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James Webb telescope...

Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Thanks Joe, there's a line in the explanation at that NASA link that says "The Webb telescope will be placed slightly off the true balance point, in a gentle orbit around L2" so I'm correct in what I took from the GIF. And I do understand that the Lagrange points orbit the sun, because the Earth does. What I can't visualise is how Webb orbits L2 (which itself orbits the sun, hence Webb orbits the sun). If there was a massive object at L2 for Webb to orbit that'd make sense but I reckon I'd have heard of it before, had that been the case. So I'm assuming the oscillatory nature of the Webb orbit around the sun, which gives rise to the 'orbit' around L2, is a clever solution of the three body problem or sumfink.
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I'd wonder that too.... This seems a really clear explanation dumbed down enough but not too much....
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
TBH I'd prefer less of the "excited" presentation and more detail of the science and engineering.
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She does that too! You likely aren’t her target audience, but she is a highly qualified astrophysicist and has a real knack of getting astrophysics concepts across to those of us who aren’t! That video was just a throwaway reaction to how far the JWT has come in a few short weeks. She’s been following the project for a long time.
 
Lots of astrophysicists became astrophysicists because of the excitement and enthusiasm for space, stars and the universe that set them on this path at the age of 6. Retaining that is no bad thing and surprisingly common. In my experience they tend to be either a little excitable or excruciatingly dull.

Also her specialism is supermassive blackholes and galaxies so her life's work and future employment are to a large extent riding on the JWST. There was a similar video when she got very nervous watching the launch which I enjoyed but didn't post in case it caused people to not take her as seriously as she and her channel deserves.
 
Tony L said:
She does that too! You likely aren’t her target audience, but she is a highly qualified astrophysicist and has a real knack of getting astrophysics concepts across to those of us who aren’t! That video was just a throwaway reaction to how far the JWT has come in a few short weeks. She’s been following the project for a long time.
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I'm not criticising her excitement/enthusiasm. I can quite understand it given my own background. But my own enthusiasm for astronomy *and* the kit (telescopes, receivers, etc) means I'm particularly interested in the details of them. FWIW I helped design and build one of the receivers for one telescope (UKIRT), and worked on the optics of another (JCMT). :)
 
Nasa
Nasa image of star photobombed by thousands of ancient galaxies

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Picture is a test shot to see how a new telescope’s 18 hexagonal mirrors work together for a single coordinated image

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/16/nasa-telescope-star-photo-ancient-galaxies
 
Can someone please hack Putin’s computer and get him to see this and get things in proportion…..
 
Awesome picture just shows what humans can achieve when great minds come together unlike that dick in Moscow.
 
tones said:
Yes, indeed, if only people realised that spending money to enable us to shoot and bomb each other more effectively could be put to far better uses.
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It is possible that the Ukrainians are regretting they didn't spend more in this department.
 
I suspect the Ukrainians have been aware for some time that if they'd started any dramatic increase in their defence spending that Putin would rebrand that as a "threat to Russia". And thus would have used it even earlier as a pretext for his actions.
 
While scientists go about their daily lives attempting to prove the existence of God, this will do nicely.
 
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