Webb Space Telescope's First Deep Field Image
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Tomorrow morning @ 10:30 ET there will be a NASA live broadcast on YouTube & more images released. Curiously, the NASA Live page says there will be opening remarks @ 9:45.
This is some extraordinary stuff. So cool. Btw, they are out there.
I’m 100% certain there is “life” out there. Whether it’s what we consider intelligent or not. carbon based or not, or if we would recognize it as alive, or could remotely understand what it is or how it is life, is a whole other question.
Agree. It is naive to believe that out of all the chances for life out there, that there is not only at least one form of life, but millions. But i also would be willing to wager 10 cents that as life evolves, they all simply kill themselves before getting to the point of interstellar travel. It just seems 'impossible' to not only travel to a near star system, but how in the hell can anyone come up with the technology to reach another galaxy.
Hell, who knows if we'll survive long enough to have interstellar travel.
I doubt we will, but rather some form of artificial life that's better suited to it.
"It is naive to believe that out of all the chances for life out there, that there is not only at least one form of life, but millions."
This is actually a religious statement, not a scientific one. I don't hold to it for scientific reasons. If you do hold to it, recognize it is a statement of faith, and feel free to embrace it completely.
This is one of the postulations addressing Fermi's Paradox- any species capable of achieving interstellar travel likely also has the technology to blow each other up, hence not finding evidence of aliens in spite of the high probability of many other life forms existing in the universe
I have to believe there is intelligent life out there. Do I have a way to prove it? Of course not, and there is a good chance as well that the distance between our planets is so much that we will never possibly meet.
But to me its a simple numbers game. In the infinite vastness of the universe, with seemingly infinite chances or possibilities, there is no way that intelligent life hasn't sprouted somewhere. We can't possibly be the only ones.
The way I think about it as well for intelligent life, there have to be plenty of galaxies out there that formed closer to where the Big Bang happened. By my (admittedly very limited) understanding of how the universe works, I would assume that means those galaxies and its respective solar systems, planets, and inhabitants within a habitable zone, have had more time than us to grow, develop and evolve as a species. And as such, their capabilities likely far exceed our own.
Sadly this discussion may all be moot. At the rate humanity is going, its likely we will nuke ourselves into oblivion over some stupid tweet or turn our planet into an uninhabitable barren wasteland long before we can ever develop the necessary technology to go out into the stars to meet whoever else might be there.
Just to correct something here:
there have to be plenty of galaxies out there that formed closer to where the Big Bang happened.
The Big Bang happened everywhere. The entire universe was at that point, and expanded outward. So every point seems to be the “center” (which is why the universe appears to be expanding equally in all directions.
that said, I pretty much agree with everything else you said.
It is a simple numbers game. Have a quick google on "the Drake equation." It's mathematically improbable that we are alone in the universe.
Odds of "life out there" is a profound question that cannot, in any way, reach "certain." Abiogenesis has never been observed, and its mathematical probability is nowhere close to being estimated. Perhaps there are many other life forms in our universe. Perhaps it would take a billion billion of our universes to approach a 50% chance of encountering another life form. The truth is we have no idea. Everyone has that emotional response, "Wow, there are a bunch of stars out there," at one point or another.
off to a much better start than the Hubble, whose first picture was a close-up of the giant sticker reading "PLEASE REMOVE THIS STICKER BEFORE LAUNCHING TELESCOPE"
...don't blame me blame dave barry!
I am mildly disappointed it's not an exoplanet. I've seen shots of other galaxies before, and I do understand this is 13.6 billion year old light from near the beginning of the universe, but it's not really too different from other galaxy images I've seen.
That being said the zoomable image is really cool and I can't wait to see what else Webb produces. Posting a link for it:
www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/main_image_deep_field…
I thought I read that the image released today was a snapshot of galaxies as they existed 4.6 billion years ago. But some news outlets were talking about the picture showing galaxies from 13+ billion years ago. I mean what's a few billion years anyway?
From the article:
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
Yeah I was going off of what the NASA spokesman who spoke after BIden said, I am assuming the article is more accurate.
For Comparison, same area of space:
Hubble
Webb
Thank you for posting this. It really helps show the difference. So cool!
Here is how a small section compares between Hubble and Webb. And the Hubble image took 10 days to make, while Webb only took a day.
Plus one sir!! That is so awesome to see the comparison.
*Everything* in this picture that does not have six lines coming out of it is a galaxy. And each galaxy has thousands, millions (billions?) of stars and planets. And this is just a tiny spec of the entire universe.
Our Milky Way has an estimated 100-400 billion stars in it (while most of what I come across leans towards the 100 billion). Using this information and information from other galaxies, it's believed that there are 10^22 to 10^24 stars in the universe, which is just unfathomable. 10^24 would be one septillion, or I think it can be called one billion trillion. In reality, who cares what they're named, it might as well just say an infinite amount.
I remember a fun fact from when I was younger, that I'm not sure if it's true or not, that there are 10,000 stars for every grain of sand on Earth. Does. Not. Compute.
