The first images from NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were revealed Tuesday at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The photos were the deepest views of the cosmos, a sight no one on Earth had ever seen before.
“These images, including the deepest view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release.
“The Webb team’s incredible success is a reflection of what NASA does best. We take dreams and turn them into reality for the benefit of humanity. I can’t wait to see the discoveries that we uncover – the team is just getting started!” Nelson continued.
The four images revealed on Tuesday were (list provided by JWST’s website):
Carina Nebula: Webb’s look at the ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ in the Carina Nebula unveils the earliest, rapid phases of star formation that were previously hidden. Looking at this star-forming region in the southern constellation Carina, as well as others like it, Webb can see newly forming stars and study the gas and dust that made them.
Southern Ring Nebula: This planetary nebula, an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, is approximately 2,000 light years away. Here, Webb’s powerful infrared eyes bring a second dying star into full view for the first time. From birth to death as a planetary nebula, Webb can explore the expelling shells of dust and gas of aging stars that may one day become a new star or planet.
Stephan’s Quintet: Webb’s view of this compact group of galaxies, located in the constellation Pegasus, pierced through the shroud of dust surrounding the center of one galaxy, to reveal the velocity and composition of the gas near its supermassive black hole. Now, scientists can get a rare look, in unprecedented detail, at how interacting galaxies are triggering star formation in each other and how the gas in these galaxies is being disturbed.
SMACS 0723: Webb has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far – and in only 12.5 hours. This new image, a color composite of multiple exposures each about two hours long, is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. This deep field uses a lensing galaxy cluster to find some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. This image only scratches the surface of Webb’s capabilities in studying deep fields and tracing galaxies back to the beginning of cosmic time.
JWST also examined an exoplanet named “WASP-96b,” indicating water vapor was present in the plant’s atmosphere.
On Monday evening, President Biden tweeted the first JWST image.
NASA also provided an update on one of the telescope’s mirrors, which was recently hit by a micrometeoroid.
And so the hunt for life begins, costing only $10 billion.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
I wonder how the micrometeoroid strike will affect the imaging capability. Do they have a backup plan?
The best line from the movie “contact” is when it’s revealed that they did.
“Why build one when you can build two for twice the price”
When you own the printing press, price is of little concern.
Trust is out the window. As a kid I heard the saying “Believe half of what you can see and none of what you hear”. Today, I think it is ‘none and none’.
Fake and waste of money
Calling you the King of Village Idiots would be an insult to kings, villages, and idiots.
You are, imho, the most shallow, vapid, worthless commenter EVER on TBP. And that’s saying something. Your never ending one-line quips are a waste of digital ink, and it pisses off my synapses to even see your name.
FOAD, slime.
Stuck, I must disagree. That fucktard m is far more shallow, vapid, and worthless, and is dumber than a bag full of rusty hammers to boot. You have underestimated the competition a tad. Putin is a worthy challenger, granted, but I think he gets pipped at the post.
Hey, blow me, Chief. 🙂 🙂
MY fuktard is a LOT worse than your fuktard!!
At least your fuktard can string together several sentences at a time. My fuktard can only do one sentence at a time … and even then struggles to say something reasonably coherent.
Seriously? A fucktard that posts just a few fucktardish words is a bigger fucktard than a fucktard that posts lots and lots of fucktardish words? No. Just no. My fucktard is OBVIOUSLY the biggest fucktard. You need to find a bigger fucktard if you want to compete with my fucktard.
LMFFAO!
Hmmm, once again you present facts in a most convincing manner. I concede!
=====
Hey “Putin it where it counts” …. I got a lot of money riding on your fuktardedness! You gonna let “m” take your crown?? TRY HARDER, ya putz!!!!
I’ll raise ya’ ten fucktards and call.
..reveals hand showing Wideguy to exceed all fucktardness known to past and current TBPers.
