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by Denton Corker Marshall in collaboration with artist Robert Owen
A competition-winning design for a new pedestrian/cycle bridge over the Yarra river, as part of a public art project, in Melbourne's Docklands area. The brief called for the re-use of the remaining sections of the Webb Dock Rail Bridge, in order to link the Docklands on the north-side to the new residential developments on the south-side. The bridge comprises two distinct sections: the 145m long existing structure and a new curved 80m long ramped link. The ramp takes up level changes and creates a point of arrival at the south bank.
At the northern bank it starts as a series of plain hoops that grow further apart towards the middle of the span. As you approach the south bank, the hoops regain their intensity and evolve into a filigree cocoon. This gradation of pattern was intended to create a life, a moment in time. The existing remnant Webb Dock Rail Bridge and its new connection to the south bank, become a unified sculptural form. The resulting structure suggests a new connection, or a knot, between the old and new, past and future. From afar, it is perceived as an object that becomes, in turn, a place of action and transition as one uses it.
Source: Australian Institute of Architects website
Here it is: humanity’s final look at the James Webb Space Telescope as it heads into deep space to answer our biggest questions. Alone in the vastness of space, Webb will soon begin an approximately two-week process to deploy its antennas, mirrors, and sunshield. This image was captured by the cameras on board the rocket’s upper stage as the telescope separated from it. The Earth hover in the upper right. Credit: Arianespace, ESA, NASA, CSA, CNES
This image highlights the location of the galaxy JADES-GS-z6 in a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, which was observed as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES.
More + high resolution image: www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_s...
This galaxy, along with others in this region, were part of a Webb study by an international team of astronomers, who observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains at redshift ~7. This is roughly equivalent to one billion years after the birth of the Universe. Similar observational signatures have been observed in the much more recent Universe, attributed to complex, carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is not thought likely, however, that PAHs would have developed within the first billion years of cosmic time. Therefore, this observation suggests the exciting possibility that Webb may have observed a different species of carbon-based molecule: possibly minuscule graphite- or diamond-like grains produced by the earliest stars or supernovae. This observation suggests exciting avenues of investigation into both the production of cosmic dust and the earliest stellar populations in our Universe, and was made possible by Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity.
The team’s research indicates that this particular galaxy showed significant dust obscuration and has undergone substantial metal enrichment relative to galaxies with similar mass at the same redshift. The team also believes the galaxy's visible colour gradient may indicate a peculiar geometrical alignment of stars and dust.
In this image, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data at 0.9, 1.15, and 1.5 microns; 2.0, 2.77, and 3.55 microns; and 3.56, 4.1, and 4.44 microns (F090W, F115W, and F150W; F200W, F277W, and F335M; and F356W, F410M, and F444W), respectively.
The galaxy is shown zoomed in on a region measuring roughly 1x1 arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to 1/3600 of one degree of arc (the full Moon has an angular diameter of about 0.5 degrees). The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), S. Tacchella (University of Cambridge, M. Rieke (Univ. of Arizona), D. Eisenstein (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), A. Pagan (STScI)
[Image description: The image shows a deep galaxy field, featuring thousands of galaxies of various shapes and sizes. A cutout indicates a particular galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z6, which was a research target for this result. It appears as a blurry smudge of blue, red and green.]
Former Chicago & North Western hopper car operated by the Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad Company on the Bay Line Chat job.
NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 2.5 sec at f/8, ISO 100 x 4 Frames
www.rc.au.net/blog/2015/07/26/webb-bridge/
© Rodney Campbell
Hey Neptune. Did you ring? 👋
Webb’s latest image is the clearest look at Neptune's rings in 30+ years, and our first time seeing them in infrared light. Take in Webb's ghostly, ethereal views of the planet and its dust bands, rings and moons. (Some of these rings have not been detected since Voyager 2 flew by in 1989!)
In visible light, Neptune appears blue due to small amounts of methane gas in its atmosphere. Here, Webb’s NIRCam instrument observed Neptune at near-infrared wavelengths, so Neptune doesn’t look so blue!
Read more about Webb’s views of Neptune: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/new-webb-image-captures...
