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Goddard Technicians Tony Kiem (left) and George Mooney (right) guide the craned structure holding the Webb telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument or MIRI Shield Environmental Test Unit into place in a cryogenic (cooling) test chamber. This shield will be used to simulate the MIRI instrument during prelaunch testing to verify that the MIRI cooling system will function properly in space. Goddard Safety Engineer Richard Bowlan watches from above.
Image Credit: NASA/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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In a survey of 100,000 galaxies (called Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science, or CEERS), Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole to date, plus two more small early black holes and 11 early galaxies. All of these objects existed in the first 1.1 billion years after the big bang.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-most-dista...
This image:
Three of the most distant active supermassive black holes were recently identified by in the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. The most distant black hole is CEERS 1019, which existed just over 570 million years after the big bang. CEERS 746 was detected 1 billion years after the big bang. Third place currently goes to CEERS 2782, which existed 1.1 billion years after the big bang. This graphic compares Webb’s detections to those observed by other telescopes, both in space and on the ground.
Credits: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI). Science: Steven Finkelstein (University of Texas at Austin).
Image description: A graphic titled “Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, Active Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time.” This line graph plots black hole mass in terms of the mass of the Sun on the y-axis and age of the universe on the x-axis. A large diffuse purple area filled with data points is labeled “Data from Other Telescopes.” The majority of this data appears just before 700 million years through approximately 1 billion years, weighing between 10 million to 100 billion solar masses. 3 black holes seen by Webb are also plotted. The most distant black hole to date, CEERS 1019, is found much to the left of all the other points. It existed when the universe was less than 600 million years old and weighs 9 million solar masses. CEERS 746 is plotted near the 1 billion years mark and CEERS 2782 follows right behind. They each weigh about 10 million solar masses. Each CEERS data point is yellow and connected to images of the black holes. These images appear as fuzzy red blobs.
In a survey of 100,000 galaxies (called Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science, or CEERS), Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole to date, plus two more small early black holes and 11 early galaxies. All of these objects existed in the first 1.1 billion years after the big bang.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-most-dista...
This image: Research led by Seiji Fujimoto, a team member of Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led to the identification of seven galaxies that existed when the universe was only 540 to 660 million years old. Three are shown above. CEERS 24 and CEERS 23 emitted their light 13.3 billion years ago, and CEERS 3 emitted its light 13.2 billion years ago.
Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI). Science: Steven Finkelstein (University of Texas at Austin), Seiji Fujimoto (University of Texas at Austin), Pablo Arrabal Haro (NOIRLab).
Image description: A graphic titled “Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, Set of Extremely Distant Galaxies.” The graphic shows the redshift of three distant galaxies. At top right is the complete NIRCam image of the field. To its left is a pull out, which shows the locations of three galaxies, which are highlighted by tiny open white boxes. These are labeled NIRCam imaging. Three galaxies from this image are highlighted by larger open boxes and labeled: CEERS 24, 13.3 billion years; CEERS 23, 13.3 billion years; and CEERS 3, 13.2 billion years to indicate how far in the past the light was emitted. In the closeups, these galaxies appear blurry and red. Next to these images are three line graphs corresponding to the three highlighted galaxies. These are labeled NIRSpec Microshutter Array Spectroscopy. They show the shift in the position of hydrogen and oxygen emission lines to longer wavelengths as age of the light increases.
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)
In this image: How do researchers spot a distant planet? By observing the changes in light as it orbits its star. A light curve from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) shows the change in brightness from the LHS 475 star system over time as the planet transited the star on August 31, 2022. LHS 475 b is a rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet that orbits a red dwarf star roughly 41 light-years away, in the constellation Octans. The planet is extremely close to its star, completing one orbit in two Earth-days. The planet’s confirmation was made possible by Webb’s data.
Image description: Graphic titled “Rocky Exoplanet LHS 475 b Transit Light Curve, NIRSpec Bright Object Time-Series Spectroscopy.” Behind the graph is an illustration of the planet and its star. The graph, or spectrum, shows the change in relative brightness of the star-planet system between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 31, 2022. The spectrum shows that the brightness of the system remains steady until the planet begins to transit the star. It then decreases, representing when the planet is directly in front of the star. The brightness increases again when the planet is no longer blocking the star, at which point it levels out. The graph shows data in purple circles, which chart measurements before, during, and after the transit. Data form a U-shaped valley of low brightness labeled “Starlight blocked by the planet” at 5 p.m. This dip cuts into a flat plain of high brightness labeled “Starlight,” which starts before the U-shaped dip, and resumes after the dip.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope isn’t covered by a protective tube like Hubble, instead technicians and engineers designed innovative shielding behind the primary mirrors — to keep out excess light.
To fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket that Webb will ride to space, some of its mirrors are designed to fold, and deploy to full size once in orbit. Shown here: technician Ricardo Pantoja performs a routine inspection of NASA Webb’s innovative blanketing along the connection point of its deployable primary mirror segments.
To observe objects in the distant cosmos, and to do science that’s never been done before, the Webb telescope’s scientific instruments need to be cooled down to a temperature so cold, it would freeze the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere solid.
Intentionally chilling the telescope mirrors and instruments with innovative technologies and intelligent spacecraft design allows them to be far more sensitive to faint infrared light. Infrared can be described simply as heat, and if Webb’s components are cool, they are far more capable at observing faint heat signatures from the distant universe.
Image credit: NASA/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)
In this image: This illustration reflects that exoplanet LHS 475 b is rocky and almost precisely the same size as Earth based on new evidence from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The planet is only a few hundred degrees warmer than our home planet.
The planet whips around its star in just two days, far faster than any planet in the solar system, but its red dwarf star is less than half the temperature of the Sun. Researchers will follow up this summer with another observation with Webb, which they hope will allow them to definitively conclude if the planet has an atmosphere.
LHS 475 b is relatively close, 41 light-years away, in the constellation Octans.
This illustration is based on observations from Webb. Webb has not captured a direct image of this planet.
Image description: A gray rocky planet is in the foreground with its horizon illuminated by its parent star which is in the top center. The background is black. This is an illustration and NOT an image captured by Webb.
Le télescope spatial James Webb a capturé une image étonnante de Herbig-Haro 46/47 à l'aide de son instrument proche infrarouge, NIRCam .
L'image, traitée par Joe DePasquale du Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), présente une "paire étroitement liée d'étoiles en formation active" dans des détails et des couleurs brillants.
L'image comprend les pics de diffraction à six points désormais emblématiques de Webb, bien que l'on puisse affirmer qu'ils sont à huit points sur la base des lignes colorées plus courtes qui coupent horizontalement les noyaux d'étoiles.
Soit dit en passant, DePasquale explique que ces noyaux d'étoiles brillantes sont rendus sous forme de points noirs par le pipeline de traitement de Webb, ce qui signifie que lui et Pagan doivent remplir les zones noires avec du blanc à l'aide d'algorithmes spéciaux.
« Prenez un moment pour vous attarder sur le fond. Une profusion de galaxies extrêmement éloignées parsèment la vue de Webb.
Son image composite NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) comprend plusieurs poses, mettant en évidence des galaxies et des étoiles lointaines.
Les objets bleus avec des pics de diffraction sont des étoiles, et plus ils sont proches, plus ils paraissent gros.
Les galaxies spirales blanches et roses semblent parfois plus grandes que ces étoiles mais sont nettement plus éloignées.
Les plus petits points rouges, la spécialité infrarouge de Webb, sont souvent les galaxies les plus anciennes et les plus éloignées.
Voici donc quelques explications qui nous permettent d’un peu mieux connaître notre galaxie …
_________________________________________PdF_____
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning image of Herbig-Haro 46/47 using its near-infrared instrument, NIRCam.
The image, processed by Joe DePasquale of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), features a "tightly bound pair of actively forming stars" in brilliant detail and color.
The image includes Webb's now signature six-point diffraction peaks, although it could be argued that they are eight-point based on the shorter colored lines that intersect star cores horizontally.
Incidentally, DePasquale explains that these bright star cores are rendered as black dots by Webb's processing pipeline, which means that he and Pagan have to fill in the black areas with white using special algorithms.
“Take a moment to dwell on the substance. A profusion of extremely distant galaxies dot Webb's view. His NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) composite image includes multiple exposures, highlighting distant galaxies and stars.
Blue objects with diffraction peaks are stars, and the closer they are, the bigger they appear.
White and pink spiral galaxies sometimes appear larger than these stars but are significantly further away.
