#deep field

[colorpicked-pride-flags-jwst]

Disability flag colorpicked from Webb’s first deep field (MIRI)

[joehills]

Corrinne and I got the first three star posts secured to the playfield, and the rubber ring around where the left sling will go!

The Deep Field pinball prototype project is underway!

[feelingspacey]

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

[staff]

tumblr tuesday: carina’s cosmic cliffs

Cosmic cliffs, our beloveds. ICYMI, @nasa​​ recently shared some neat new images from the James Webb telescope. So, of course, you all got to work. Whether it's plonking your faves on a star-birthing nebula or celebrating the sparkle in its uncolonized state, there's art for that. 

@cassieoh imagines Crowley lazing around Carina in his snake form:

@sir-galahadnt styled the nebula in inspirobot chic using a quote from Hamlet (click through for the full quote):

@whatlizardry in oil pastels:

@assassin1513 just made it all sparkle a little more:

@jupitertheegg gave Starfire the perfect cosmic couch:

@richo1915 just said what everyone else was thinking:

@aesthetic-sweaters made a Kirby version:

@bird-wells214​ another loafer loafing on Carina’s cliff couch: 

@troisenator​ in watercolor:

And finally, some pixel art of the deep field in all its multitudes by @kekness​:

[quilldesignz]

be not afraid

checkmarks are like eyes and angels need a hundred

lets joe to the polls, folks!

[misalpav]

webb's infrared meets chandra's x-ray! technology is amazing <333

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[zespaceblog]

XDF, Hubble and JWST

In 1996 the Hubble telescope was pointed towards a dark area of sky to see what was there, the image became one of the most iconic of Hubbles era (which still continues), the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), an image of galaxies that stretched back to within a billion years of the start of the universe.

This was followed up later with the Ultra Deep Field

and in 2012, the XDF (eXtreme Deep Field)

And of course, as soon as the JWST was able to begin science, it also turned to this region of the sky, for an updated image. Remember, JWST isn't a single camera, it has various different camera's onboard able to see different wavelengths of IR.

The NIR cam provided the above image, you'll notice one difference between it and the image just above it, less red galaxies.

Hubble can only view in visible light, so as galaxies speed away and their light red-shifts, they appear to become more red, so much so, they actually end up moving out of the visible spectrum, and out of Hubbles ability to view them. JWST was all about viewing the IR and viewing those galaxies that come from the start of our Universe.

This means there are galaxies in our JWST image that simply don't appear in the Hubble image, pointing towards objects far older than anything seen before.

One interesting result of this has been that astronomers have found many more larger galaxies in the early universe than models would have expected. The data is still young and still being collected, but so far, this has been a consistent finding, meaning that it's likely the model of our early universe will almost certainly be re-written.

It is not being proven correct that excites, it's being proven incorrect, and seeing data that unravels a new potential possibility. Exciting times for those theorizing about the creation of our Universe as we see it today.