WideMouth is definitely a contender along with Putins pud but ~m takes it for sheer volume by way of longdevity. How he ever lived past his teen years with a mouth like his is proof God protects fools.
Oh come on, don’t be so modest, Stucky, there is hardly anybody equal to you in terms of fucktardness.
Here you are, comparing the size of your fucktards while ignoring the bigger issue about colorizing space.
Why can we suddenly see stars in space?
I thought it was you trolling, Stucky.
Shut up glowie agitprop fed
I dont understand how a telescope can see that far away. How can it see through 2,000 light years of things in its path? Make sense?
A telescope doesn’t see shit, Wip. It collects light, and that is all it does. Powerful scopes can collect itty bitty tiny bits of light with huge old light collectors and focus that light in such a way as what is out there becomes identifiable. But what it collects left the source a long ass time ago.
What happens when itty bitty tiny bits of light merge with a brazillion other itty bitty tiny bits of light across the vast expanses of space,or all events that emit itty bitty tiny bits of light contained to that one event per se ?
Do I sound like Carl Sagan?
My understanding is that the “pictures” are a composite of MANY different exposures of various wave lengths which a computer then assembles, allowing for as many variables as they can.
Sounds about right. It collects all kinds of light, and then computers will do their magic.
Can this ‘magic’ be construed to mean bullshit?
I imagine so.
So, then “possibly” fake and waste of money?
So, the images are computer generated? They’re not even real photos?
I think they are overlays. And they are also interpretations as the light captured is in many instances not a wavelength visible by the human eye.
The interpretations were programmed by humans and, I’d wager, include many assumptions as to how things should be portrayed. In other words, the pictures are not accurate representations.
>>>the pictures are not accurate representations
Then again, our own visual perceptions are dependent on a specific set of lens and biological receptors, processed by our particular set of cortical and sub-cortical neural synapses.
I do believe that objective reality is “out there”, but no single observer perceives all of it.
I also believe that some things exist that cannot be directly perceived by any of the human senses, regardless of how technologically augmented they may one day become, but that issue is getting into philosophy / theology, and is well above my pay grade.
“…that issue is getting into philosophy / theology, and is well above my pay grade…”
Humble. And since humility makes for the most accurate clarity of vision, you can probably speculate with the best of em. Since that’s what travel into the realms of philosophy and theology require anyway: Speculation.
Yes. Multiple instruments image the same region of the sky, and the various observations are combined to produce the final image. Rather like exposing black-and-white film through red, green and blue filters and combining the resulting images to get a color picture. But in this case the “colors” are different wavelengths of infrared light. Humans can’t see these frequencies, so the astronomers assign colors to the infrared wavelengths and thereby create the images we see. So in that sense there’s some arbitrariness, or artistry, involved. Are they “accurate representations”? Well, humans can’t see these infrared wavelengths at all, so is an accurate representation even possible? Is a sonogram an accurate representation?
They’re the same kind of “photo” that any digital camera produces. These images are the processed result of photons striking a sensor array. BTW that’s also how human eyes work.
I expect that instead of being told that the universe being 14 billion years old, that number is going to be bumped out quite a bit. How can there be galaxies so soon after the “big bang?” Answer: there can’t be, based on all that “the science” has told us to date.
So, adjust the numbers out yet again to try to make the case for materialism, evolution and the atheism underlying it all.
That’s how science works in every endeavor, not just astronomy. One works with the available data at the time … and when new data/knowledge is made available, then adjustments are made. I guess you think science has to get everything right the very first time?? If so, that’s just nuts
==============.
Ahhh, now I get it! Your theology rules over the science part of your brain. Those damned atheist astronomers!! I’m guessing you think the universe is only 6,000 years old? Cuz the Bible tells me so?
The bible says everything was created by God, of which there is as more proof than nothing exploding and creating everything.
Heads up. Atheism is for self-deluded dumbasses.
Is Atheism a Delusion?
What proof?? “Everything was created by God” is a statement of FAITH …. not science. The Bible is not a science book.