The smallest red dots, Webb's infrared specialty, are often the oldest and most distant galaxies.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope isn’t covered by a protective tube like Hubble, instead technicians and engineers designed innovative shielding behind the primary mirrors — to keep out excess light.
Northrop Grumman blanket technician Ann Meyer and Ball Aerospace optical engineer Larkin Carey inspect the protective barrier behind Webb’s primary mirror. This lightweight blanketing plays an important role on the observatory as it blocks undesirable light from reaching the telescope’s sensitive infrared sensors.
To observe objects in the distant cosmos, and to do science that’s never been done before, the Webb telescope’s scientific instruments need to be cooled down to a temperature so cold, it would freeze the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere solid.
Intentionally chilling the telescope mirrors and instruments with innovative technologies and intelligent spacecraft design allows them to be far more sensitive to faint infrared light. Infrared can be described simply as heat, and if Webb’s components are cool, they are far more capable at observing faint heat signatures from the distant universe.
Image Credits: NASA/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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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
A long time ago… in galaxies far far away, the first stars were born in the early universe. But when and how? That’s a mystery Webb is one step closer to solving.
Using Webb, researchers have found two early galaxies that are unusually bright, one of which could contain the most distant starlight ever seen. The galaxies are thought to have existed 350 and 450 million years after the big bang (respectively, from top to bottom). Unlike our Milky Way, these first galaxies are small and compact, with spherical or disk shapes rather than grand spirals.
Webb’s new findings suggest that the galaxies would have had to begin coming together about 100 million years after the big bang — meaning that the first stars might have started forming in such galaxies around that time, much earlier than expected.
Follow-up observations with Webb’s spectrographs will confirm the distances of these primordial galaxies and help us learn more about the earliest stars. More: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-draws-back-...
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA)
Image description: Two side-by-side, labeled boxes highlight close-ups from Webb’s images of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. At left is Box 1, which shows a central reddish dot surrounded by pastel, blurry streaks of other foreground galaxies against a black background. This dot is a galaxy thought to have existed 350 million years after the big bang, which would make it the farthest detected galaxy if confirmed. On the right is Box 2, which shows a small reddish disk at its center. This is a galaxy thought to have existed 450 million years after the big bang. Also in this box are a few other foreground galaxies, seen as faint blue, blurry dots against a black background.
A long time ago… in galaxies far far away, the first stars were born in the early universe. But when and how? That’s a mystery Webb is one step closer to solving.
Using Webb, researchers have found two early galaxies that are unusually bright, one of which could contain the most distant starlight ever seen. The galaxies are thought to have existed 350 and 450 million years after the big bang (respectively, from top to bottom). Unlike our Milky Way, these first galaxies are small and compact, with spherical or disk shapes rather than grand spirals.
Webb’s new findings suggest that the galaxies would have had to begin coming together about 100 million years after the big bang — meaning that the first stars might have started forming in such galaxies around that time, much earlier than expected.
Follow-up observations with Webb’s spectrographs will confirm the distances of these primordial galaxies and help us learn more about the earliest stars. More: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-draws-back-...
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA)
[Image description: Two vertically stacked views of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 as seen by the Webb telescope. Both views feature countless galaxies of all shapes and sizes speckling the black backdrop of space. Some are spiral, some more disk-shaped and others spherical. Farther galaxies are only seen as dots. Their colors include blue, pink, orange, and white. The view at the bottom is differentiated by bright white stars with long diffraction spikes, unseen in the view at the top. Towards the left of both views, there is a small white box highlighting a notable galaxy. These two tiny boxes have diagonal lines connecting them to close-ups of their contents, placed in much larger inset boxes on the right. The close-up box on the top, labeled as 1, shows a red dot along with some surrounding streaks of foreground galaxies. This red dot is a never-before-seen galaxy thought to have existed 350 million years after the big bang. The close-up box on the bottom, labeled as 2, shows a central red disk with a few other blurry and fuzzy foreground galaxies. This disk is another never-before-seen galaxy, this one thought to have existed 450 million years after the big bang.]
The sole secondary mirror that will fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was installed onto the telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on March 3, 2016.
The Webb telescope uses many mirrors to direct incoming light into the telescope's instruments. The secondary mirror is called the secondary mirror because it is the second surface the light from the cosmos hits on its route into the telescope.
In this photo, engineers are seen installing the secondary mirror onto the telescope.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasas-james-webb-space-...
