Standing under a starry sky on Earth, the variety we see among those distant points of light is mostly limited to their brightness. If we peer closely, we can see some color variation as well. In the winter constellation of…
Category: Cosmology
A Consequential Star
What is the most important star in the universe? For us here on Earth, that is clearly Sol, the Sun, our own personal star. Without its warmth and light, life on Earth would not be possible. But what star—a single…
Tagged with: Hubble
Time and Distance
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has elicited well-deserved plaudits for its ability to peer far back into the early days of our universe, only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang that birthed it. Webb’s infrared vision…
Back To The Drawing Board!
“No one was expecting anything like this.” So says Michael Boylan-Kolchin of the University of Texas, Austin in a recent issue of Science. As I would tell my astronomy students, this is when things begin to get interesting. The James…
A New Eye in the Sky (Part 2)
nealsumerlin
Posted in Cosmology, Exoplanets, James Webb Space Telescope, Observatory and Telescopes, Stars
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In the post previous to this one, we discussed two of the five operational images released from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on July 12th. Let’s take a look at the remaining three. A QUINTET OF GALAXIES (OR IS…
A New Eye in the Sky (Part 1)
nealsumerlin
Posted in Cosmology, James Webb Space Telescope, Observatory and Telescopes
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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released the first of its “operational” images—ones that do actual science instead of ones involved with necessary alignment of the optics. What do they show us? First, let’s do a brief overview of…
What’s Taking So Long?
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a remarkable feat of engineering. Folded like an origami to fit into the rocket that launched it into space, it has successfully carried out a series of steps to reach its final destination…
Tagged with: James Webb Space Telescope
Orbiting Around Nothing
Where is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) headed to? News stories describe it in various levels of detail: a million miles beyond the Earth, a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. Say what? As long ago as 1736,…
Finding the First Galaxies
Full disclosure: this post is inspired by and draws much of its material from an article in a recent issue of Sky & Telescope. Looking Out Is Looking Back Telescopes are time machines. When we view a beautiful sunset, the…
Hold the Nobels For Now
Oops. Maybe. In March, a team of astronomers working with the BICEP2 radio telescope at the South Pole announced an exciting discovery, claiming to have discovered patterns in the cosmic microwave background that would exist if the universe underwent an…
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