============== =
Has it ever occurred to you that a Big Bang event could have been the mechanism God used to create the universe??
No? So, you’re going to place limitations on God? God could only create the universe the way YOU think it was created? Who the hell do you think you are? Where exactly were you when God laid the earth’s foundation?
Scientism says Big Bang created everything, not God. Scientism cannot acknowledge God, but it can push evolution with absolutely no proof , just like their big bang bullshit. Science is now a money making venture and only those that push the company store narrative get the money, therefore Science is not longer Science, but something else….mostly bullshit as we have seen with the Covid narrative. Trust the science , bruh ?
Evolutionary Epicycles and Episyntheses
It was long ago, years before I demonstrated the mathematical impossibility of the current synthesis of the theory of evolution by natural selection with genetic science, that I declared evolutionists were going to have to develop a new theory of evolution. And now, lo and behold, some of the evolutionists themselves are finally beginning to reach the same conclusion due to the total failure of their pet theory as a useful predictive or explanatory model.-Vox Day
Problems With the Big Bang Theory
https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/big-bang-theory7.htm
As an atheist, I can say I don’t know if God exists. All the evidence I have so far is within the range of self-delusion and hallucination, however.
The Irrational Atheist
Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens
Vox Day
http://www.milobookclub.com/mart/TIA_free.pdf
My friend, the atheist atstronomers can’t even explain how the moon exists. The creation story is just as valid as anything “the science” says. There are gaping holes in the stories told to us by the atrophysicists and astronomers.
But, Christian astronomers can, right?
==========
But, there are no gaping holes in the Genesis account, right?
The atheist astronomers (and their devoted followers in NJ, lol) have all of the explaining to do.
No one has ever traveled to the flat moon. There, I said it.
No one has ever traveled to the sphere-shaped moon either.
Sophia created the Earth, the moon, and the sun. She also unwittingly brought archons into our realm.
Read the Nag Hammadi library.
In the beginning there was nothing, which due the inherent nature of nothing, suddenly exploded and created everything. It’s science, bruh.
Haha. A good movie series to watch is “God is not dead”.
Sounds like a description of your understanding of the theory of origins …. from both a science and theology aspect.
Bring it on,bruh!
Genesis 1:1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The big bang is how astronomers explain the way the universe began. It is the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching!
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/big-bang/en/
The big bang is real, bruh !!!
It’s easier to simply say, “God wills it.” Why is there a moon? God wills it! Why is there heaven and earth? God wills it! Why is the USA killing people around the globe? God wills it! Why are there a bunch of atheists going around denying the existence of God? God wills it! Everything is there because God wills it, my friend.
“Will” is the key word.
We have free will. Can choose faith or atheism. God’s good with that because freely choosing Him is what He desires. We’re not robots, we’re not slaves. We are God’s highest form of creation.
Also-
God has an active will and a passive will. We are getting a real good look at his passive will, it would seem. Sure seems like He has said, “OK, you want to have a human-centric approach to life, instead of having Me-centric approach? No problem, let me know how that works out for you.”
(Oh, wait- to put a NJ spin on things substitute “You’se” for the word “you.”
Just sayin’. Right Stucky?)
I like the way you said that.
Yes. and God willed free will and suddenly stupid was out of control.
His patience must be boundless.
God does not exercise omnipotence, because he gave us free will.
Red shift is mass, not distance. It is more plausible than expansion theory since the discovery of the Higgs Bosun. A Deutch physicist did a whole paper on it and then mic dropped and that was before the bosun discovery which made it the more LIKELY explanation for the redshift, IMAO.
Indeed, how can something come from nothing? How can anything come out of nothing? No thing. Literally nothing.
If there is a God who exists outside of space and time that created this majestic, astounding universe, that’s an easy question to answer.
If you are an atheist astronomer, you can’t provide a coherent explanation. At least, not without resorting to absurdities, i.e. quantum fluctuations, anything can happen given enough time (trillions of years), etc.