Image description: In this Webb image, Neptune resembles a pearl with rings that look like ethereal concentric ovals around it. There are 2 thinner, crisper rings and 2 broader, fainter rings. A few extremely bright patches on the lower half of Neptune represent methane ice clouds. Six tiny white dots, which are six of Neptune’s 14 moons, are scattered among the rings. The background of the image is black.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
M74 shines at its brightest in this combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring data from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. With Hubble’s venerable Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Webb’s powerful Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) capturing a range of wavelengths, this new image has remarkable depth.
The red colors mark dust threaded through the arms of the galaxy, lighter oranges being areas of hotter dust. The young stars throughout the arms and the nuclear core are picked out in blue. Heavier, older stars towards the galaxy’s centre are shown in cyan and green, projecting a spooky glow from the core of the Phantom Galaxy. Bubbles of star formation are also visible in pink across the arms. Such a variety of galactic features is rare to see in a single image. Scientists combine data from telescopes operating across the electromagnetic spectrum to truly understand astronomical objects. In this way, data from Hubble and Webb compliment each other to provide a comprehensive view of the spectacular M74 galaxy.
Read more: esawebb.org/images/potm2208b/
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
Image description:
This image shows Webb near-infrared data combined with optical data from Hubble. Lacy red filaments spiraling out of the center of the galaxy are overlaid over a black field speckled with stars. The center of the galaxy glows in a pale color. The red filaments contain pops of bright pink, and some blue stars are visible in the background. The red color is dust, lighter oranges in the dust mean that dust is hotter. The young stars sprinkled through the arms and around the core of the galaxy are blue. Heavier older stars nearer the center of the galaxy are cyan and green and contribute to its glow. The pink pops of color are star forming regions.
Knot your average discovery!
We thought there was just one, but Webb revealed there are at least 3 galaxies forming a cosmic knot around this quasar. A quasar is a super bright galactic core, powered by a supermassive black hole.
This quasar existed 11.5 billion years ago, and it is unusually “red” — meaning its galaxy’s light has been “redshifted,” or stretched into longer, infrared wavelengths as the universe expands. Data from telescopes like @NASAHubble had shown extended material surrounding this quasar, prompting further study using Webb. With Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, researchers were finally able to map the motions of the material and discover a whole cluster of galaxies!
In the graphic, at left is a Hubble image highlighting the quasar. The images on the right and at the bottom present new observations from Webb in multiple wavelengths. They demonstrate the distribution, speed and direction of gas within the newly observed galaxy cluster around the quasar. The redder the color, the faster the gas is moving away from our line of sight relative to the quasar; the bluer the color, the faster it's moving toward us. The color green indicates that the gas is steady in our line of sight relative to the quasar.
We know of very few “baby” galaxy clusters from the early universe, and Webb offers researchers a rare, exciting opportunity to expand our understanding of how clusters like this one form and evolve: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-uncovers-de...
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Wylezalek (Heidelberg Univ.), A. Vayner and N. Zakamska (Johns Hopkins Univ.) and the Q-3D Team
[Image description: Infographic titled “Motions of Gas Around an Extremely Red Quasar.” On the left is a Hubble image of a field of galaxies, with one central galaxy spotlighted. On the right is a zoomed-in, multicolor image of that same galaxy, newly revealed by Webb to be part of a galaxy cluster. Four single-color images, taken by Webb in various wavelengths, make up the multicolor image and can be found in more detail at the bottom of the graphic. These images show light from the gas (doubly ionized oxygen atoms) in the galaxy cluster. A color code explains that color represents the motion of the gas, including direction and speed relative to the quasar. From left to right: the first image (blue) shows gas moving toward us at 350 kilometers per second; the second (green) shows gas steady in our line of sight at 0 kilometers per second; the third (orange) shows gas moving away at 370 kilometers per second; the fourth (red) also shows gas moving away, but at 700 kilometers per second.]
Webb Bridge, Melbourne.
I thought I would take an ultra wide angle version of one of my personal favourites. HDR was mainly used to bring out the buildings on Yarra's Edge.
Canon 450D | Sigma 10-20@10mm | f8 | -4/-2/0 | ISO100
NASA engineers unveil the giant golden mirror of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, and it's goldenly delicious!
The 18 mirrors that make up the primary mirror were individually protected with a black covers when they were assembled on the telescope structure. Now, for the first time since the primary mirror was completed, the covers have been lifted.
Standing tall and glimmering gold inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's clean room in Greenbelt, Maryland, this mirror will be the largest yet sent into space. Currently, engineers are busy assembling and testing the other pieces of the telescope.
