Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #nasawebb

#NASAWebb will soon reveal unprecedented and detailed views of the universe, with the upcoming release of its first full-color images and spectroscopic data! Below is the list of objects that Webb targeted for these first observations, which will be released on July 12. (1/8)

Carina Nebula: One of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars. (2/8)

WASP-96b (spectrum): A giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014. (3/8)

Bright stars create unique patterns called diffraction spikes, which are produced as light bends around the sharp edges of a telescope. Most reflecting telescopes—including #NASAWebb—show spikes as light interacts with the primary mirror and struts that support the mirror. (1/5) $Diagram labeled “Webb’s Diffraction Spikes.” The top r$

Light—which has wave-like properties—tends to radiate from a point outward. When light waves interact, they can either become more amplified or cancel each other out. These areas of amplification and cancellation form the light and dark spots in diffraction patterns. (2/5) $Diagram headlined “How Does Diffraction Happen?” Underne$

Primary mirrors in reflecting telescopes cause light waves to interact as they direct light to the secondary mirror. So, even if a telescope had no struts, it would still create a diffraction pattern. The shape of the mirror and any edges it has determine its pattern. (3/5)

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“It’s full of stars!” ✨

This mosaic represents a sparkling turning point as we #UnfoldTheUniverse. #NASAWebb’s mirrors are now fully aligned! Next is instrument calibration, the final phase before Webb is ready for science: go.nasa.gov/3OJWBD1

What do we see here? ⤵️

First, a quick breakdown. “Fully aligned” means that Webb’s mirrors are now directing fully focused light collected from space down into each instrument. Each instrument is also successfully capturing images with the light being delivered to them.

In this mosaic, each engineering image is a demonstration that one of Webb’s instruments is fully aligned with the telescope and in focus. In view is a part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

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#NASAWebb will revolutionize our understanding of the lifecycles of stars, starting at the very beginning. Protostars like HH 47 eject light-year-long jets even while accumulating the hydrogen needed to begin nuclear fusion and shine. (1/4)

Credit: NASA.

With its powerful infrared sensitivity and resolution, #NASAWebb is capable of peering into star-forming regions across our entire galaxy—like R136—where previous infrared telescopes were limited to dust clouds within our own galactic neighborhood. (2/4)

Credit: NASA/ESA.

Sunlike stars end their lives by gently ejecting their outer layers to form what’s known as a planetary nebula. #NASAWebb will look at NGC 6302 and nebulas like it to learn how chemical elements are recycled throughout our galaxy. (3/4)

Credit: NASA/ESA.

Hubble Space Telescope

@HubbleTelescope

Hubble has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star⭐️ that existed within the first billion years after the universe's birth in the big bang—the farthest individual star ever seen to date! (1/7) 🧵

The newly detected star—Earendel—is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it did when the universe was only 7% of its current age. (2/7)

@JHUPhysicsAstro

"We almost didn't believe it at first, it was so much farther than the previous most-distant, highest redshift star," said astronomer Brian Welch of @JHUPhysicsAstro. "The galaxy hosting this star has been magnified and distorted by gravitational lensing...” (3/7)

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Who is ready to be “thrown” through a loop? A supermassive black hole’s feedback loop to be exact! Decoder: In these images, RED indicates COLD and TEAL indicates HOT. (1/7)

Supermassive black holes, which lie at the centers of galaxies, are voracious! They periodically “sip” or “gulp” from COLD swirling disks of gas and dust that orbit them. Where there’s lots of very cold gas, stars can begin to form—but it also falls onto the black hole. (2/7)

As a result of “nom, nom, noming” on all that delicious cold gas, supermassive black holes launch outflows in the form of radiation, jets, and wind! (It’s gettin’ hot in here!) (3/7)

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Small adjustments, major progress!

Having completed 2 more mirror alignment steps, #NASAWebb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed its science goals. Now that’s good optics! 😉 go.nasa.gov/3KMV1gW #UnfoldTheUniverse

Curious about this image? Thread ⬇️

While the purpose of Webb’s latest image was to focus on a bright star and evaluate the alignment progress, Webb’s optics are so sensitive that galaxies and other stars can be seen in the background. Watch this video for an in-depth explanation of how the image was created!

@NASAHubble

Fan of a photo filter? @NASAHubble & Webb actually record light in black and white. They use filters that allow only a specific color of light through. The filtered images are then individually colored by scientists and image processors, then combined: go.nasa.gov/3u5oj3J

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@stsci

This was definitely the selfie seen around the world! But HOW was #NASAWebb able to take a selfie? Joe DePasquale, senior science visuals developer at @stsci, digs in! 🧵 <1/9>

DePasquale: The press release states that there is a specially designed pupil imaging lens (PIL) in one of Webb’s main imaging instruments known as NIRCam. What is a PIL anyway? <2/9>

DePasquale: PIL then is a specially designed lens whose sole purpose is to provide a clear image of that aperture allowing you to see where light enters the system. You can see it on the lower left side in this diagram of NIRCam. <3/9>

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The 18 random dots featured in this video might not look like much, but they represent a big step forward in #NASAWebb’s 3-month mirror alignment process and its quest to #UnfoldTheUniverse: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/1…

Let’s connect the dots with a thread ⬇️

⚫️ These dots confirm that Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, can collect light from celestial objects — and that starlight from the same star can be reflected from each of Webb’s 18 unaligned mirror segments back at Webb’s secondary mirror and then into NIRCam’s detectors.

