I'm sure the universe is teeming with life. If it produces structured radiation it should be observable. On a planet around Proxima Centauri 2015 on Earth can be seen. Trump raises to power only now, as seen there. Some creature with a galactic radio can hear his rally talks echoing now... But let's not go political.

Thanks Raymond. Welcome.

If it produces structured radiation it should be observable. — Raymond

What about...

Yep, I believe the signal weakens as the square of the distance. We'd need a humongous dish to collect every available ounce of any ET transmission out there in the great void. — Agent Smith

had he stayed cold and dead in his sepulchre... — Agent Smith

"Isn't that what happened?" he said, provoking a ZAP from on high.

What about... — Bitter Crank

The problem with the radiation SETI tries to use for establishing first contact, is that it's feebleadatious. But their are enough photons left to observe with big ears listening.

There's been some updates posted on their site - last one was yesterday.
The tennis-court-sized multilayered sunscreen is being rolled out and tensioned.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/03/second-and-third-layers-of-sunshield-fully-tightened

had he stayed cold and dead in his sepulchre...
— Agent Smith

"Isn't that what happened?" he said, provoking a ZAP from on high. — Bitter Crank

:lol:

Phase 2 is proceeding without a hitch. So far so good. :nerd: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59873738

What's the technically most difficult part, is it this deployment or is it something upcoming?

Good to see the mission going as planned.

there are, I read, 441 ‘single point failures’, i.e. things that, if they go wrong, will doom the mission. So far, it’s all going swimmingly. The secondary mirror widget has just been successfully deployed.

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-secondary-mirror-deployed

Oh, and I still reckon NASA should change its motto to HEY IT *IS* ROCKET SCIENCE.

:starstruck:

:up:

That's a lot.

But, given how much they've tested it, I doubt they'll have significant problems. So far, so good.

:clap: :cool:

given how much they've tested it, — Manuel

There was an article in Slate before the launch about scientists who were throwing up from the stress. I must admit I felt aprehensive watching the take-off after the number of years and the amount of money that's gone into it. If it fails, there's not going to be another shot, not for a long time. It must be shattering when a major space mission fails, like the European Mars lander a few years back (failed because an imperial unit was entered as a decimal unit somewhere.)

Yeah, I remember reading about that, big woops.

Well, they're as prepared as can be. The die's been cast.

At least it'll be halfway to L2 in three days or so. It should be fully deployed a few days after that, but then calibration and getting the equipment in working condition will takes months.

Nothing compared to the wait for Pluto, but much more significant, or so we hope...

Is there a camera on board (apart from making pictures of the stars)? They should see what they do, or not? Is it all automated?

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-no-cameras-reason

:cool:

the reason there’s no camera on board being that JW operates in pitch darkness (and at -440 degrees c). So if you did have a camera on it, there’d be nothing to see as if you generated a light to capture an image you’d interfere with its functionality.

Which raises the question for me - the Hubble produced thousands of iconic and spectacular images, if the JW is tuned to infra-red radiation, will it be producing images that are visually meaningful? I might do some digging on that.

operates in pitch darkness (and at -440 degrees c). — Wayfarer

I heard @Baden does this, when moderating.

Does well, considering.

The question about the kind of images JW will produce can be found here https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparisonWebbVsHubble.html

from space exploration to The Philosophy Forum, perservance is the name of the game.

What you will see depends on how the infra-red image is processed. The same goes for a print from your point and shoot camera. Processing can make a huge difference. The Hubble had infra-red capability for quite some time. It doesn't now (maybe it ran out of coolant, or something--I didn't get the memo on that).

Here's a picture of the central area of the Milky Whey. The objects that James Webb will be imaging are of course very, very far away, and they might or might not have the visually appealing features that makes a galaxy something you would want to hang on your wall. Hubble's star nursery pictures, for instance, set a very high bar of visual interest.



This composite color infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy reveals a new population of massive stars and new details in complex structures in the hot ionized gas swirling around the central 300 light-years. This sweeping panorama is the sharpest infrared picture ever made of the Galactic core and offers a laboratory for how massive stars form and influence their environment in the often violent nuclear regions of other galaxies.

how massive stars form and influence their environment in the often violent nuclear regions of other galaxies. — Bitter Crank

Are other galaxies more violent than ours?

Don't look at me, I was just cutting and pasting.

But sure, other galaxies have much higher rates of violence--murders, gun shots, axes sunk in skulls, beheadings, disembowelments, victims blown to smithereens, arson, rape, sudden planet extinctions, etc. Makes Chicago look like a day care play room.

The farther a galaxy is, the older it actually is.

The farther a galaxy is, the younger it looks.

So, the JWST is designed to pick up IR signals from the oldest galaxies but not as they're now but when they were young(er).

Am I getting this right or no?

You are correct. It's picking up photons, or something, not signals. What James Webb sends to earth are signals.

You are correct. It's picking up photons, or something, not signals. What James Webb sends to earth are signals. — Bitter Crank

Copy that!

This seems timely.