# JWST



## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 23, 2021)

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is close at hand.  The launch is currently planned for early Christmas morning from Kourou, French Guiana.

https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/launch.html

https://www.theverge.com/22789561/n...-priorities-astronomy-astrophysics-exoplanets

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-mission-explained

My brother Steve & I both worked on JWST, along with countless friends and associates.

Fingers crossed!  🤞


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## fig (Dec 23, 2021)

Will you be attending in propria persona?

btw, I think it's a much catchier acronym than NGST


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 23, 2021)

No, I wish.  I'll watch the launch online like the rest of the world.  I did get to attend a launch from Vandenberg once.  For safety reasons we had to watch from over a mile away from the pad.  Even at that distance, you can hear and feel the rumble of the rocket engines.


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## peccary (Dec 23, 2021)

That's awesome, Dave. I have been pumped about this for a while now, excited to see what they find. It's hard to imagine that the Hubble is over 30 years old now and still gives some amazing information. I can't even imagine how much more we'll be able to see with a telescope a hundred times more powerful!


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## giovanni (Dec 23, 2021)

That’s amazing! I read that it was such a complicated project to put together with lots of moving parts. What did you work on?


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## cooder (Dec 23, 2021)

Incredible! Amazing read and what a project! 

Any question regarding stompbox circuits I will utter even more humbled to you....


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## jubal81 (Dec 23, 2021)

I was already excited about this before. Awesome!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 23, 2021)

giovanni said:


> That’s amazing! I read that it was such a complicated project to put together with lots of moving parts. What did you work on?


Mostly I worked on the cryocooler system for the MIRI instrument.  It cools the detector down to 6K, which is -267°C or -449°F.  It has to be that cold to be able to detect the faint IR light from the distant past.  I designed the electronics that power and control two compressors that move the He gas that makes the coldness.  I managed the electronics engineering, manufacturing and test for most of the duration of the MIRI cooler project, then handed it off to a friend of mine who finished the job while I went to work other programs.  I also assisted the propulsion guys with some testing and supported the JWST program office by performing on-site review of one of the suppliers.  I literally have my fingerprints inside some of the electronics boxes and on the spacecraft bus (no, I did not touch the mirrors, that would be a no-no).  My brother helped build the spacecraft bus and the sunshade.  Definitely the most technically challenging space program I've seen.  I was lucky to be able to take part in it.


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## Barry (Dec 23, 2021)

Awesome Dave, hope I can get up early enough to see it launch!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 23, 2021)

Who knows, the launch might slip again.  They're ready to go, just waiting for the weather to cooperate.


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## giovanni (Dec 23, 2021)

That’s impressive!


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Dec 24, 2021)

Wow! The cooling systems on JWST are fascinating! I was studying it the other day, and was completely blown away. Incredibly brilliant!


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## fig (Dec 24, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I literally have my fingerprints inside some of the electronics boxes and on the spacecraft bus (no, I did not touch the mirrors, that would be a no-no). My brother helped build the spacecraft bus and the sunshade.



Wait....so you and your brother built a "space-bus" and added sunshades, but left the rear-view mirrors unmodified?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 24, 2021)

That's the vehicle Elon Musk _should _have launched into orbit.


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## peccary (Dec 24, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> That's the vehicle Elon Musk _should _have launched into orbit.


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## Mentaltossflycoon (Dec 24, 2021)

That's super cool


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## mjh36 (Dec 25, 2021)

I'm staying up, launch in a few hours from now. 4:20 am PST on Christmas Day. I think I know what to do...


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Dec 25, 2021)

We have lift-off! Good luck!


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## mjh36 (Dec 25, 2021)

That was amazing so far so good


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## bowanderror (Dec 26, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Mostly I worked on the cryocooler system for the MIRI instrument.  It cools the detector down to 6K, which is -267°C or -449°F.  It has to be that cold to be able to detect the faint IR light from the distant past.  I designed the electronics that power and control two compressors that move the He gas that makes the coldness.  I managed the electronics engineering, manufacturing and test for most of the duration of the MIRI cooler project, then handed it off to a friend of mine who finished the job while I went to work other programs.  I also assisted the propulsion guys with some testing and supported the JWST program office by performing on-site review of one of the suppliers.  I literally have my fingerprints inside some of the electronics boxes and on the spacecraft bus (no, I did not touch the mirrors, that would be a no-no).  My brother helped build the spacecraft bus and the sunshade.  Definitely the most technically challenging space program I've seen.  I was lucky to be able to take part in it.