If you have a ten billion fiats printed from nothing ( see Big Bank Theory) to spend on pretty pictures, you can wow the less that astute though.
If trillions of monkeys were typing on trillions of keyboards over trillions of years…
…one of them would eventually submit a post on a Burning Platform comment board.
Newton’s third law, bruh.
>>>nothing… suddenly exploded and created everything.
Nothing was inherently fluctuating and unstable. Thus, the explosion into everything was inevitable!
It’s science, bruh… real science.
Seeing pictures of the infinite and how beautiful but short our existence is on this blue marble, it’s so sad the psychopaths have so much power. Too much of our time is squandered fighting for this and that.
Regardless, a lot of us manage to create a life worth living. Still, the constant struggle is such a waste of precious time and steals part of what we have to see and understand the magnificence of it all.
NASA /Annual Budget
US$24.041 billion (2022)
Pretty pictures are expensive, bruh.
That is enough to pay 250,000+ thousand people to do something actually productive. Amazing, isn’t it. How on earth can they blow that kind of money? It beggars belief.
Slush fund perhaps.
This is NOT a frivolous question. Have you not ever wondered about it? Can you Believers answer it? I think I can give it a shot.
Q1: Why did God create a universe in the first place?
Was he lonely? Bored? Are we allowed to ask? Does God even need a reason?
The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. Is that the reason? To show how glorious and wonderful and powerful he is? Doesn’t that sound like a …. narcissist?
“God created the universe because fill-in-the-blank”. Now, whatever you choose to claim in the ‘fill-in-the-blank’ is Ba Lo Knee. That’s because if God is self-originating, self-derived, and self-sufficient, … iow, a Being that has never lacked anything … then he has no reason to ever create anything, including whatever you suppose.
To suggest that God needed anything — for example, I’ve heard pastors preach that God desired companionship — is to suggest that God needed something outside of Himself for some reason (become more complete, be fulfilled, etc.). But, that would no longer make Him God because now He’s dependent on something other than Himself for some aspect of His existence!
Yet, God DID choose to create the universe!
Again, why? It’s quite a conundrum. Why didn’t He tell us in plain and clear language? I can only conclude that we will never know why. I guess we just have to give God his Glory (He seems to cherish that), and STFU. That’s not very satisfyingly to me …no, not at all.
Actually, God just took a fart and BOOM!!! The universe was born!!! To us, it seems like an eternity, but to God, it’s only a split second.
What made you think God was alone?
Maybe God created man to give the High Counsel something to do, but they created something that disturbed him so much that he took it all away from them and now is trying to correct their transgressions ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUol741F5Gc
Psalm 82
82 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
Because “in the beginning” he was. There was just God …and nothing else. Period.
Then God created the heavens and the earth.
Did he do so while still alone? Or, did he first create this “High Counsel”, and only then do His creative acts? I have no idea. And I don’t think you do either.
I don’t, but I didn’t insert in beginning’ just’ God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 either.
None of us can know 100% why God did anything, so ask a hypothetical question…
Why do you persist in separating God from the universe? If every was created from by God, then surely everything must BE God (yes, including all of us). The foundation of countless religions is in recognizing one’s perception of separation from the divine and transcending that.
Forgive my typos in the second sentence. Meant to say if everything was created from and by God, then surely everything must BE god.
This is NOT a frivolous question. Have you not ever wondered about it? Can you Believers answer it?
Q2: Why did God create a universe to be so enormous?
Was He just showing off?
I mean, a hundred billion galaxies (or more) each with a hundred billion stars (or more) is a tad bit over the top, dontchya think? What’s God trying to say, or prove? Moar glory?
Why not go to the other extreme? One sun with one planet and one moon!! He surely could arrange whatever miracles need to be done to accomplish the task.
