Incredibly Sharp Webb Space Telescope Test Images Hint at New Possibilities for Science

May 10, 2022 | By ALISE FISHER, NASA

[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).

[Big Red Badger]

More Coffee!
Thanks!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/05/09/miris-sharper-view-hints-at-new-possibilities-for-science/

[Vermont Lt]

I too am a professional photographer. I have seen Star patterns through clouds and dust.

14 years shooting sports professionally (as in a full time job). I’ve seen and explained so many different artifacts on images it’s nuts.

I hate the star filter. I always thought it was kind of cheesy. But, if it sells…

[FLT-bird]

WOW! The difference is incredible. I’d been waiting for that sucker to launch for years and years. Now we finally have it up and working.

[deport]

Mine usually only takes an hour or so.................

***********

Yep except the time spent in the bathroom.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL...now that I think about it, it only felt like five years.

[deport]

There is a point in time if you live long enough that
they quit doing the procedure routinely. They figure
you are approaching death so be it.

[Oscar in Batangas]

You can almost see Alaska from its front porch.

(Sarah for Senate)

[PUGACHEV]

This is one of the amazing things one can see through a good telescope. Pick a portion of the sky that is completely blank and dark, with no stars to be seen in it anywhere. Usually, this is a very small, tiny patch of the night sky. Focus the telescope on that spot, and you’ll see hundreds of pin point stars, some of which are probably galaxies themselves containing millions of stars and countless other worlds.

[gibsonguy]

Yes, but the reason HAL went crazy in 2001 was he was told to lie and it broke the code

[ETCM]

“star filter”? This isn’t wedding photography and the diffraction patterns around the stars are not caused by a filter. The JWST has a filter wheel with dozens of filters with various band passes/blocks and for other purposes, such as to detect numerous elements and molecules or to view an object in a narrow band to see objects and details that would otherwise be obscured by other wavelengths.

[A Navy Vet]

You made my head explode. Thanks for that.

[married21]

Knowing a couple people who work on the Webb telescope has been wonderful. Their pride and happiness is infectious. They are helping to share the wonders of the universe even with somewhat ignorant lay people like me.

[budj]

Indeed

[spankalib]

Years ago, I read that there actually is a region where nothing can be seen...in Orion IIRC.

I believe that is where heaven is.

[ETCM]

The complexity and reliability of deploying the secondary would be an issue. The secondary also has power and control cabling running through the supports to the spacecraft that carries the optics. The spikes could have been reduced by making the support arms much thinner, but I suspect they put a high value on long term reliability.

[SuperLuminal]

I’m just waiting for the discovery of a “Kilroy was here!” sign early in the universe...

Pass the popcorn, astrophysics is about to have a galactic-web orgasm...

[no-s]

> If it’s in micro-gravity, couldn’t they hold the secondary mirror with a magnetic cushion or something like that?

There have been proposals to use lasers for positioning micro satellite arrays that could dispense with physical connections. If there is a mirror on each spacecraft forming an optical resonator, the photons are be recycled thousands of times and amplify the momentum transfer. The laser gain medium is effectively inside the resonator thus improving efficiency. There’s all sorts of nifty possibilities, the author of the paper I referenced has a little company Y.K. Bae Corp looking for funding to fly micro satellite demonstrator arrays. With sufficiently large mirrors and optical meta materials and a “simple matter of engineering” this system could whisk payloads between the inner planets in a quickly via an "interplanetary photonic railway".

Actually I just had an epiphany and thought of a possible way to increase the effectiveness of the momentum transfer and possibly create a “momentum capacitor” that could radically transform orbital transfer in LEO...gonna see if anyone’s thought of my scheme and if not do the math and patent it.

[z3n]

Wish there was a like button for your post