That's super neat Chuck, congrats on the launch!

I used to work with those big benchtop FT mid- & near-IR instruments in the chemistry world, and they were tricky enough to set up here on terra firma. We had one of those "high-tech" IR microscopes, but it was basically a single pixel camera setup. Super useful for imaging structures, but dreadfully slow. A far cry from the focal plane arrays you guys are using. Like cave men, we were using liquid N2, and I still remember the moments of panic as the spectra succumbed to noise when the coolant was used up. I also can't tell you how many beamsplitters I killed...

If anyone is interested in learning more about the MIRI instrument & Chuck's cryocooler, check out the links.

It's awesome to hear that we had a forum member working on James Webb, and you should be proud to see your work head down the gravity well. Looking forward to hearing what they find!


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## giovanni (Dec 26, 2021)

Now that it’s launched, what’s your involvement with the project going to be? Like, is there any remote maintenance or anything like that that could be necessary?


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## jeffwhitfield (Dec 26, 2021)

Saw this just now on Facebook with a caption that reads…

+++ BREAKING NEWS +++
First picture from the James Webb Space Telescope! 😉😅🙈


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 27, 2021)

Next major milestone is deploying the sunshade.  It starts tomorrow and takes 6 days.  Here's a good timeline & status page.

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

Check out the links at the bottom of the page.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 27, 2021)

giovanni said:


> Now that it’s launched, what’s your involvement with the project going to be? Like, is there any remote maintenance or anything like that that could be necessary?


We'll only get a call if something looks "funny."  The cooler system gets turned on around day 77, which is mid-March.


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## peccary (Dec 27, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> We'll only get a call if something looks "funny."  The cooler system gets turned on around day 77, which is mid-March.


I was doing a little reading on the telescope yesterday and discovered that the extremely low temp is what actually allows it to be able to detect the light/radiation at such a distance, how rad that you were a part of that.

Are you going to be a part of the team that builds whatever robot that's going to go out and perform maintenance on the JWST as well?


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## giovanni (Dec 27, 2021)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Next major milestone is deploying the sunshade.  It starts tomorrow and takes 6 days.  Here's a good timeline & status page.
> 
> https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
> 
> Check out the links at the bottom of the page.


6 days!!! That's nuts! Crazy tech we design and build!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 27, 2021)

It must have been thrilling for the guys who did the ground testing.  "I'll be back after lunch, maybe the boom will have moved another 6 inches by then."


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## giovanni (Dec 27, 2021)

Does it take so long because all has to be precisely aligned and triple checked?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Dec 27, 2021)

The motors are geared-down and slow.  There are several steps and I expect that each step needs to complete and be verified before the next step is initiated.  AFAIK there are no on-board cameras monitoring the deployment.  There are limit switches that will indicate that a boom is fully extended.  The software can count motor rotations so it should know when a cable is fully tensioned.  If they wanted to, NASA could point Hubble at JWST and see what's happening.


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## giovanni (Dec 27, 2021)

That’s very interesting to read! Thanks for sharing!


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## cooder (Dec 27, 2021)

_We'll only get a call if something looks "funny."

_
@Chuck D. Bones  I guess that's not 'funny' as in 'haha funny'....

Very riveting indeed!


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## fig (Jan 3, 2022)

I've whittled my questions down to just one;

How many sims do you estimate (or maybe you know) were run through your design process?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 3, 2022)

The electronics development took place over a period of years.  Between the initial design cycle, modifications and then rigorous design reviews, the number of simulations had to be in the hundreds.  Different parts were simulated separately and then the simulations were integrated.  The routed digital board was simulated as a whole to evaluate signal integrity and timing margin.  The FPGA internals were simulated and their results fed into the digital board simulations.  The power conversion circuits and the precision analog circuits were simulated in Cadence SPICE.  I ran time-domain simulations of a Sigma-Delta Modulator using Excel.  I had a team working on it. 

