What is the Universe expanding into..

Do you think there was anything before the big bang?

  • I don't think there was anything before the Big Bang

    Votes: 56 12.5%
  • I think something existed before the Big Bang

    Votes: 200 44.7%
  • I don't think the big bang happened

    Votes: 54 12.1%
  • I think the universe is part of a mutiverse

    Votes: 201 45.0%

  • Total voters
    447
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Steve's BBC link zooms into a few of those red arcs from which light has taken over 13 billion years to reach us.

The link informs us that some of the arcs on either side of the gravitationally lensed image are actually the same distant galaxy.
 

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sheesh, you really don't want to do any of the work.

Ok couple of zoom ins of stephan's quintet. First one is a galaxy 40 million light years away and you can see individual stars. Second one is 290 Million light years away and also looks pretty sharp. Please not much of the universe is composed of clouds of gas.
 

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sheesh, you really don't want to do any of the work.

Ok couple of zoom ins of stephan's quintet. First one is a galaxy 40 million light years away and you can see individual stars. Second one is 290 Million light years away and also looks pretty sharp. Please not much of the universe is composed of clouds of gas.
Not sure what you mean by "any of the work". NASA's own images are what I'm referring to. Does it get any better than that? Maybe it's just my laptop, MacBook Pro 13"? Or I'm just expecting too much? Even that first image is "good" imo, not great. Please keep in mind I'm not referring to the content or resolution, only focus/sharpness although it may be related to resolution? Hubble has much sharper images imo.
 
Angular resolution is the term astronomers use to describe the "sharpness" of an image.

There are two factors that affect how sharp an image is - the diameter of the mirror and the wavelength being observed.

If you do the maths, this means that Webb has the same angular resolution at 2000 nm (infrared light) as Hubble has at 700 nm (red light).

Consequently, Webb images are comparable in sharpness to Hubble images.

Where the JWST has the advantage is in its ability to peer through cosmic dust, look further back in time than Hubble and see objects that are 10 to 100 times fainter than Hubble can see.
 
when you pixel peek an image you will see blur and grain. It's normal. Were you expecting hollywood CGI images or something. For reference here's a repost of the pic of what the previous best IR cameras could see.

https://newatlas.com/space/james-webb-vs-hubble-side-by-comparison-images/ side by side hubble vs webb showing the differences that can be seen with the longer wavelengths.
 

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when you pixel peek an image you will see blur and grain. It's normal. Were you expecting hollywood CGI images or something. For reference here's a repost of the pic of what the previous best IR cameras could see.

https://newatlas.com/space/james-webb-vs-hubble-side-by-comparison-images/ side by side hubble vs webb showing the differences that can be seen with the longer wavelengths.

I've done alot of astronomic imaging but specifically high resolution information recovery using a 4" refractor in the back garden:

1520233808578.jpeg


Those four dots are the sensor pixel sizes. Which means that's 28 arc seconds across.


The bear paw:
1520174751299.jpeg

Compared to my 4" image above, this is what a space telescope sees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2537

And to show post processing - before:
1520473660153.jpeg


After:
1520230814170.jpeg



Enough to say - JWT is exceptional but for the most part just the visible wavelength is actually the less impressive stuff. Far more is the capability of the spectrographs. I built a DIY spectroscope for sun hydrogen alpha and got a resolution R6000 and bandwidth of 0.9Angstroms according to one of the professionals analysing my sodium test image. That's enough to be able show the movement red shift in hydrogen gas as it moves on the sun.
JWST's is far better: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/jwst-nirspec/nirspec-performances
 
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