Maybe He was actually quite reserved in how many He created. Maybe he was considering hundreds of trillions of trillions of galaxies and cut back so as to not be seen as showing off. It may have been as easy as snapping His figurative fingers. Or maybe He set everything on auto, took a nap, and overslept, and damn, all I wanted was one solar system, and look what I got now.
It’s s all a balancing act, bruh. Do you even do physics ?
Why does every ‘star’ have the same exact 8-points ?
Have you seen every star?
The “spikes” are an artifact of the way light is diffracted by: 1) the struts that hold the secondary mirror out in front of the primary mirror, and 2) the edges of the primary-mirror segments.
Just two more non frivolous questions.
Q3: Why didn’t God provide clear unassailable proof that He created the universe?
I mean, the “proofs” we have are rather meager, if not controversial.
Here’s one idea. God could have picked one galaxy with 100 billion stars, and then arranged just one million stars to spell out the word “YHWH”!! There ya go, seriously, —> absolute proof!!
=============
Q4: Why is the universe so inhospitable?
Trillions of planets, and as far as we know, not one of them capable of supporting human life. Broken record here ….but, why do that?? The Bible and God are human-centric, so why not have one planet in each galaxy with humans?
It opens up so many interesting possibilities. In one planet Adam and Eve wouldn’t have sinned, and Jesus wouldn’t have to die. In another planet the Austrians, not the Jews, would be the Chosen people. In another planet women would only exist To Serve Man. This idea would make for one of the very best Sci-fi TV series of all time.
Because God doesn’t owe us anything and the ant farm must be contained for the security of the universe.
Have you not seen Stargate Atlantis ?
Everything already is God. What more unassailable proof do you need? Over the history of man “realized” individuals have come along to reveal the truth of existence. They all typically have followers, devotees, etc. and organized religions have even been formed by them or around them and their teachings. For those who connect with their teachings, no more proof is needed. For those who refuse to acknowledge the divine, no form of proof will ever suffice.
“Trillions of planets, and as far as we know, not one of them capable of supporting human life. ”
You’re being human-centric, Stucky. There are certainly non-human forms of life out there.
Um, there is at least one.
Quick Poll …. wanna get a more precise feel as to where folks here stand.
Q: HOW OLD IS THE UNIVERSE?
—- UP =====> Billions of years
—- DOWN ==> Thousands of years
This mystery was only reveled to GCP via his interpretation of Paul. . I’m sitting on pins and needles anticipating his replay.
Time is a human construct. God is everything and has always existed. The universe is just an ever-changing expression of matter and energy no longer manifesting in the divine state of existence.
Time is not linear. Everything happens at once, i.e., at the same time. There is no past or future, only the present.
Quantum mechanics.
Infinitely and therefore ageless.
75% of TBPers believe the universe is only thousands of years old.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
I have to consider spending less time here … lest I also turn into an Idiot.
By the time the image arrives, it is several billion years out of date. Yeah, really worthwhile while TPTB are murdering millions if not billions back here on earth. Typical misplaced priorities to advance the space fantasies of some.
Not impressed with these pictures. They are just like previous deep space pictures–they are only looking further into the universe. I see nothing new.
I have been scanning the pictures all morning looking for a suitable location to emigrate to.
The US knows about it, so it is not safe.
When it comes to government funded projects they are mostly smoke and mirrors. In the case of the James Webb telescope just mirrors.
Unless the right thing hits it in just the right spot….then we’ll have smoke too.
Yea…I suspect there are a lot of ‘Stars’ in that one two.
Looks a lot like Joe B’s last cranial scan superimposed over a starry darkness.
NASA= NEVER A STRAIGHT ANSWER.
Same people who made up the fake pictures of the fake covid virus made these fake pictures too.
More CGI bullshit from NASA!
Ohmigawd, what a BRILLIANT comment!! Why didn’t I think of that? I bet it took your many hours to come up with that gem of an observation. You are very smaaaaart!
You just destroyed Stucky’s dream, and now he is foaming at the mouth. How can you take responsibility for that?