb MIRI Spitzer IRAC Comparison
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). MIRI is part of Europe’s contribution to the Webb mission. It is a partnership between Europe and the USA; the main partners are ESA, a consortium of nationally funded European institutes, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
I was overjoyed (and pleasantly surprised) when the Ariane managed to get the JW into space.
Again: Cool. I'm amazed.
Most likely due to structural supports for the optics.
It's caused by the fact that the stars themselves are much smaller than the resolving power of the telescope; for this reason, they can't be focused to a single point. It's called the "diffraction limit."
If you look closely, you can see that many of the points of light in the image do not have the "flares," these are entire galaxies, and so have (angular) size closer to what Webb can resolve.
The flares themselves are actually images - in "inverse space," the spatial frequency domain - of some part of the optical train between the main mirror and the image sensing array. Possibly the entrance aperture, which is rectangular, or some filter holder.
It’s an infrared image and the points correspond with the shape of the aperture/blades /sides the infrared light has to come through. The image is also cropped from a large data set so the “points” show up sharply. The normal light images should look even more astounding as the final mirror adjustments are made. This really is a major advancement in infrared stellar photography.
Patience, Padawan, patience................
RECONCILE:
highest classification
I wonder if it will be able to see the words from the Star Wars series of movies which in the beginning of the movie just float off into space?
It’s pure huberis to assume there is intelligent life between jojo’s ears.
Yeah...it could be that too. And they are all coming our way.
That’s a wow.
5.56mm
I'd never heard of "satellite galaxies" before and had no idea these existed. It's breathtaking to think that orbital mechanics are at work at the galaxy scale. Wiki -->
A satellite galaxy is a smaller companion galaxy that travels on bound orbits within the gravitational potential of a more massive and luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents are bound to their host galaxy, in the same way that planets within our own solar system are gravitationally bound to the Sun. While most satellite galaxies are dwarf galaxies, satellite galaxies of large galaxy clusters can be much more massive. The Milky Way is orbited by about fifty satellite galaxies, the largest of which is the Large Magellanic Cloud.The orbital period of the satellite galaxies is from 109 to 1010 years.
Below: Discovery of Milky Way satellite galaxies in the past 100 years. Imagine how this is going to change with the JW Telescope!
There’s no instrument on earth or that can be conceived that can fathom that vast emptiness and wasteland.
Speaking of Uranus, I just had my five-year colonoscopy yesterday.
Diffraction spikes caused by the arms that support the secondary mirror being in the primary light path. You might be able to hide it with some processing, but by the time the light reaches the primary mirror, the diffraction of light around the supports has already occurred.
Yes.
99% of what the MSM peddles are mis-truths.
I am a photographer and I have enhanced many a wedding photo with a star filter. It is not an affect that occurs naturally. Only photo-shopping and fake.
Interesting
If it’s in micro-gravity, couldn’t they hold the secondary mirror with a magnetic cushion or something like that?
Good deal.
Now can we turn it earthward and find the following
1.
Two functioning TalyBiden brain cells
2.
Kampala harris’ virtue
3.
Progressives Morality
4.
Non antifa/groomer teachers
5.
The DGB defunition of disinformation
6
The other 40 billion we gave (saul)Insky/Ukraine before the latest 600 billion
7
Bill barr’s
Judas Pense’s
FBI’s
DOJ’s
DHS’s
Integrity
8.
Honest secure elections.
9
USA.
10
Justice
Mine usually only takes an hour or so.................
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