Read more: go.nasa.gov/1TejHg4
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Gunn
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A whole new world!
41 light-years away is the small, rocky planet LHS 475 b. At 99% of Earth’s diameter, it’s almost exactly the same size as our home world. This marks the first time researchers have used the Webb telescope to confirm an exoplanet.
NASA’s TESS mission hinted at the planet’s existence, making it a target of interest for Webb. Webb’s NIRSpec instrument then captured the planet easily and clearly with just 2 transit observations.
Although Webb data definitively tells us that LHS 475 b is a small rocky world, the existence and composition of its atmosphere is a mystery. The planet is a few hundred degrees warmer than Earth and very close to its star, completing an orbit in just 2 days. However, its red dwarf star is much cooler than our Sun, so scientists theorize an atmosphere is still possible. Additional follow-up observations are scheduled this summer.
Learn more about this exciting new discovery: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-confirms-it...
Credits: Illustration - NASA, ESA, CSA, L. Hustak (STScI); Science - K. Stevenson, J. Lustig-Yaeger, E. May (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), G. Fu (Johns Hopkins University), and S. Moran (University of Arizona)
On our planet, water is life. But how did it get here? Are there similar environments around other stars?
Webb has us one step closer to the answers. In a still-developing “solar system,” Webb detected water in the zone where rocky planets like Earth may form.
PDS 70 is a K-type star cooler than our Sun. Around it is a huge disk made up of planet-forming materials, including 2 known gas giant planets in the making. Webb found water vapor in the inner disk of PDS 70, within 100 million miles of the star.
Though we’ve seen water in similar disks, Webb’s discovery is the first detection of water in the “rocky planet zone” of a system known to have 2 or more developing planets. That means if rocky planets someday form around PDS 70, they’ll have water ready and waiting.
Follow-up observations will dive deeper into new mysteries, such as the origins of the water around PDS 70. In turn, studying other worlds will help us gain insight into our own. More: go.nasa.gov/3O8NL2j
This image: ARTIST ILLUSTRATION
This artist concept portrays the star PDS 70 and its inner protoplanetary disk. New measurements by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected water vapor at distances of less than 100 million miles from the star – the region where rocky, terrestrial planets may be forming. This is the first detection of water in the terrestrial region of a disk already known to host two or more protoplanets, one of which is shown at upper right.
Credits
Image
NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Image description: Left of center, a bright light source illuminates a surrounding disk colored dusky red. The disk has spiral features and a scattering of small, rocky objects. At upper right, there is a gap through which background stars can be seen. At the outer edge of the gap is a dusky globe representing a gas giant planet. Beyond it is additional disk material, some of which is falling onto the planet.
Any way you slice it, the Cartwheel Galaxy is magnificent to behold. The top half of this image shows the galaxy as seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in visible light, while the lower half of this image shows the James Webb Space Telescope's infrared view. Hubble and Webb will continue to work together to provide complementary views of the universe.
Good news: more images from Webb are on their way! But first, scientists will need time to analyze data and make sure they understand what they’re seeing. Science is a collaborative process, and you may have seen some preliminary findings from Webb data already. Before NASA can publicize news results, we have to wait for findings to be peer-reviewed — meaning that scientists have checked each other’s work.
Where can you find Webb images? What’s Webb looking at right now? Our latest blog post has it all: go.nasa.gov/3d0aGOq
Image description:
A labeled image, divided horizontally, that shows a Hubble view and Webb view of the same target. Together, the split views show a large galaxy on the right and two much smaller spiral galaxies on the left, one above the other. The top half of the image is labeled as Hubble’s view, and features the upper half of the large galaxy and one of the small galaxies. The upper half of the large galaxy looks like a bright blue ring with wispy light blue shimmers in a pattern like wheel spokes. Near the right edge of the large galaxy is a bright yellow star with four spikes. On the left, the first of the small galaxies is a similar blue as the top half of the large galaxy. The lower half of the image is labeled as Webb’s view, and features the lower half of the large galaxy and the other small galaxy. The lower half of the large galaxy looks like a pink speckled wheel, with detailed pink plumes as wheel spokes and dusty blue in between each spoke. The second of the small galaxies on the left is bluish white. While both the Hubble and Webb views feature a black background, many more distant orange-red specks, or galaxies, can be seen in the lower half of the image.