Credits: 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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To complete the first stage of alignment, the team moved the primary mirror segments to arrange the dots of starlight into a hexagonal image array (bottom). Each dot of starlight is labeled with the corresponding mirror segment that captured it.
Credits: NASA (top); NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale
Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/18/webb-team-brings-18-dots-o...
Three of the four science instruments on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have completed their commissioning activities and are ready for science.
Each of Webb’s instruments has multiple modes of operation, which need to be tested, calibrated, and ultimately verified before they can begin to conduct science. The latest instrument to complete this process, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, or NIRSpec, has four key modes the team officially confirmed as ready to go.
“We made it: NIRSpec is ready for science! This is an amazing moment, the result of the hard work of so many JWST and NIRSpec people and teams over more than two decades. I am just so proud of everyone,” said Pierre Ferruit, Webb project scientist with ESA (European Space Agency) and principal investigator for NIRSpec. “Now is time for science, and I am eager to see the first scientific results coming from NIRSpec observations. I have no doubt they will be fantastic. Big thanks to all who made this possible across the years – great job!”
Read more: go.nasa.gov/3yoKynj
Image: This commissioning test image is a subset of a NIRSpec multi-object spectroscopy exposure of a region close to the center of our Milky Way galaxy. NIRSpec’s two detectors and its microshutter arrays were used to pack more than 200 spectra in a single exposure. Each horizontal stripe is a spectrum that scientists will be able to analyze to better understand the composition and properties of the gas found between the stars in this region – for example, through the study of emission lines that show up at small, brighter, slightly tilted vertical lines in these spectra. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA and the NIRSpec team
A bored looking Cooper Web waiting for the start of 450 Moto-1 at a very muddy AMA Spring Creek Nationals in 2019. Despite the mud and whatever his body language is saying here, Webb won both motos and took first place overall.
This diagram shows Webb's trajectory from Earth into its orbit around the Second Langrange point. Webb's orbit is quite large and on the order of magnitude of the Moon's orbit around Earth.
Webb’s orbit around L2 is a tilted oval shape about 500,000km (in the X direction, away from the Sun) by 1,500,000km (in the Y direction, ‘side-to-side’ of the Sun) by 800,000km (in the Z direction, ‘above and below’ the Sun). The Moon’s orbit is much closer to circular with a diameter of about 770,000km (i.e., a mean radius of about 384,000km) and essentially coincident with the ecliptic plane (the ecliptic plan is the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun). So, if you put Webb’s orbit and the Moon’s orbit in the same plane then Webb’s orbit would completely contain the Moon’s orbit – a little wider in one direction and nearly twice as wide in the other and would be more saddle-shaped.
Graphic credit: NASA/Steve Sabia
A long time ago… in galaxies far far away, the first stars were born in the early universe. But when and how? That’s a mystery Webb is one step closer to solving.
Using Webb, researchers have found two early galaxies that are unusually bright, one of which could contain the most distant starlight ever seen. The galaxies are thought to have existed 350 and 450 million years after the big bang (respectively, from top to bottom). Unlike our Milky Way, these first galaxies are small and compact, with spherical or disk shapes rather than grand spirals.
Webb’s new findings suggest that the galaxies would have had to begin coming together about 100 million years after the big bang — meaning that the first stars might have started forming in such galaxies around that time, much earlier than expected.
Follow-up observations with Webb’s spectrographs will confirm the distances of these primordial galaxies and help us learn more about the earliest stars. More: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-draws-back-...
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA)
[Image description: Countless glowing galaxies of all shapes and sizes speckling the black backdrop of space. Some are spiral, some more disk-shaped and others spherical. Farther galaxies are only seen as dots. Their colors include blue, pink, orange, and white. Towards the center left, a red dot of a galaxy, along with some surrounding streaks, are framed in a tiny white box. This box is attached to a close-up view in a much larger inset box. The red dot is a never-before-seen galaxy discovered by Webb, thought to have existed 350 million years after the big bang.
]
The BAYL Chat job headed to Hilton, Georgia.. M&B 4999 is a new addition to the BAYL power in Dothan, AL.
In a survey of 100,000 galaxies (called Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science, or CEERS), Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole to date, plus two more small early black holes and 11 early galaxies. All of these objects existed in the first 1.1 billion years after the big bang.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-most-dista...
