Forum menu
Saw a program on it the other night. A truly astonishing feat of engineering if they pull it off.
Unlike Hubble though if they **** it up there is no chance of sending a crew out to fix it given it'll be 1000000 miles out.
Apparently it needs to be this far out for the instruments to stay cold enough.
Can't wait to see some images from it! Hubble has done an incredible job but this should move things to the next level.
As you say, IF they pull it off, it will be a huge step forwards (or should that be backwards in time???)
Rachel
Yeah, there's an awful lot of automated processes that have to go exactly to plan for it to unfold and power up. It is an exquisite thing though and I really hope it works.
Set for launch 2018
If they can pull off that rocket powered hovering winch manoeuvre on Mars then I'm hoping they can get this right too.
I love this stuff. I only just became wore of this one too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid_(spacecraft)
Observation of 10 billion objects!! I hope I'm around to see the results.
I love this stuff too but It gives me a bad head. Like what was there before the big bang? When did time start or has it always been around? If it did start at some point then what was going on before, nothing? (go on then explain 'nothing')
Pass the paracetamol!
@egf what blows my mind is a lot of the stars we see now may not actually exist anymore.
And yes, the universe in general is a bit of a head****...
@egf what blows my mind is a lot of the stars we see now may not actually exist anymore.
How can that be? I can see them! 🙄
Because the light you're seeing is millions of years old. Its took that long for the light to reach us that some of the stars might not be there now but we won't know that for millions more years.
That's the whole point of the James Webb. It will see the light from very early galaxies that formed just after the big bang because the light from the big bang is only just reaching its now some billions of years ago.
Head hurts now...
Because the light you're seeing is millions of years old. Its took that long for the light to reach us that some of the stars might not be there now but we won't know that for millions more years.
I know, I was just kidding, naughty me. 😉
@egf what blows my mind is a lot of the stars we see now may not actually exist anymore.
There's a possibility that Betelgeuse, the big red star on Orion's left shoulder, may have already blown up; it's an unstable red giant, so one day it'll become vastly brighter than it is now.
Thankfully it's too far away for the radiation shock wave to be a threat to us.
I don't really see why it should make your head hurt. After all extremely intelligent mathematicians, scientists and astrophysicists don't the answers to some of the biggest questions so why should I care if I don't know the answer? I'm happy to accept there are many, many things I don't know. It's lovely to live at a time when a lot of mysteries are gradually being answered and suitably explained (in very simple terms) to a layman like me.
I don't really see why it should make your head hurt.
Well not literally obviously! Space/time is just so fascinating & I, like loads of people, can't get their heads around the subject. After all,It's not simple is it? If it was, we'd know the answers.
As I once read, 'Space isn't as queer as we think, It's queerer than we [u]can[/u] think'
This was ready to go until the recession hit.
There is a great video at the space centres for kids across the country narrated by David Tennant.
What's Trumps policy on space science? Will he support these grand plans or build a wall in the stratosphere to stop the Martians from entering the US?
I was told at a astronomy evening when betelguise does go off it will be do bright, you'll be able to read a book outdoors at night! He never said why you might want to.
The brilliant Jim Al-Khalili (as in brilliant scientist and presenter) just did a two part series on the "Beginning and end of the Universe". It's on BBC iPlayer.
Cheers ^^^