Then there were the guys designing the mechanical coolers.  They had a network of computers dedicated to running transient fluid flow simulations.

On top of that was the usual thermal and mechanical vibration simulations.  Designing equipment for space requires a level of rigor that has to be experienced to be believed.


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## giovanni (Jan 3, 2022)

I believe it. I saw a video about the Apollo mission computers and the crazy things they had to do to ensure not only that the hardware wouldn’t fail, but also the software. If I remember correctly, the software was in fact failing at landing but all the fail safes they built into it made it so that the landing was still successful. Very exciting stuff!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 3, 2022)

Here's a very detailed description of what happened.  Those astronauts had nerves of steel.

https://www.wired.com/story/apollo-11-mission-out-of-control/


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## cooder (Jan 3, 2022)

^that was a mesmerizing read...!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 3, 2022)

Apollo 11 started the descent with 4,000 kg of fuel & oxidizer on-board.  They had less than 30 sec of fuel left when they finally landed.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 3, 2022)

JWST has completed tensioning three of the five sunshield layers.  They'll tension the last two tomorrow.
In other news, they have fine-tuned the solar array regulators to optimize the efficiency and array temperature.  News outlets try to make this into something dramatic, it isn't.  It's SOP.

At this moment, the hot side of the sunshield is at 59°C.  It will get hotter.
The spacecraft equipment panel average temp is 19°C.  This is where most of the on-board electronics dumps its heat.  It will warm up a bit when more of the equipment gets turned on.
The average primary mirror temp is -132°C.  It will get colder.
The ISIM (Integrated Science Instrument Module) radiator temperature is -194°C.  This is on the back side of the primary mirror and is where all of the low temperature optics and detectors are located.  It will get colder.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 5, 2022)

The sunshield deployment completed successfully yesterday.  This morning, the secondary mirror struts were unfolded to position the secondary mirror out in front of the primary mirror.  Here's some video: 



You can skip thru it to see some detailed animations of the light path, the instruments and some ground test videos.  All the more impressive when you see people standing next to the telescope.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 8, 2022)

JWST has completed the deployment (unfolding) of the primary mirror.  That's pretty much the end of the deployments and many folks are breathing a sigh of relief.  Next on the agenda is letting the telescope cool down and checking out the instruments and electronics.


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## cooder (Jan 8, 2022)

My wife just asked how long it might take until the first pictures are coming from it.
I said "I'll ask Chuck, he knows..."


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## Paradox916 (Jan 8, 2022)

cooder said:


> My wife just asked how long it might take until the first pictures are coming from it.
> I said "I'll ask Chuck, he knows..."


I read some where that they might be released by summer but I’m not sure how accurate that is.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 8, 2022)

It will take another 2 weeks for JWST to get to L2.  Then NASA will take about 6 months to get everything running, cooled down and calibrated.  After that, JWST operations are handed off to The Space Telescope Science Institute and the astronomers.  Sometime toward the latter part of that 6 month commissioning and calibration period, NASA will start releasing pictures.  So late summer sounds about right.


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## Nostradoomus (Jan 14, 2022)

Carl Sagan is proud :’)


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## music6000 (Jan 14, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> It will take another 2 weeks for JWST to get to L2.  Then NASA will take about 6 months to get everything running, cooled down and calibrated.  After that, JWST operations are handed off to The Space Telescope Science Institute and the astronomers.  Sometime toward the latter part of that 6 month commissioning and calibrartion period, NASA will start releasing pictures.  So late summer sounds about right.


Really Cool Stuff Chuck, must make you proud!!!
We had a Close Encounter with Skylab in Western Australia, were your Hands on that one too???


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## fig (Jan 14, 2022)

I was at the final Skylab launch. It was an experience.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jan 14, 2022)

music6000 said:


> Really Cool Stuff Chuck, must make you proud!!!
> We had a Close Encounter with Skylab in Western Australia, were your Hands on that one too???


Nope.