Need a new perspective?Sometimes, seeing clearly requires looking at things with a fresh set of eyes. When you’re able to peer through the dust, that’s when you can reveal even more stars. ✨
Download full-resolution images of the Carina Nebula, as seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and by Webb!
👉 Hubble: bit.ly/3OnC7id
👉 Webb: bit.ly/3OrP22G
Want posters and zoomable versions of Webb's first images? Find them here: bit.ly/3v9F2UQ
Image description:
Image of a portion of the Carina Nebula, vertically divided in half between Hubble's view on the left and Webb's view on the right. A "Hubble" label in small white text is to the right edge of the Hubble view, while a "Webb" label in the same font is to the right edge of the Webb view. Both the Hubble and Webb views feature a a blue “sky” dotted with stars and an orange-brown “mountain range” below it. Starting with the Hubble view, the blue portion is a more faded color and mixed with shades of green. Some pink points of starlight, each with 4 diffraction spikes, poke through the blue. The orange-brown portion is dusty, and the few stars that can be seen are only tiny dots of pinkish red. The mountainous area also features a prominent knob sticking out on the left side. In the Webb view, we see that Webb’s blue portion is much more rich, dark and vivid in color. Compared to Hubble, a multitude of stars in shades of light orange and blue are visible, including two giant six-pointed stars on the very right. The orange-brown portion is also dotted with stars galore, each with a set of 6 diffraction spikes. This is because Webb's infrared vision is able to cut through the curtain of dust, revealing many more stars in the landscape.
Space isn’t always metal.
Here is Webb’s view of NGC 6822, a galactic neighbor with unusually low “metallicity.” This means it doesn’t have much in the way of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Before the first generation of stars, everything had very low metallicity — stars had not yet created heavier elements. Studying a contemporary object with low metallicity, like this galaxy, can help us understand more about stars and dust in the early universe.
This image combines Webb’s near and mid-infrared light data. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) has peered through gas and dust to spotlight countless stars. Meanwhile, its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) focuses more on galactic dust.
More: esawebb.org/images/potm2307a/
Image description:
This is a composite view of irregular galaxy NGC 6822 that combines data from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. Together, the images show a dense field of stars with greenish yellow clouds of gas and dust billowing across it. Stars litter the scene. They largely resemble white specks, but some of the stars are a bit larger than the rest and resemble snowflakes with their visible diffraction spikes. The clouds are largely patchy and wispy, but denser areas glow yellow. Bright galaxies of various shapes and sizes shine in red through the gas and stars.
Space isn’t always metal.
Here is Webb’s mid-infrared view of NGC 6822, a galactic neighbor with unusually low “metallicity.” This means it doesn’t have much in the way of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Before the first generation of stars, everything had very low metallicity — stars had not yet created heavier elements. Studying a contemporary object with low metallicity, like this galaxy, can help us understand more about stars and dust in the early universe.
More: esawebb.org/images/potm2307a/
This image:
This view was captured by the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which probes the mid-infrared, which in this case makes it perfectly suited to observe the dense regions of gas that suffuse this galaxy. At mid-infrared wavelengths the emission of light by galactic dust is prominent, obscuring the galaxy’s stars which themselves are faint at these longer wavelengths. Brilliant blue gas indicates light emitted by organic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which play a critical role in the formation of stars and planets. Cyan marks cooler patches of dust, while warmer dust is more orange. Distant galaxies far beyond NGC 6822 are displayed in orange. The few galaxies that are relatively closer, meanwhile, are marked in green by their own light-emitting dust, which MIRI can pick out. Bright red and magenta colors indicate active areas of star formation in the galaxy. With so many stars, supernova explosions are routine, and an amazing example of a supernova remnant is visible in this image: a red ring just below the center.
Image description:
Image of galaxy NGC 6822 viewed through Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. This image shows layers of billowing pale gray clouds, made up of gas and dust, on a dark field. The clouds are dense and glowing toward the center and become dark and faint towards the edges. Bright galaxies of various shapes and sizes shine through the clouds. Some stars with short, stubby spikes are spread throughout the image.
Here are three side-by-side images of Neptune. From left to right, the first is labeled as taken by Voyager 2 in 1989. It’s a dark blue sphere with some pale blue or white streaks against a black background. The second is labeled as taken by Hubble in 2021. It’s a fuzzier and paler blue sphere also set against a black background. The third is labeled as taken by Webb in 2022. As seen in infrared light, Neptune resembles a pearl with thin, concentric oval rings.
