OT James Webb Space Telescope Updates

[WestSideLion]

Webb Telescope Captures Supernova Appearing Three Times Due to Spacetime Bending

A gravitational lens tripled the event in the night sky and helped astronomers measure the rate at which the universe is expanding.

gizmodo.com

Thanks for sharing these updates, Tom. This stuff underlines how inconsequential we are in the grand scheme of the universe. Here is distant light distorted by a cluster of galaxies (!) 3.6 billion light years away. The light source is likely an order of magnitude more distant than that.

Then the article references a 13 billion (with a B!) year old star spotted in a similar manner. There's no escaping that we are in the midst of learning more about the origins and inner workings of the universe and physics than all learned in human history so far.

And the sheer math involved underlines that there simply must be other forms of intelligent life out in this vastness. Or at least that have existed over different times through the course of 13 billion years.

 

[Woodpecker]

Thanks for sharing these updates, Tom. This stuff underlines how inconsequential we are in the grand scheme of the universe. Here is distant light distorted by a cluster of galaxies (!) 3.6 billion light years away. The light source is likely an order of magnitude more distant than that.

Then the article references a 13 billion (with a B!) year old star spotted in a similar manner. There's no escaping that we are in the midst of learning more about the origins and inner workings of the universe and physics than all learned in human history so far.

And the sheer math involved underlines that there simply must be other forms of intelligent life out in this vastness. Or at least that have existed over different times through the course of 13 billion years.

I can't even comprehend what football discussion boards are like in other universes. I wonder if they're posting about us!

 

[WestSideLion]

I can't even comprehend what football discussion boards are like in other universes. I wonder if they're posting about us!

Given that the observable universe is 46 billion light years in any direction from Earth, most of those other civilizations evolved through sports like football billions of years ago. That assumes they were able to avoid killing themselves.

 

[Zenophile]

Given that the observable universe is 46 billion light years in any direction from Earth, most of those other civilizations evolved through sports like football billions of years ago. That assumes they were able to avoid killing themselves.

Fortunately the light from their Plotit days is just now reaching us.

 

[Woodpecker]

Given that the observable universe is 46 billion light years in any direction from Earth, most of those other civilizations evolved through sports like football billions of years ago. That assumes they were able to avoid killing themselves.

Ah the transfer portal and NIL stories they could tell ...

 

[leinbacker]

And the sheer math involved underlines that there simply must be other forms of intelligent life out in this vastness. Or at least that have existed over different times through the course of 13 billion years.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

'Ridiculously smooth': James Webb telescope spies unusual pancake-like disk around nearby star Vega — and scientists can't explain it

The nearby bright star Vega is surrounded by a surprisingly smooth, 100 billion-mile-wide disk of cosmic dust, confirming that it is not surrounded by any exoplanets, JWST images reveal. And scientists cannot explain its lack of alien worlds.

www.livescience.com

 

[Tom McAndrew]

James Webb Space Telescope finds galaxies pointing toward a dark matter alternative

"The bottom line is, 'I told you so.'"

www.space.com

 

[PrtLng Lion]

James Webb Space Telescope finds galaxies pointing toward a dark matter alternative

"The bottom line is, 'I told you so.'"

www.space.com

It's fascinating that, despite how it's taught in academia, we still don't know much about the big bang, or if it actually happened. An actual detailed explanation of gravity still eludes us.

 

[Zenophile]

This is JWT adjacent news. But as many of you either know or perhaps have long suspected, I really enjoy posting about Uranus.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

James Webb Space Telescope smashes its own record to find the earliest galaxies that ever existed

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted five galaxy candidates dating to just 200 million years after the Big Bang, making them the earliest ever detected. And there could be many more.

www.livescience.com

 

[Zenophile]

A nearly inconceivable achievement.

 

[LionJim]

A nearly inconceivable achievement.

I’m currently reading “The First Three Minutes,” by Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize for Physics 1979, and his description of the sheer brilliance of astrophysicists is really something.

Yes, it’s the first three minutes after the Big Bang.

 

[LionJim]

I’m currently reading “The First Three Minutes,” by Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize for Physics 1979, and his description of the sheer brilliance of astrophysicists is really something.

Yes, it’s the first three minutes after the Big Bang.

It’s a good book but Simon Singh’s “The Big Bang” is the one you want.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

'Like nothing we've seen before': James Webb telescope spies a mysterious asteroid-comet hybrid lurking past Jupiter

The James Webb telescope has focused its attention on an oddball space rock lurking between Jupiter and Neptune. The unusual "centaur," named 2060 Chiron, has features of both comets and asteroids.

www.livescience.com