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## Feral Feline (Feb 11, 2022)

The James Webb Space Telescope Is in Position. Now It’s Booting Up
					

After successfully launching and maneuvering the spacecraft, JWST researchers still have months of prep work to do before they can start taking pictures.




					www.wired.com


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## Chuck D. Bones (Feb 12, 2022)

Had lunch yesterday with a friend of mine who took over for me on the MIRI cryocooler electronics when I retired a few years ago.  He told me that they are running the MIRI cryocooler system in decontamination mode right now, which means it is circulating helium from the warm side of the spacecraft to a spot near the MIRI detectors.  This keeps the MIRI detectors warmer than their surrounding, which prevents stray gases from condensing on the detectors while everything out-gasses and cools down.  NASA briefly turned on the pulse-tube pre-cooler to verify that it was functional, but did not cool the MIRI detectors yet.


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Feb 23, 2022)

Got into a bit about the pulse tube pre coolers.. WOW. Truly mindblowing for this layman. Using sound to cool down to just 7 Kelvin!?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Feb 23, 2022)

It's voodoo.  I'd tell you how they build 'em, but then I'd have to kill you.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 9, 2022)

The turquoise line on the graph below shows the MIRI detector being cooled down by the cryocooler system I worked on.  On April 8th, the detector reached the required <7K operating temp.





https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html


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## music6000 (Apr 9, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> The turquoise line on the graph below shows the MIRI detector being cooled down by the cryocooler system I worked on.  On April 8th, the detector reached the required <7K operating temp.
> 
> View attachment 25081
> 
> https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html


Careful!. your being watched!!!


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## giovanni (Apr 9, 2022)

Wow 7K is cooooold


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## Bobbyd67 (Apr 9, 2022)

Hope you were able to sneak in a metal zone 2 circuit inside whatever you worked on the telescope


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 9, 2022)

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/04/06/webbs-mid-infrared-instrument-cooldown-continues/


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 9, 2022)

Bobbyd67 said:


> Hope you were able to sneak in a metal zone 2 circuit inside whatever you worked on the telescope



I was the Chief Engineer on the MIRI Cryocooler Electronics.  Sorry, no pedal circuits inside and no video games in the flight software.


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## giovanni (Apr 9, 2022)

Damn. I thought we put Pac-Man in the voyager II?


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## fig (Apr 9, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I was the Chief Engineer on the MIRI Cryocooler Electronics.  Sorry, no pedal circuits inside and no video games in the flight software.


So...porn and empty beer cans then?


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## Barry (Apr 9, 2022)

giovanni said:


> Wow 7K is cooooold


You can say that again! 0 Kelvin is right at -460 Fahrenheit


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Apr 10, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> The turquoise line on the graph below shows the MIRI detector being cooled down by the cryocooler system I worked on.  On April 8th, the detector reached the required <7K operating temp.
> 
> View attachment 25081
> 
> https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html


So the little "shelf" around 20-15 Kelvin, is this the "pinch point"?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Apr 10, 2022)

Yes.  I'm sure that Mike, the cooler engineer, was biting his fingernails as the cooler fought it's way thru the pinch point.  Physics gets very strange at low temperatures.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jun 9, 2022)

Alright, who's been throwing rocks at the JWST?

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61744257


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## giovanni (Jun 9, 2022)

Darn kids!


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Jun 10, 2022)

I remember I was in my teens when the Hubble Deep Field was published. Few things, let alone pictures, have effected me more. Here's hoping Webb can snap a pic with the same incredible wonder. 
(P.s. - It will.) Can't wait for the 12th!!


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## fig (Jul 11, 2022)

Just saw the first _released _images. Congrats again sir! Looking forward to tomorrow’s showing as well.


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## Big Monk (Jul 11, 2022)

fig said:


> Just saw the first _released _images. Congrats again sir! Looking forward to tomorrow’s showing as well.



Very cool stuff indeed.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 11, 2022)

You mean this one, taken by NIRcam?  Yes, very impressive indeed!  NASA & Congress may have been pissed at the Prime Contractor for overruns and schedule delays, but that is all forgotten now, everyone is smiling! 





https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/...livers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet

A few days ago they released this image, taken by the Fine Guidance Sensor.





Something to keep in mind is these are all false-color images because they are photographed at infrared wavelengths.


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## giovanni (Jul 11, 2022)

Holy s*** look at that gravitational lensing!!!


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## fig (Jul 11, 2022)

Galaxies are but universal dust.