In visible light, Neptune appears blue due to small amounts of methane gas in its atmosphere. Webb’s NIRCam instrument instead observed Neptune at near-infrared wavelengths, so Neptune doesn’t look so blue!
Read more about Webb's observations of Neptune: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/new-webb-image-captures...
Image credits:
Voyager: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hubble: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.
Webb: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
NOTE: This is an artist illustration.
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected hints of water vapor while observing rocky exoplanet GJ 486 b, but a mystery remains. Researchers are puzzled over whether the water vapor could be due to cool starspots on the planet’s host star, or if it could indicate an atmosphere — which would be the first atmosphere definitively detected around a rocky exoplanet.
Planet GJ 486 b is very close to its red dwarf star. It completes an orbit in just under 1.5 Earth days, and it has a surface temperature of 800 degrees F (426.7 degrees C). If the water vapor is due to an atmosphere, that atmosphere would need to be continuously replenished due to harsh radiation from the active star. These findings could represent a major breakthrough for exoplanet science.
To get to the bottom of this mystery, astronomers are planning to observe this exoplanet with another Webb instrument. This will help ultimately determine if an atmosphere does exist for planet GJ 486 b. This will help ultimately determine if an atmosphere does exist for planet GJ 486 b, as well as what the source of the water vapor may be. Stay tuned for more to come!
Dive into the details: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-finds-water-vapor-...
This image: This artist concept represents the rocky exoplanet GJ 486 b, which orbits a red dwarf star that is only 26 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. By observing GJ 486 b transit in front of its star, astronomers sought signs of an atmosphere. They detected hints of water vapor. However, they caution that while this might be a sign of a planetary atmosphere, the water could be on the star itself – specifically, in cool starspots – and not from the planet at all.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Image description: Occupying the left two-thirds of the image is a foreground planet mostly in shadow. On the right side, a tan crescent shows subtle surface features. A thin, tenuous blue atmosphere lines the planet’s limb. On the right, a small red globe represents a red dwarf star. Its surface is mottled with small, dark spots resembling sunspots. Both planet and star are on a mostly black background speckled with hundreds of faint, distant stars.
Webb took its first near-infrared look at Saturn on June 25. The planet appears extremely dark at this wavelength, as methane gas in its atmosphere absorbs sunlight, but its rings stay bright!
This image was taken as part of a Webb science program designed to test the telescope’s capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and study its bright rings. Take a closer look here to find details within the planet's ring system, as well as the moons Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. Saturn’s rings are made up of an array of rocky and icy fragments – the particles range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to a few as large as mountains on Earth.
Note that data shown is from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. Learn more: go.nasa.gov/44kbTVW
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Matt Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matt Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel (AURA). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)
Image description: The background is mostly dark. At the center is a dark orange-brownish circle, surrounded by several blazing bright, thick, horizontal whiteish rings. This is Saturn and its rings. There are three tiny dots in the image—one to the upper left of the planet, one to the direct left of the planet, and the lower left of the planet. They are labeled Dione, Enceladus, and Tethy, respectively. There is a slightly darker tint at the northern and southern poles of the planet. The rings surrounding Saturn are mostly broad, with a few singular narrow gaps between the broader rings. At the right side of the planet, labels are applied to the rings. The innermost, thicker ring is labeled “C ring.” Next to that, a brighter, wider ring is labeled “B ring.” Traveling farther outward, a small dark gap is labeled “Cassini division” before another thicker ring labeled “A ring.” Within the “A ring,” a narrow faint band is labeled “Encke gap.” The outermost, faintest, thinnest ring is labeled “F ring.”
The combination of Webb’s super powerful vision and a magnifying trick of gravity is allowing astronomers to resolve things never before seen in the early universe. 🔎
Imagine having a giant magnifying glass in space that could help us view the most distant galaxies more easily. Luckily, we can use galaxy clusters! They’re so massive their gravity can bend and magnify the light of objects behind them. In the case of galaxy MACS0647-JD, it is being magnified by the galaxy cluster, called MACS0647, in front of it. A side effect of this is that magnified objects can look warped and even appear multiple times around the edges of the galaxy cluster. The JD object appears 3 times, as shown in the sidebar in this version of the image: www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52470999500/in/da...