This image: Researchers have identified the most distant active supermassive black hole to date in the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. The black hole, within galaxy CEERS 1019, existed just over 570 million years after the big bang and weighs only 9 million solar masses. For context, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is 4.6 million times the mass of the Sun, and other very distant supermassive black holes we’ve known about for decades typically weigh more than 1 billion times the mass of the Sun.
Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI). Science: Steven Finkelstein (University of Texas at Austin), Rebecca Larson (University of Texas at Austin), Pablo Arrabal Haro (NOIRLab).
Image description: A graphic titled “Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, Black Hole Existed 570 Million Years After Big Bang.” The graphic shows the redshift (how long ago the light was emitted) of one active supermassive black hole. At top right is a very small zoomed out version of the complete galaxy field. To its left is a zoomed-in area. It shows an assortment of galaxies, but has an inset box singling out 3 red dots, 2 with a green tint. This group is labeled CEERS 1019, 13.2 billion years. It shows a black hole from 13.2 billion years ago. The bottom shows a line graph with data from Webb’s NIRSpec. It plots wavelength of light in microns on the x-axis and relative brightness of light on the y-axis. Webb data is shown as an uneven white line and fitted to 2 different models. One is a smooth purple line with a large peak, representing slower gas in the galaxy. The other is a smooth yellow line with a small peak, representing faster gas around the black hole.
Reaching a major milestone, engineers have connected successfully the two halves of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope for the first time at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California. Once it reaches space, Webb will explore the cosmos using infrared light, from planets and moons within our Solar System to the most ancient and distant galaxies.
To combine both halves of Webb, engineers carefully lifted the telescope (which includes the mirrors and science instruments) above the already-combined sunshield and spacecraft using a crane. Team members slowly guided the telescope into place, ensuring that all primary points of contact were perfectly aligned and seated properly. The observatory has been mechanically connected; next steps will be to electrically connect the halves, and then test the electrical connections.
Later, engineers will fully deploy the intricate five-layer sunshield, which is designed to keep Webb's mirrors and scientific instruments cold by blocking infrared light from Earth, the Moon and Sun. The ability of the sunshield to deploy to its correct shape is critical to mission success.
Webb is scheduled for launch on a European Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in March 2021.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. As part of its contribution to the project, ESA provides the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, the Ariane 5 launcher, and staff to support mission operations at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, USA.
Read more about the assembly of the two halves
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn
Reaching a major milestone, engineers have connected successfully the two halves of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope for the first time at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California. Once it reaches space, Webb will explore the cosmos using infrared light, from planets and moons within our Solar System to the most ancient and distant galaxies.
To combine both halves of Webb, engineers carefully lifted the telescope (which includes the mirrors and science instruments) above the already-combined sunshield and spacecraft using a crane. Team members slowly guided the telescope into place, ensuring that all primary points of contact were perfectly aligned and seated properly. The observatory has been mechanically connected; next steps will be to electrically connect the halves, and then test the electrical connections.
Later, engineers will fully deploy the intricate five-layer sunshield, which is designed to keep Webb's mirrors and scientific instruments cold by blocking infrared light from Earth, the Moon and Sun. The ability of the sunshield to deploy to its correct shape is critical to mission success.
Webb is scheduled for launch on a European Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in March 2021.
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. As part of its contribution to the project, ESA provides the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, the Ariane 5 launcher, and staff to support mission operations at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, USA.
Read more about the assembly of the two halves
Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn
On Monday 20th July 2020, around 420 coaches descended on London and honked their horns from Earls Court, along the Chelsea Embankment, through Parliament Square and up to Tower Bridge. Their aim was to highlight to the Government the severe financial crisis the industry currently finds itself in with no prospect of any sort of recovery until at least next summer.
I witnessed the parade pass Chelsea Bridge with the lead vehicle passing at 11:00 and the final coach passing some 3 hours later!!
For this event I decided to focus on the coaches themselves.
This early Webb alignment image, with dots of starlight arranged in a pattern similar to the honeycomb shape of the primary mirror, is called an “image array.” Credit: NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale
Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/18/webb-team-brings-18-dots-o...
In a survey of 100,000 galaxies (called Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science, or CEERS), Webb spotted the most distant active supermassive black hole to date, plus two more small early black holes and 11 early galaxies. All of these objects existed in the first 1.1 billion years after the big bang.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-detects-most-dista...
