Posted on 08/07/2022 7:07:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Image developers on the Webb team are tasked with turning the telescope’s infrared image data into some of the most vivid views of the cosmos we’ve ever had. They assign various infrared wavelengths to colors on the visible spectrum, the familiar reds, blues, yellows, etc.
Longer infrared waves are assigned redder colors, and the shortest infrared wavelengths are assigned bluer colors. (Blue and violet light has the shortest wavelengths within the visible spectrum, while red has the longest.) The process is called chromatic ordering, and the spectrum is split into as many colors as the team needs to capture the full spectrum of light depicted in the image.
The chromatic ordering depends too on what elements are being imaged. When working with narrow-band wavelengths in optical light—oxygen, ionized hydrogen, and sulfur—the latter two both emit in red. So the hydrogen might get shifted to green visible light, in order to give the viewer more information.
When telescope images are being assembled, image processors work with instrument scientists to decide which features of a given object should be highlighted in the image: its piping hot gas, perhaps, or a cool dusty tail.
In the case of the sweeping shot of the Carina Nebula’s cosmic cliffs, different filters captured the ionized blue gas and red dust. In initial passes at the nebula image, the gas obscured the dust’s structure, scientists asked the image processing team to “tone down the gas”
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
It’s a never ending quest. And it can’t ever end.
I did something similar when I was a kid. The sun had just gone down, and it’s was twilight.
I threw a Frisbee into the air, snapped a picture of it with my Polaroid Swinger, took it to school the next day and told everyone I had taken a picture of a UFO.
It fooled a lot of kids.
Of course, I told them how I took it. We all had a good laugh.
That one and the robot spider are etched in my memory. Saturday mornings were great!
That's racist!😲
I refuse to look at anything but the original infrared.
It was a long haul and very challenging. The results made it all worthwhile
Welcome to gubbermint requirements and gubbermint contracting.
Please sign the guestbook on your way in.
THANKS TO YOU AND THE ENTIRE WEBB TEAM!
Whataya gonna do for an encore?🙄🙂
Nothing. I retired after that gig. Forty years in optics and lasers was enough for me. It’s a young person sport
Though some of the crew went on to work on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)
Last I read it was coming along. The optics are done but building it has been a toughie. The usual crew has complained about its location so it got tangled up in nonsense and has faced delays. Looks like it will be completed and operational eventually
A local company here (Rockford, IL), Ingersoll Milling Machine, is working on the Large Magellan Telescope. They are making a big part of the structure itself.
I’m looking forward to getting a tour with the rest of my astronomy club buddies when it’s far enough along.
https://news.camozzi.com/projects/ingersoll-machine-tools-to-produce-the-structure-of-the-giant-magellan-telescope.kl
They worked on another very large telescope some years ago, but The name escapes me for now.
Exiting times!
Good for you! I’m retired, too. I worked in local machine shops for 40+ years. I really wanted to work a couple more years, but my health said otherwise. Plus it was 2020, COVID, and the govt. had everyone scared to death. My wife decided to retire at the same time.
Hope y’all are enjoying it. I certainly am
The Magellan is exciting too
Deep space be rayciss?
What wavelength did they have to make visible to be able to see these hidden wonders of the universe?
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