Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

[MichVandal]

Yeah, i wonder if they don't observe and release a known object first. Like pillars of creation or sombrero or something like that.

I wonder if they will release pictures of the star they use to calibrate everything. That view will be unique, too.

BTW, interesting thing about the pillars of creation- being that that is mostly dust, JWST won't see nearly the same thing- as it will see through most of it. At least that's what they are suggesting.

[Kepler]

Yeah, i wonder if they don't observe and release a known object first. Like pillars of creation or sombrero or something like that.

What's a black hole look like in infrared?

[Russell Jaslow]

The operating temps are what the mirrors are calibrated for, correct? And that's why the wait?

Agreed that it's gonna be well over a year before we see real groundbreaking data from Webb.

Also, weren't some of those "fancy" photos Hubble took still useless until she shuttle mission to affix a contact lens to Hubble to correct its astgmatism?

Your last sentence answers your first question.

GE screwed up the original Hubble because they insisted a certain test was not needed. Kodak said it was needed. The test had to do with temperatures affecting the curvature of the mirror. GE's solution was cheaper, so NASA chose them.

Of course, it cost us more in the long run. NASA went back to Kodak (who got the contract to build the backup mirror), and told them to take that backup mirror out of storage and run those tests GE insisted weren't necessary, and then figure out a way to fix Hubble in space.

[Kepler]

Come on, baby, be a Dyson Ring.

[MichVandal]

Webb is now gathering photons.

With the first image, they have been able to identify each mirror (as the star shows up 18 times), and now the process is to focus each mirror by itself, and then aim the mirrors to get one image.

As part of that- they took a selfie- to check other alignment. Pretty crazy that they set it up to do that. In the selfie, you see all 18 mirrors as well as shadows of instruments. The image, the team took as a very positive thing.

Freaking cool.

[MichVandal]

Come on, baby, be a Dyson Ring.

Interesting that they are finding stuff in habitable zone. But there's a lot a planet needs to bring to be actually habitable. Like a really freaking huge moon that affects multiple items on a planet.

We all understand how the moon is the main driver of tides, which is a huge contributor to weather, which, theoretically, is one of the sources to go from simple proteins to life.

What we hint at is how the moon is a driver to plate tectonics. Which helps keep our core hot and moving. Which gives our planet a magnetic field. Which keeps away the solar wind, leaving us a thick atmosphere and the ability to have life.

In our solar system, the common idea is to move to Mars to live- even though there's no real chance of turning that planet into a habitable one- since there's no atmosphere, and w/o a magnetic field, there will never be another significant one.

Venus is far closer to our planet in terms of having an atmosphere. And given enough time and the right chemicals- it's more likely to turn that into a habitable planet than trying to have one on Mars.

Alas- that's a massive tangent to the discovery of a planet in a habitable zone of a white dwarf.

[Kepler]

Of course, we will probably be wildly wrong about what the requirements are for life, because we are still extrapolating from only one data point. We are the South Pacific islanders saying, "well, obviously first thing you need is a volcano..."

[dxmnkd316]

What the hell? My previous post is "Unapproved"...?

Ok, fine... Here's the gist:

So I have questions.

Completely ignoring the "ALIENS!!!!" stuff... White dwarfs come after red giants, right? Typically, I mean. If this star is relatively similar to our sun, how the hell did something survive the red giant phase to land 1.7% the distance from Earth to the Sun?


Oh

Read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_...ks_and_planets

[Kepler]

What the hell? My previous post is "Unapproved"...?

Ok, fine... Here's the gist:

So I have questions.

Completely ignoring the "ALIENS!!!!" stuff... White dwarfs come after red giants, right? Typically, I mean. If this star is? relatively? similar to our sun, how the hell did something survive the red giant phase to land 1.7% the distance from Earth to the Sun?


Oh

Read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_...ks_and_planets

Admittedly, none of those explanations for planetary accretion at that distance seem very conducive to life, unless fire can become self-aware.

[Kepler]

Everywhere in the solar system you could stand:

[dxmnkd316]

Looks like XKCD

What a fantastic graphic

[MichVandal]

crazy how big our moon is, relatively.

[MichVandal]

I know that it's pretty old news now, but Ingenuity is STILL flying. https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/

Over the past almost 300 "days", it's flown only 18 times. Which is still more than they planned. And it's still going. The one interesting thing now is that flights in the summer are shorter due to the less dense atmosphere. And flight 19 was delayed due to weather. At least that part, we are all used to here....

[Kepler]

This is so ridiculously cool.

[Kepler]

Apparently the new LOFAR (European low frequency array telescope) maps being released were a surprise and showed that the universe has a density of at least 25% more galaxies than previously thought. Obviously there is no way to wrap our minds around that but currently we think there are between 100-200 billion galaxies, each with between 100-200 billion stars in it.

This is a reminder that the God of all creation cares about what you do with your winky.