⚫️ Our team first chose a bright, isolated star called HD 84406. Over ~25 hours, Webb was repointed to 156 positions around the star's predicted location, generating 1560 images with NIRCam’s 10 detectors. This is just the center of an image mosaic with over 2 billion pixels!

Ready for some high-speed Webb surfing? 🌊

This week, our team turned on Webb's high-gain antenna, which helps enable a much higher data rate than the radio band Webb had been using until now, and will eventually allow Webb to send back all its images & data. #UnfoldTheUniverse

🌟 Star light, star bright…the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, a Sun-like star about 260 light years away. While it will be too bright for Webb to study once the telescope is in focus, it’s a perfect target for Webb to gather engineering data & start mirror alignment.

Look back on our successful first month after launch by reading our latest blog post, with a contribution by #NASAWebb project manager Bill Ochs: go.nasa.gov/3KVxqvh

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Gioia Rau

@GioiaRau

@NASAWebb

A work of patience:
The #NASAWebb mirror deployment has started yesterday, moving ~1 mm/day for the next ~10 days for a total of 12.5 mm.
After that, they’ll be ready for @NASAWebb ultimate goal: mirror alignment! #JWST

Each mirror has an individual designation: A, B, or C. This denotes to which segment belongs each of the three mirror prescriptions.

Each mirror, for better support during #Webb space ride, has on its back three rigid metal pegs. These nestled into matching holder sockets in the telescope structure. Before launch, the mirrors were all positioned with the pegs held in the sockets, providing extra support.

We are GO for #NASAWebb’s final mirror wing deployment this morning! Here’s what you should expect:

🔲 Fire pins to release mirror wing
🔲 Unfold mirror
🔲 Latch the wing (2+ hours) ⏱
🔲 🥳🕺🏽🎉
🔲 #UnfoldTheUniverse! (5+ months) ✨
More: go.nasa.gov/3G8Bc1P

✅ Click! We just fired the last 4 of #NASAWebb's 178 release mechanisms, or pins — all of which had to work perfectly for this unfolding to take place. These 4 will release the restraints that held Webb's mirror wing safely in place during launch. #UnfoldTheUniverse

@SpaceTelescope

🚗 Folks, start your engines!

As the #NASAWebb team gets ready to deploy the second primary mirror wing from @SpaceTelescope, they just completed a small motor checkout movement, ensuring the wing is ready to go. #UnfoldTheUniverse

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Can you feel the tension? Webb is feeling it...in a good way! We tensioned 3 of 5 sunshield layers yesterday. Today we start with Layer 4: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/0…

Follow along LIVE for the final layer starting ~9:30 am ET (14:30 UTC): nasa.gov/live #UnfoldTheUniverse

We just tensioned #NASAWebb’s sunshield some more, that was Layer 4. Now everybody look alive, it’s time to tension Layer 5! And better yet — keep watching along live: nasa.gov/live #UnfoldTheUniverse

If you’re tuned in to our live broadcast, now’s the perfect time to go grab a drink of water! Coverage resumes at 11:30 am ET (16:30 UTC) for the tensioning of Webb’s fifth and final sunshield layer 🤩

More on our sunshield: jwst.nasa.gov/content/observ… #UnfoldTheUniverse

To ensure that #NASAWebb is in prime condition for its next major step, our team has decided to focus today on learning more about how Webb behaves in space. Sunshield tensioning has been moved to no earlier than tomorrow, Jan. 3. go.nasa.gov/3eJewsP #UnfoldTheUniverse

“So far, the major deployments we’ve executed have gone about as smoothly as we could have hoped for. But we want to take our time and understand everything we can about the observatory before moving forward.” - #NASAWebb lead systems engineer Mike Menzel #UnfoldTheUniverse

“Nothing we can learn from simulations on the ground is as good as analyzing the observatory when it’s up and running. Now is the time to take the opportunity to learn everything we can about its baseline operations.” - Bill Ochs, #NASAWebb project manager
#UnfoldTheUniverse

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Jeveral

@vdeverastegui

Imagina el objeto más caro jamás creado: un telescopio de oro grande como una pista de tenis a más de un millón de kilómetros de la tierra que captará la luz de las primeras estrellas del universo. Hoy te cuento porqué es una Maravilla el #JamesWebb #NASAWebb #UnfoldTheUniverse

