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Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

johnedchristensen.github.io

191–200 of 254 posts

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#191

For the professional (or former professional) astronomers among us, I will make my somewhat amused observation that what people are most paying attention to is not really the distinguishing features of JWST. People seem most impressed by the apparent increase in resolution of the images, which is not from a certain point of view the hardest thing to do . HST might have done that if its instruments had been of differe…

> especially since the images are stylized / colored anyway

The thing that I don't like about the new images is the abuse of star flare effect. The colors are okay, but the flares... that's simply too much.

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#192
post #191

For the professional (or former professional) astronomers among us, I will make my somewhat amused observation that what people are most paying attention to is not really the distinguishing features of JWST. People seem most impressed by the apparent increase in resolution of the images, which is not from a certain point of view the hardest thing to do . HST might have done that if its instruments had been of differe…

> especially since the images are stylized / colored anyway The thing that I don't like about the new images is the abuse of star flare effect. The colors are okay, but the flares... that's simply too much.

I don't think that's on purpose

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#193
post #191

For the professional (or former professional) astronomers among us, I will make my somewhat amused observation that what people are most paying attention to is not really the distinguishing features of JWST. People seem most impressed by the apparent increase in resolution of the images, which is not from a certain point of view the hardest thing to do . HST might have done that if its instruments had been of differe…

> especially since the images are stylized / colored anyway The thing that I don't like about the new images is the abuse of star flare effect. The colors are okay, but the flares... that's simply too much.

It's not an effect. It's a diffraction artifact that's a consequence of the telescope construction. Explained here for example: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/james-webb-spikes/

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#194

old and new images already looked highly processed, that photoshop look - which i think some of us got a little jaded on maybe. what's more interesting to me is what we can learn about exoplanets from this mission https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-...

Isn't that look mostly a mapping of the observed wavelengths into the visible spectrum? I think at least for some of those images the different colors correspond to different chemical elements, which makes for pretty images _and_ some extra data that's interesting. For purposes of comparison with Hubble images it would also make sense to process them in the same way.

But apart from that, there's the raw data, which is surely somewhere in the public domain, but that's way less useful in communicating those achievements to the public.

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#195
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed! In the SMACS 0723 image, there is a red spiral galaxy near the top right which is effectively not present in the HST image because it was redshifted out of the spectrum. This implies it's one of the galaxies receding the fastest from us in the image right? And therefore also among the oldest and farthest away? https://blog.wolfd.me/hubble-jwst/

Related question: to confirm, some of the additional detail we’re seeing in the JWST images is in fact IR that has been “hue clamped” into the visible spectrum?

Astrophysicist YouTuber Dr Becky covered this last month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJR3lenz1I

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#196

Strange, when I compare the two images of Stephan's Quintet [1], it appears much more "progressed" in the new WEBB image [2]. But that should be impossible. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stephan%27s_Quintet_Hubbl... [2]: https://johnedchristensen.github.io/WebbCompare/img/Stephans...

Overlaying them, it seems the JWST images have brighter galaxy edges and gas. This makes the galaxies look bigger, which in turn could make it appear as if the galaxies are closer together. Is that what you mean with 'progressed'?

Re: Compare Webb's Images to Hubble

#200
post #179
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hero we need. Thanks!

These these two pages have some nice visualizations of the optical phenomena: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/03/photons-incoming-webb... https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/james-webb-spikes/

ah an authoritative source. if only we funded scientific exploration more heavily with public funds..
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