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## BuddytheReow (Jul 11, 2022)

I sense a pedal design around these soon...


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 11, 2022)

giovanni said:


> Holy s*** look at that gravitational lensing!!!


How cool is that?  Einstein was right.  Fuck the damned Creationists.


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## cooder (Jul 11, 2022)

Amazing by the power of ten.
*"Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe"*


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## cooder (Jul 11, 2022)

You must quite rightfully be so stoked and proud that you had your mitts in this @Chuck D. Bones ...
Big congrats again!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 11, 2022)

I am, it was a special opportunity and I'm grateful I could play a small part.  My brother helped build the sunshield.

Speaking of grains of sand...
Consider that there are more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on earth.  Then consider that there are more atoms in a grain of sand than their are galaxies in the universe.


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## cooder (Jul 12, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> I am, it was a special opportunity and I'm grateful I could play a small part.  My brother helped build the sunshield.
> 
> Speaking of grains of sand...
> Consider that there are more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on earth.  Then consider that there are more atoms in a grain of sand than their are galaxies in the universe.


I won't sleep tonight figuring that out...


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## Robert (Jul 12, 2022)

Alright... who's passing out the acid?

I see a bunch of _really_ big atoms floating around in those pics.

These give me an uneasy feeling I can't really describe.


 




Next time you think you guys could use a camera with a few more MP?   It's a little blurry...   
(Kidding, this is awesome)


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## Nostradoomus (Jul 12, 2022)

Robert said:


> Alright... who's passing out the acid?



🙋‍♂️


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## giovanni (Jul 12, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> How cool is that?  Einstein was right.  Fuck the damned Creationists.


It really is incredible how high resolution these are! And it really does show how relativity warps space and time. I can’t describe how exciting and awe inducing this is to me.


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## Big Monk (Jul 12, 2022)

My 9 year old Son and I had a very thoughtful and deep discussion about space the other night. I could see the existential implications of floating on a rock in space come over his face and much to my delight and supreme happiness, it was not a look of terror but dazzling wonder.


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## fig (Jul 12, 2022)

You’d think they could bend it back towards us so we could get a glimpse of _this _neighborhood roughly 9 billion yrs ago (round trip napkin math). Oh wait, that’s in the next major revision release.


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## Robert (Jul 12, 2022)

These pics remind me of a particular humid and moldy Georgia summer when I was a teenager...

The similarities between the solar system and the orbit of electrons in an atom sent me on a bit of an awakening "experience" ... of course that led to an intense discussion about whether Adam was a typo.    Good times, good times.


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## Bricksnbeatles (Jul 12, 2022)

I don’t get what I’m looking at but it’s cool! Science is rad!


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## Robert (Jul 12, 2022)

Pretty sure it's screenshots from the new Spore game.


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## Bricksnbeatles (Jul 12, 2022)

Robert said:


> Pretty sure it's screenshots from the new Spore game.


Ooh man. Spore was awesome. 2008 was a fun year.


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## Big Monk (Jul 12, 2022)

Robert said:


> These pics remind me of a particular humid and moldy Georgia summer when I was a teenager...
> 
> The similarities between the solar system and the orbit of electrons in an atom sent me on a bit of an awakening "experience" ... of course that led to an intense discussion about whether Adam was a typo.    Good times, good times.



Sounds an awful like a certain sensory experience I had in an Upstate NY apple orchard circa 2001....


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## Dan0h (Jul 12, 2022)

Robert said:


> These pics remind me of a particular humid and moldy Georgia summer when I was a teenager...
> 
> The similarities between the solar system and the orbit of electrons in an atom sent me on a bit of an awakening "experience" ... of course that led to an intense discussion about whether Adam was a typo.    Good times, good times.


And I thought I was the only one having those trips… the Atoms/planets really shook my teenage years. In a good way.


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## Robert (Jul 12, 2022)

Life changing to be honest.   You don't forget that sort of thing.

I've always imagined an animated sequence where you start from a distant view of Earth (or any other planet) and quickly zoom in until you're looking at individual atoms, focusing onto a single electron, continuing in until the whole thing essentially repeats endlessly.