Learn more directly from the astronomers in our latest blog post: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/10/26/webb-offers-never-before-s...
Credits: SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Tiger Hsiao (Johns Hopkins University) IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
[Image description: A view of deep space. The background is black and there are galaxies scattered all around, some looking like spirals, others like discs. They range in color from blue to golden to orange. In the center is a prominent, glowing cluster of galaxies and in the foreground, there are a few stars with prominent diffraction spikes. There are also 3 numbered small boxes outlined in white. These are 3 views of the same distant galaxy, which have been magnified, distorted, and repeated due to the gravitational lensing effect of the galaxy cluster.]
This is one of my favorite places I like to hike in the woods. There is a beautiful waterfall that drops to the left of this photo, but too dangerous to climb down to get the shot. There were some rays of light that shined on the yellow leaves and made a nice glow for this photo.
Monroe, CT
Canon 16-35mm 2.8
Hoya CP Pro 1 Digital
Levels and Curve adjusted in Photoshop
Vibrance +2
Contrast +4
The lovely Natalie is looking beautiful in a few floral summery dresses and a cheeky office number. We always have fun together creating different looks for her :)
Boys Will Be Girls, London's Luxurious Dressing Service
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Webb has a new achievement under its (asteroid) belt!
This image is our first look at an asteroid belt outside our solar system in infrared light. Webb reveals there are actually 3 belts, including 2 never-before-seen inner belts, around the star of Fomalhaut. The 3 nested belts here extend out to 14 billion miles (23 billion km) from the star. That’s 150 times the distance of Earth from the Sun!
What carved these belts? Most likely, the gravitational forces of planets we can’t see just yet. In our solar system, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is shaped by the gravity of Jupiter, while the Kuiper belt is shaped by that of Neptune.
Learn more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-looks-for-fomalhau...
This image: This image of the Fomalhaut system, captured by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. Labels indicate the various structures. At right, a great dust cloud is highlighted and pullouts show it in two infrared wavelengths: 23 and 25.5 microns.
The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).
The scale bar is labeled in astronomical units, which is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 93 million miles. The outer ring is about 240 astronomical units in diameter.
This image shows invisible mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key and labels show which MIRI filters were used when collecting the light.
Clouds are in the forecast for exoplanet WASP-96 b!
The James Webb Space Telescope spotted the unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze & evidence for clouds (once thought not to exist there). This is the most detailed exoplanet spectrum to date! More: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/
A spectrum is created when light is split into a rainbow of colors. When Webb observes the light of a star, filtered through the atmosphere of its planet, its spectrographs split up the light into an infrared rainbow. By analyzing that light, scientists can look for the characteristic signatures of specific elements or molecules in the spectrum.
Located in the southern-sky constellation Phoenix, WASP-96 b is 1,150 light-years away. It’s a large, hot planet with a “puffy” atmosphere, orbiting very close to its Sun-like star. In fact, its temperature is greater than 1000 degrees F (537 degrees C) — significantly hotter than any planet in our own solar system!
Please note that the illustration in the background of the image is based on what we know of WASP-96b. Webb hasn't directly imaged the planet or its atmosphere. (Fun fact: space is big and planets are small — though Webb CAN image exoplanets directly, the images would just show a dot of light. Consider that though Pluto is in our own solar system, it is still so far that we didn’t know what it really looked like until New Horizons visited it.)
Image Description:
Graphic titled “Hot Gas Giant Exoplanet WASP-96 b Atmosphere Composition, NIRISS Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy.” The graphic shows the transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b captured using Webb's NIRISS Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy with an illustration of the planet and its star in the background. The data points are plotted on a graph of amount of light blocked in parts per million versus wavelength of light in microns. A curvy blue line represents a best-fit model. Four prominent peaks visible in the data and model are labeled “water, H2O.”
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After full review, the observatory has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful onboard science instruments. Upon completing the seventh and final stage of telescope alignment, the team held a set of key decision meetings and unanimously agreed that Webb is ready to move forward into its next and final series of preparations, known as science instrument commissioning. This process will take about two months before scientific operations begin in the summer.
The alignment of the telescope across all of Webb’s instruments can be seen in a series of images that captures the observatory’s full field of view.
Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/04/28/nasas-webb-in-full-focus-r...
Image caption:
Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the telescope is fully aligned and in focus. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The sizes and positions of the images shown here depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph. Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process.