Empecemos por algunos datos que te dejarán picueto: ha costado 10.000 M€, siendo el experimento más caro de construir de la historia. Ha costado más que el LHC, el cual recordemos que es un anillo de 27 km de super imanes y super conductores enterrado a 100 m bajo tierra

Va a estar a 1.5 M de km de la Tierra, casi 4 veces más lejos que la Luna. Bueno, puede parecer que esto está muy largo pero hay asteroides que pasan más lejos todos los años y los medios dicen que va a pasar rozando la Tierra y vamos a morir todos

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We successfully deployed #NASAWebb’s port sunshield mid-boom, which pulls out our 5 sunshield layers. While scheduled for earlier today, our team paused to confirm the sunshield cover had fully rolled up: go.nasa.gov/3pL07Tn #UnfoldTheUniverse

Thread ⬇️

When switches did not trigger to indicate the sunshield covers were rolled up, team members used temperature data & gyroscope sensors to confirm that they had. This analysis took extra time, but allowed the team to move forward. #UnfoldTheUniverse

The deployment of the 5 telescoping segments of the mid-boom began around 1:30pm ET and reached full deployment at 4:49pm.

Webb's deployment steps are all human-controlled, so the schedule can change. The team plans to deploy the starboard mid-boom tonight. #UnfoldTheUniverse

Ooh, sick burn! 🔥

In this case, we’re not talking about insults, but a burn of fuel to adjust #NASAWebb’s trajectory on its million mile (1.5 million km) journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse. #ICYMI, Webb had its first mid-course correction burn Dec. 25: go.nasa.gov/32uctX1

So far, the post-launch journey has been smooth sailing. Burns are scheduled to leave as much remaining fuel as possible for #NASAWebb’s ordinary operations over its lifetime, like small adjustments to keep Webb in its desired orbit once it arrives. #UnfoldTheUniverse

One interesting aspect of the #NASAWebb launch and its burns is that we always "aim a little bit low." Webb's thrusters can only push Webb away from the Sun, not back toward the Sun (and Earth). We designed launch and these burns to always avoid drifting away.

𝔸𝕣𝕒𝕤𝕙 

@arashcaviani

@NASAWebb

🔸2019
#Nobel's laureates have supported the Iranian resistance call for democracy, freedom, & #HumanRights in #Iran.
One of them was Prof. #JohnMather, Senior Astrophysicist for @NASAWebb & Director of the #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope.
#NASAWebb
@StateDept
ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-p…

@NASAWebb

@NASAWebb @StateDept 🔸2020
21 #Nobel Laureates, Condemn #Iran Regime’s Cover-Up Over #Coronavirus Outbreak, Calling It a #CrimesAgainsHumanity.
#JamesWebbTelescope Manager, Prof. #JohnMather, was one of the sponsors of this open letter to @antonioguterres.
#NASAWebb
ncr-iran.org/en/news/nobel-…

@mbachelet

🔸2020
#Nobel Laureates urged the Office of Ms. @mbachelet to dispatch representatives to visit #Iran'ian prisons to meet with prisoners, especially political prisoners.
Dr. #JohnMather was also among them.
#NASAWebb #UnfoldTheUniverse #JamesWebbTelescope
ncr-iran.org/en/news/human-…

Ahead of our launch, we asked you to show us what you believe #NASAWebb will reveal through art. Here are just some of submissions we received for our #UnfoldTheUniverse art challenge! Keep them coming! Special thanks to all of our participants. More info: go.nasa.gov/unfoldtheunive…

@NASAGoddard

Our gallery of #UnfoldTheUniverse submissions: webb.nasa.gov/content/featur…

Credits: @NASAGoddard/ Madison Dean, Lead Producer and Editor

Host: @kelliegerardi with Delta V.

Artists featured in this video:
Mason Cortez
Sreshta Velamuri
Jon Young
Galina Ivanova
Mashal
Collin Cochran
Thessaly Dunn
Jaden Berkley
Noelle Lui
Siddharth Sajith Nair
Shelina Swastika Kumar
Elena Schwer
Mansi Ashtamkar
Reyansh Sunwar
Jedidiah Dore
(1/2)

@NASAWebb

We have the right tools for the job! @NASAWebb has four instruments that will examine the universe in different ways, thanks to the six components that make up the devices. (1/8)
#WebbInstruments #UnfoldTheUniverse

Cameras: Three Webb instruments have cameras 📷 that will capture two-dimensional images of regions in space. NIRCam and NIRISS will capture images in the near-infrared, while MIRI will capture mid-infrared images. (2/8)

Spectrographs: All four of Webb’s instruments have spectrographs that spread light out into a rainbow-like spectrum 🌈 so the brightness of each individual wavelength can be measured. Webb has different types of spectrographs, each designed for a slightly different purpose. (3/8)