I’ve seen that same deep space shot before. Or assuming all deep space shots like that would look the same,basically.
The arcs you see in the image are more distant objects whose light has been lensed by the cluster, causing both the multiple images of the same object, and the elongation of the images along a circle centered on the cluster.
Astronomers are able to measure the redshift (how fast we are moving away from it) of the images and found that one of the objects is 13+ billion ly away. So that light traveled for over 8 billion years, then encountered this galaxy cluster, which deflected some of the light directly toward us.
Pretty sure one of the images being released tomorrow (7/12) will include an exoplanet, which would be amazing.
Something like Planet?
Ehhh, probably not.
I remember playing this. Not as good as the Civilization games.
Civ IV is better in many ways, but I still play SMACX once in a while. I like the flavor of the factions. No matter what social engineering choice you make, some leader's not going to like it, and they'll complain about it, until they eventually declare vendetta on you (I like the use of vendetta vs war, too). And leaders are prohibited from certain soc eng choices, which are contrary to their beliefs. Also I think there are more things the terraformers (workers) can do, and I don't think Civ has raising land, which I like to do to invade other islands/continents via mag tube. Much better than having to build a bunch of transports, warships to protect them, and sailing to invade. And there's the unit workshop, where you can design different units, which is appealing to me. Build up enough energy credits, and you can rush builds.
And yet there are still people who think we're the only ones out here.
I know this isn't the forum for this type of discussion, but I do truly wonder that if we do somehow come across life elsewhere in the universe, what do the world's major religions, in particular those of western civilization, have to say about it? What is their response and how does it change the tenets of their faith? Do they adapt, or does the whole belief system come crashing down? There would be so many additional questions those religions would now have to answer.
Again, I know this really isn't the forum for that type of discussion, but its definitely something I've thought about when the topic of discovering extraterrestrial life comes up.
I’ve often wondered the same thing myself.
Organized religion hasn't ever had a problem disregarding contradictory information, so I'd be shocked if this was any different.
Eventually beliefs would change, but it would probably take generations of fits and starts.
Pre-Post EDIT: Comments showing religious contradictions are too easy and so was not posted.
Religions in general don't seem to have too much difficulty in squaring contradictory information through apologetics. Someone will find something in the Bible, for instance, that could kinda sorta be interpreted as allowing for extraterrestrial life and then that entry would be institutionalized as part of doctrine.
The latest image isn't what I was expecting at all...
Not ready for its closeup.
Looks far more intelligent than this alien....
Leave her alone. She’s one of the few Spartans I kind of like.
My late wife was actually involved in the mirror development many years ago. I really wish she could see the images that came out today.
My son seeing them and the pride he felt for Mom was definitely pretty cool though.
For what it’s worth, that pride extends well beyond your family. A good deal of others are seeing those images and feeling proud of humanity for the accomplishment and for the work your wife contributed toward.
This excites me...can't wait to see more from the James Webb telescope.
Anyone else hear 1980s Dr. Who opening credits music when viewing that image?
The really big question to consider is: will this be a new area for B1G expansion?
If you think streaming BTN :Plus is bad on Earth, try it without any subspace relay stations.
So very cool.
I know many people have said it, but it's still amazing that humans started flying only 120 years ago.
I'm seriously questioning whether our species is "intelligent" enough and has the ability to survive on Earth before we begin interplanetary travel (sorry Elon).
The Webb Telescope also shows light elongating/bending from more distant galaxies around closer galaxies. Einstein was a pretty smart dude. Wonder what he would think about really important matters such as Michigan's underwhelming recruiting class so far?
We'll certainly step foot on Mars before we melt ourselves, but that'll be it. Unless some intrepid adventurer sets out to walk around Io or Europa before coming back home ~15-20 years later. But with the current state of the world and the many morans that inhabit it, humanity will be long gone before any 'Star Trek' like exploration begins.
The planet will remain healthy enough for some other species to take over. Maybe (hopefully?) that species will be a modified form of human? Or rats and cockroaches.
Neil deGrasse Tyson said that the idea of living on Mars is entirely absurd and there are two main reasons why humans will never live on Mars: first, it is an inhospitable area where no one would like to live, and second, the radiation levels on Mars demand technology investments beyond our planet's capacity.
He's skeptical that you'll find people that will go to Mars and want to stay for the same reason that most people do not live in the depths of Antarctica (which is warmer and has more water)...And more importantly, to survive the fatal radiation levels of Mars — the red planet, unlike Earth, has no magnetic field and a very weak atmosphere to shield cosmic radiation — the level of technology needed to protect a big city is "impossible" to build. Regarding using Martian soil as a resource, he said that same UV radiation shower has turned the soil into a "toxic cocktail."
Perfect timing for me, in thinking about life outside our solar system. I just finished the last book in the epic Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixen Liu. Beyond the phenomenal exptrapolation of science and physics, it takes a deep dive into the psychology and politics of how alien species might percieve and react to each other.