This image: Researchers using data and images from the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey identified two supermassive black holes that are more similar in size to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy’s center, than other extremely distant galaxies observed earlier by other telescopes. Webb’s spectra show that these black holes weigh only 10 million times the mass of the Sun. Other very distant supermassive black holes we’ve long known about are 1 billion times the mass of the Sun.
Credits: Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI). Science: Steven Finkelstein (University of Texas at Austin), Dale Kocevski (Colby College), Pablo Arrabal Haro (NOIRLab).
Image description: A graphic titled “Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, Two Extremely Distant Active Supermassive Black Holes.” The graphic shows the redshift of two active supermassive black holes. At top right is the complete NIRCam image of the field. To its left is a large, continuous pull out, labeled NIRCam imaging, which shows the locations of two objects, with open white boxes. The image is filled with galaxies of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Two white lines from the image connect to pull outs that run to the left of two graphs at the bottom. In the inset images are blurry red dots. The top one reads CEERS 2782, 12.7 billion years. The bottom image reads CEERS 746, 12.8 billion years. To the right are two line graphs corresponding to the two highlighted black holes. These are labeled NIRSpec Microshutter Array Spectroscopy. They show the shift in the position of emission lines.
WEBX FL9 2024 in an awesome replica of the locomotive's original New Haven scheme as the third unit on Q404, having just departed Juniata Terminal in Philadelphia a few days prior.
NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 6 Frames
www.rc.au.net/blog/2015/07/26/webb-bridge/
© Rodney Campbell
Flora Fields, is a pick-your-own (PYO) dahlia field at Webbs, Wychbold showcasing an extraordinary collection of over 60+ gorgeous varieties and thousands of dahlias in full bloom. It is open from mid August to end of September every year.
Nikon D7200, Nikkor 105mm f2.8 micro
Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb’s mirrors.
After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starlight into Webb’s signature hexagonal formation, the team refined each mirror segment’s image by making minor adjustments, while also changing the alignment of Webb’s secondary mirror. The completion of this process, known as Segment Alignment, was a key step prior to overlapping the light from all the mirrors so that they can work in unison.
Once Segment Alignment was achieved, the focused dots reflected by each mirror were then stacked on top of each other, delivering photons of light from each segment to the same location on NIRCam’s sensor. During this process, called Image Stacking, the team activated sets of six mirrors at a time and commanded them to repoint their light to overlap, until all dots of starlight overlapped with each other.
In this image: This hexagonal image array captured by the NIRCam instrument shows the progress made during the Segment Alignment phase, further aligning Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments and secondary mirror using precise movements commanded from the ground.
Credit: NASA/STScI
Read more: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/25/webb-mirror-alignment-cont...
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope needed a primary mirror so large it couldn’t fit in an existing rocket, so the team took a lesson from honeybees. Their efficient honeycomb pattern used inside beehives allows each mirror to perfectly fit together at their edges, effectively creating a singular and massively powerful unit. The 18 hexagonal mirror segments are able to fold to fit inside the rocket fairing.
Each gold-plated hexagon is equipped with a set of actuators, which are small devices that allow for impressively accurate fine-tuning of their position, angle and even curvature. If adjustments need to be made, they can be precisely applied to each, without disturbing the others while in space.
Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Read more: go.nasa.gov/2G5O7qL
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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The Waste Management Phoenix Open
Scottsdale, Arizona
Webb won the 2020 Phoenix Open on Super Bowl Sunday after beating Tony Finau in a one-hole playoff.
Despite the fact that the tournament competes for the attention of fans with the Super Bowl on its final day, it consistently has, by far, the largest galleries in golf. Attendance for the week consistently tops 500,000 with 200,000 on the course on Saturday.
The Phoenix Open was first played in 1932 and moved to the Tournament Players Club Scottsdale in 1987 where the facilities can accommodate large galleries. It is the most attended of all golf tournaments. Record attendance was set last year (2018) when 720,000 attended for the week. The 16th hole has become the first hole in golf to be completely enclosed by sponsor boxes and bleachers and is known as the noisiest hole in golf. Even though it is a short par 3, it intimidates the best of players.
The tournament is sponsored by the Thunderbirds who do a remarkable job preparing the facility and have contributed more than $100 million to various charities within Arizona.
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 mm VRII at 180 mm
1/640sec at f/4 ISO 200
January 30, 2019 the day of the Pro AM and the last day cameras are permitted.