What’s up with the lens flaring though? They all look like 8 pointed snowflakes. I’m sure this has to do with the optics, no? Is that not something you can overcome? /abovemypaygrade
Its probably partially due to the particulate the light has to go through on its way here.
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.
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.