Credit: NASA/STScI
We are one week away from the release of the first science-quality images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, but how does the observatory find, and lock onto its targets? Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) – developed by the Canadian Space Agency was designed with this particular question in mind. Recently it captured a view of stars and galaxies that provides a tantalizing glimpse at what the telescope's science instruments will reveal in the coming weeks, months, and years.
FGS has always been capable of capturing imagery, but its primary purpose is to enable accurate science measurements and imaging with precision pointing. When it does capture imagery, it is typically not kept: given the limited communications bandwidth between L2 and Earth, Webb only sends data from up to two science instruments at a time. But during the week-long stability test in May, it occurred to the team that they could keep the imagery that was being captured because there was available data transfer bandwidth.
The engineering test image – produced during a thermal stability test in mid-May – has some rough-around-the-edges qualities to it. It was not optimized to be a science observation, rather the data were taken to test how well the telescope could stay locked onto a target, but it does hint at the power of the telescope. It carries a few hallmarks of the views Webb has produced during its postlaunch preparations. Bright stars stand out with their six, long, sharply defined diffraction spikes – an effect due to Webb's six-sided mirror segments. Beyond the stars – galaxies fill nearly the entire background.
The result – using 72 exposures over 32 hours – is among the deepest images of the universe ever taken, according to Webb scientists. When FGS' aperture is open, it is not using color filters like the other science instruments – meaning it is impossible to study the age of the galaxies in this image with the rigor needed for scientific analysis. But: Even when capturing unplanned imagery during a test, FGS is capable of producing stunning views of the cosmos.
“With the Webb telescope achieving better than expected image quality, early in commissioning we intentionally defocused the guiders by a small amount to help ensure they met their performance requirements. When this image was taken, I was thrilled to clearly see all the detailed structure in these faint galaxies. Given what we now know is possible with deep broad-band guider images, perhaps such images, taken in parallel with other observations where feasible, could prove scientifically useful in the future,” said Neil Rowlands, program scientist for Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor, at Honeywell Aerospace
Read more at blogs.nasa.gov/webb
This image: This Fine Guidance Sensor image was acquired in parallel with NIRCam imaging of the star HD147980 over a period of 8 days at the beginning of May. This image represents a total of 32 hours of exposure time at several overlapping pointings of the Guider 2 channel. The observations were not optimized for detection of faint objects, but nevertheless the image captures extremely faint objects and is, for now, the deepest image of the infrared sky. The unfiltered wavelength response of the guider, from 0.6 to 5 micrometers, helps provide this extreme sensitivity. The image is mono-chromatic and is displayed in false color with white-yellow-orange-red representing the progression from brightest to dimmest. The bright star (at 9.3 magnitude) on the right hand edge is 2MASS 16235798+2826079. There are only a handful of stars in this image – distinguished by their diffraction spikes. The rest of the objects are thousands of faint galaxies, some in the nearby universe, but many, many more in the high redshift universe.
Credit: NASA, CSA, and FGS team
A galactic panoramic
This multi-wavelength image combines eight colors of near-infrared light captured by Webb with three colors of ultraviolet and visible light from Hubble. It shows — in unprecedented detail and exquisite depth — a universe full of galaxies, many of which were previously unseen by Hubble or large ground-based telescopes.
While this shot is just a portion of what will be the complete wide field covered by this Webb program, it’s already unveiling wonders. The faintest objects here are about 1 billion times fainter than what can be seen with our eyes.
Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) & R. Jansen (ASU).
Science: R. Jansen, J. Summers, R. O'Brien, and R. Windhorst (Arizona State University); A. Robotham (ICRAR/UWA); A. Koekemoer (STScI); C. Willmer (UofA); and the PEARLS team
Image description: On a black background, a white border outlines an irregularly shaped, mostly rectangular area. Within the outline lie hundreds of galaxies of various shapes, colors and sizes. Two white boxes on the left side of the field enclose groups of galaxies. From each box, a line extends out beyond the border of the galaxy field to an enlarged image of the galaxy group, revealing streams of stars and tidal tails. On the right side, a third box encloses a spiral galaxy. A line extends beyond the border of the galaxy field to an enlarged image of the spiral galaxy. A few stars are also scattered across the image. Some have Webb’s characteristic 8-point diffraction spikes, while others have additional spikes due to a combination of image exposures.