back to article Behold: The first images snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope

Each colored speck or oval-shaped orb dotting the background in each image collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and released on Tuesday, is an individual star or galaxy somewhere deep in the universe. Over Christmas, after decades of work, the $10-billion telescope was finally launched into space and sent to …

  1. 42656e4d203239 Silver badge
    Coat

    Obligatory reference...

    >> space is mindbogglingly huge,

    How does it compare to the distance to the local chemist?

    /mines the one with a hyper compressed towel in one pocket and a strange slipper shaped lump of metal that I cant't seem to stop scratching my sunglasses in the other.

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Go

      Re: Obligatory reference...

      How does it compare to the distance to the local chemist?

      Lets just say, a multiplying bacteria would reach the chemist a lot faster than you in your car.

      Unless you manage to get to the intergalactic hyperway, that is. But I understand that earth in still in the way from it being constructed.

    2. AMBxx Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Obligatory reference...

      Yes, whenever I see pictures like this, I want to see something to give a sense of scale. Then I realise that there is no way I can comprehend the scale of it. Plus, there aren't enough double decker buses.

      1. Roger Kynaston

        Re: Obligatory reference...

        A light year is ~9460000000000 km if you take 300000 km/s so I agree but it is sometimes helpful to write these very large numbers rather than talking about AUs and such like.

        Relative distances and speeds can always give you scope for thought. I used to sail from Torbay to the River Exe and see the trains passing along the coast. I used to be able to reflect that they would be arriving in London or Birmingham as I was picking up my mooring 5 miles away.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: Obligatory reference...

        There may not be enough of them, but its the concept that counts. a light year is 1,026,141,663,954,876 double decker buses

        1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

          Re: Obligatory reference...

          What's that in linguine?

          1. Youngone Silver badge

            Re: Obligatory reference...

            12.

            Quite big ones, obviously.

        2. David 132 Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: Obligatory reference...

          Typical. You wait ages for a bus and then 1,026,141,663,954,876 of them turn up at once.

  2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Pint

    Planetary pedantry

    ...the TRAPPIST system – a solar system...

    There's only one solar system and the star Sol lies at its centre!

    A beer for the boffins for the previous ~30 and next ~20 years of work on the project, and for El Reg's reporting on it.

    1. DJO Silver badge

      Re: Planetary pedantry

      ...There's only one solar system...

      That's just your opinion.

      Assuming there are other inhabited planets around other stars then it's almost inevitable that those inhabitants will refer to their sun in their language as "The Sun" and the planet they are on will be "World" or "Ground" or "Home" or "Earth" or some similar designation.

      This is only the case for original homes, colony worlds would obviously have different names.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Alien

        Re: Planetary pedantry

        Is funny you get downvoted for stating what any linguist would say was obvious. Prescriptive language people really get everywhere sadly. Like lice.

        1. DJO Silver badge

          Re: Planetary pedantry

          Maybe if I was to point out that both Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett made exactly the same point I'd get fewer down votes :-)

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Planetary pedantry

            Flintlewoodlewix.

    2. Spoobistle
      Alien

      Re: Planetary pedantry

      Trappist... Beer... I saw what you did there!

      So can this Wonderscope spot Breweries in Spaaaace?

      Shouldn't be too hard to find red shifted IR spectra of C2H5OH!

      (Icon of absinthe pickled alien.)

  3. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    We can see a planet 1000 light years away in that detail? Wow, just wow.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      We can see a planet 1000 light years away in that detail?

      We cannot. The background of that image is not the planet or the star (and is rather confusing).

      JWST resolution limit is about 1.9E-7 radians at 1000nm wavelength. At 1000ly WASP-96 (the star) would subtend about 7E-11 radians so is hopelessly unresolvable. WASP-96b is much smaller. Indeed if orrbital radius from Wikipidia (0.045au) is correct, is not possible for JWST to resolve planet as separate from star even (this is about 7E-10 radians).

      This is not what they are doing however: WASP-99b moves across its star as seen by us, so what we do is watch the star as it does so: the light from the star is (slightly) blocked by the planet, and some of the light also passes through the atmosphere of the planet so the spectrum of the light that reaches us changes slightly. From these changes in the spectrum we can conclude things about the atmosphere of the planet. Particularly significant is evidence for clouds which WASP-96b was formerly thought not to have.

      1. Wellyboot Silver badge

        Yup, this is part what I find utterly gobsmacking about the process.

        We can spot a planet (identify its orbit & size mass etc.) just by watching for a regular tiny reduction in light arriving from its host star and spectrum changes affecting very very much less that 1% of the ever so slightly reduced light reaching us is enough to give us information about the planetary atmosphere.

        Yet to actually see the planet we'd need a telescope far bigger than we could build with current technology - nanometre accuracy across 100s of square kilometres, it'd be junk long before we finished alignment.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Boffin

          Oh no this is not true. See for instance HR 8799: direct image of a system with at least four planets. The movie is amazing.

  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    And the harvest starts

    We've waited a long time, we've been impatient, but now we will reap the rewards of the work of thousands of people devoting years of their life to this project.

    I salute them all.

    1. Dave K
      Pint

      Re: And the harvest starts

      Agreed, it's an incredibly impressive technologically achievement. A beer to everyone involved in this project!

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: And the harvest starts

      @Pascal Monett

      When I first read your comment, I thought I had heard at the beginning of a Sci-Fi movie(in a very sinister voice) about taking over other planets.

      We've waited a long time, we've been impatient, but now we will reap the rewards of the work of thousands of people devoting years of their life to this project.

      I salute them all.

  5. Kane

    Anyone read any Junji Ito?

    Hellstar Remina?

  6. xeroks

    literally

    "a *long* time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

  7. alain williams Silver badge

    It will give me a whole new selection ...

    of images for my desktop background.

    Thanks NASA!

  8. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Second picture from the bottom

    You can hear the synth sounds already.

  9. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Remember when?

    Remember when JWST was the over-budget decade-delayed albatross around NASA's neck... and nobody wanted anything to do with it, and everyone wanted to cancel it?

    Yeah. Amazing how times change.

    Reminds me how people treat IT. Nobody wants to spend money on it until the company takes it in the balls from a ransomware attack or something else.

    Pessimistic is just another way of spelling realist.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pirate

      Re: Remember when?

      Is in fact strong argument that JWST should have been cancelled. It was so far over budget that it was likely at various times clean start would have been cheaper.

      Not that it is not amazing, but perhaps two of three 2-billion dollar JWSTs would be more amazing.

    2. Sixtiesplastictrektableware

      Re: Remember when?

      That's an old chestnut from my (West Indian) Mom, one of my faves--

      Everybody love sausage, but nobody wanna know how it make.

  10. chivo243 Silver badge
    Go

    Stunning images

    I feel like I've seen some of those as desktop wallpaper!

    1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Stunning images

      One of my co-workers already added it yesterday to his desktop.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Stunning images

        Just made the Carina Nebula pic the background on my phone's home screen. Looks great and, for a while, it will make me believe I've just upgraded my phone, too!

  11. TeeCee Gold badge

    Literally galaxies far, far away

    Even better; literally a long time ago in galaxies far, far away.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nothing there..

    Worth saving again...

    There's a guy down by the beach does loads of these in about 5 minutes with spray cans on old tiles.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      yeah, and there's

      a guy works down the chip shop. . .

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: yeah, and there's

        Uh huh!

        1. David 132 Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: yeah, and there's

          “But he’s a liar and I’m not sure about you”

          RIP Kirsty :(

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like