James Webb Space Telescope Launch December 22

[cavuman1]

I have been fighting terminal illness (COPD) for some time, having been told that I had a year to live on the Ides of March, 2014. The docs don't always get it right, especially when there's stubborn Swedish/Irish blood involved!

One of the reasons I fight to stay with you is to witness the incalculable grandeur and astounding beauty that the Webb Telescope promises to reveal. How deeply I admire those who have spent their careers placing this exquisite instrument at a precise Lagrange point to sample starlight sent billions of years ago. I stand in absolute awe of the immensity and variability of our Universe! The first pictures shall bring tears, I have no doubt.

We have become Columbus; but our sails are beryllium and our winds steady streams of electrons. The lands we glimpse supersede our most vivid imaginings. They shall inform us of our very beginnings.

- Ed

[TURIN]

Hang in there Cavuman. These images are going to be amazing.

[Theviewdownhere]

Beautifully said Cavuman.

Keep fighting. If the first image is anything to go by we are all in for a treat.

[visibility3miles]

“Astronomers Haven’t Been This Giddy in Years”

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...ctures/670471/

“The James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images, set to be released in days, [July 12,] will signal the start of a new era in space science”.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard...pe-coming-soon


A few bright stars and lots of distant galaxies are visible in this test image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope in May. (Canadian Space Agency / NASA / FGS)

[visibility3miles]

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/spac...iden-rcna37549

July 10, 2022, 6:00 PM EDT
By Denise Chow

President Joe Biden will unveil the much-anticipated first full-color image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope on Monday, agency officials confirmed.The image, known as "Webb's First Deep Field," will be the deepest and highest-resolution infrared view of the universe ever captured, showing myriad galaxies as they appeared up to 13 billion years in the past, according to NASA.

The agency and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, are set to release a separate batch of full-color images from the Webb telescope on Tuesday, but Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the public will get a sneak peek a day early.

NASA will brief the president and the vice president on Monday, agency officials said, and the first image will be revealed at an event at 5 p.m. ET at the White House.

[zambonidriver]

I hear a lot of ESA people are less than happy by this publicity stunt...
Anyway let's see what comes ofnit

[cavuman1]

First Image! WOW!

- Ed

[IFMU]

Pretty awesome. All images here, for those who had not found the link yet.
https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

[Theviewdownhere]

All amazing. Great programme on BBC2 tonight about the history of JWST.

Well worth a catch up if you missed it.

Hope you are keeping well cavu....and enjoying the latest discoveries as I am.

[cavuman1]

Thank you for your kind wishes, Theviewdownhere. Yes, I am still above ground and taking nutrition! Life is hard sometimes, but it beats the Heck out of the alternatives.

I am humbled and fascinated by the Webb images. We are so infinitesimally small and the Universe so, so, there's no word which describes it.

- Ed

[Theviewdownhere]

Keep fighting Cavu. Loads more images and science to come :-)

[ORAC]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamieca...ay-scientists/

The $10 Billion Webb Telescope Has Been Permanently Damaged, Say Scientists