If you can imagine this happening in all directions simultaneously, and including every single atom in universe it's a bit mind blowing... granted it's was always a bit harder to envision the big picture the following day. (and it's not the sort of thing you can exactly "write down")

Photos like this confirm (to me at least) that this was more than just a silly idea, and your mind really does open up beyond the boundaries of what we call "reality" ...

I'm too old for this now, I don't think I could handle it.


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## fig (Jul 12, 2022)

It's relatively groovy.


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## music6000 (Jul 12, 2022)

BuddytheReow said:


> I sense a pedal design around these soon...


Maybe Something like This:


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## Dan0h (Jul 12, 2022)

The full res carina nebula image is freaking amazing.


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## Bobbyd67 (Jul 12, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> How cool is that? Einstein was right. Fuck the damned Creationists.


Whaaaaaa but I wanna believe in a world where we rode dinosaurs like horses!! Don't crush my dreams Chuck!

A Damn shame they didn't have enough space on that Ark T_T


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## cooder (Jul 12, 2022)

Just beyond words...
https://www.theguardian.com/science...rry-of-images-from-james-webb-space-telescope


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## Robert (Jul 13, 2022)

Man, if you zoom in on that one...


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Jul 13, 2022)

And remember, when you look at those pics, very few of those points of light are stars- they are entire galaxies from billions of years past..


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## Feral Feline (Jul 13, 2022)

Super Nova, Aldo Nova, Also Nova... 

The Chev Nova didn't sell well in Latin-American countries, "_no va_" translated back to English "doesn't go".

Yes, miscellaneous ramblings as I'm at a loss for proper words to respond adequately to the JWST images.


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## Feral Feline (Jul 15, 2022)

It was not my intention to derail the thread, please post more of the amazing starry photos.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 15, 2022)

Hi-Res image waaaaay too big to post.

https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7WD3WXM8MWZ4AWCSYG7QBF3.png

And a description...

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/031/01G780WF1VRADDSD5MDNDRKAGY?


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## Feral Feline (Jul 15, 2022)

That'd be a great graphic and name for a Palisades build (or any build): "Cosmic Cliffs" — and only 7,600 light years away.


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## Sturdag Lagernathy (Jul 19, 2022)

Compare JWST and Hubble!





						Webb Compare
					






					www.webbcompare.com


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## HamishR (Jul 19, 2022)

You must pretty proud, Chuck! It's wonderful that the wealthiest nation on earth (I think!) spends the money on something as incredible as this rather than just bombs. This stuff is important. Real "makes you feel small" stuff. Mind blown!

If you can make an extra cold air-conditioning work way up in space then my overdrive pedals must be a walk in the park.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Jul 19, 2022)

NASA had help from CSA & ESA.  Its a fair bet that NASA paid for the lion's share.


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## fig (Jul 19, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> NASA had help from CSA & ESA.  Its a fair bet that NASA paid for the lion's share.


I'll bet that was one happy lion.


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 21, 2022)

JWST's MIRI is experiencing some unexpected friction with the filter wheel.  

https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-glitch-medium-resolution-spectroscopy-1849559410

NASA has convened an Anomaly Review Board to determine the cause & corrective action.  Here's a video of the qual model Filter Wheel in action.


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## music6000 (Sep 21, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> JWST's MIRI is experiencing some unexpected friction with the filter wheel.
> 
> https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-glitch-medium-resolution-spectroscopy-1849559410
> 
> NASA has convened an Anomaly Review Board to determine the cause & corrective action.  Here's a video of the qual model Filter Wheel in action.


Well, they should have taken my advice on using *Penrite* instead of using *Amazon Basics*!
Don't they watch Project Farm!!!


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## Chuck D. Bones (Sep 21, 2022)

Selecting a lubricant that will work for 20 years, in a vacuum, not contaminate optics, and remain slippery at cryogenic temperatures is no easy task.

I went on Penrite's website and tried to select an oil for JWST.  Under vehicle type, "Space Telescope" was notably absent.


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## music6000 (Sep 21, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> Selecting a lubricant that will work for 20 years, in a vacuum, not contaminate optics, and remain slippery at cryogenic temperatures is no easy task.
> 
> I went on Penrite's website and tried to select an oil for JWST.  Under vehicle type, "Space Telescope" was notably absent.


Try Telescopic.


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