Definitely planning. Minute, precise, meticulous, checked and double-checked. — Wayfarer

The West has perfected the art of planning, Nothing is left to chance! The Orient is catching on/up. We're atheists with respect to Tyche/Fortuna.

The same anti-luck spirit is to be found in (emergency) medicine.

Luck?! What's that? — Your local EP

We're atheists with respect to Tyche/Fortuna. — Agent Smith

"The West has perfected the art of planning"? Far from.
Planes crash. But let's close our eyes to that. A statistical nuisance. No more, no less...

Planes crash. — EugeneW

X: I'm not Jewish!
Y: Yeah well, nobody's perfect!

X: I'm not Jewish!
Y: Yeah well, nobody's perfect — Agent Smith

You come up, as usual, with wondrous associations, love! Luckily not all minds are perfect! :starstruck:

:heart:

Webb Completes First Multi-Instrument Alignment

The sixth stage of aligning NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mirrors to its scientific instruments so they will create the most accurate and focused images possible has concluded. While the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) continues its cooldown, optics teams have successfully aligned the rest of the observatory’s onboard instruments to Webb’s mirrors. Previous alignment efforts were so accurate that the team concluded no additional adjustments to the secondary mirror are necessary until the seventh and final stage, which will involve MIRI when it has fully cooled.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/04/01/webb-completes-first-multi-instrument-alignment/

Fantastic news!

We can't wait to see the pics and the simplified (for our benefit) analyses that go with them. I hope this is a paradigm shift moment for science as a whole though the focus is on astronomy/cosmology. We can finally stop the imitation of old theoretical frameworks and take our understanding of our universe and us to a new level.

What if the JWST sees God (primum movens)? I can picture him waving at the cameras!

Hubble sees most distant star ever, 28 billion light-years away.

Old but not dead!

Question: How far back in time are we hoping to go with the JWST?

Telescopes are time machines! Only one problem: We can see the past, not the future.

JWST probably can "see" as far back as 12.5+ billion years – the observable astronomical limit – or about 1 billion years after "the big bang" (re: cosmic dark age) when the early universe had become "transparent" (enough for our physics) to EM radiation. That's my estimation (best guess); if, however, others have more accurate technical specs on this mission, I welcome the info.

Telescopes are time machines! — Agent Smith

So are eyeballs, ears & memories! :smirk:

Like always, scientists have it all figured out. What was I thinking? The particular wavelength of light (infrared) the JWST is going to tune into is (likely) the exact one light from the universe post-dark age is going to stretch (due to cosmic expansion) into. This is no random shot in the dark! I should've known.

:up: Too much money and too many generational careers have been dedicated to this mission for it be a "random shot in the dark". Like gravity waves, Higgs bosons, black hole imagery, thousands of exo-planets (Hubble, Kepler, etc), acceleration of cosmic expansion, etc – just in the last quarter century alone, my man, like "The Killer" himself sang, "there's a whole lotta shakin' going on" in so-called "Big Science". :wink:

It's been now 28 years since the first exoplanet had been discovered.

Now there's 5 000 found with over 300 multi-planetary system been found.

It's going to be interesting what James Webb will find...

Too much money and too many generational careers have been dedicated to this mission for it be a "random shot in the dark". Like gravity waves, Higgs bosons, black hole imagery, thousands of exo-planets (Hubble, Kepler, etc), acceleration of cosmic expansion, etc – just in the last quarter century alone, my man, like "The Killer" himself sang, "there's a whole lotta shakin' going on" in so-called "Big Science". — 180 Proof

When scientists do something, it's certain that years of planning have gone into it. Expect success rather than failure, almost all relevant contingencies have been taken into account! Only Divine interference can mess things up for science. Either we relax and enjoy the ride or God will reveal Himself! Win-win! Eh?

:smirk: The vacuum cannot not reveal "Himself". So "relax and enjoy the ride" ...

The vacuum cannot not reveal "Himself". — 180 Proof

Let's give the supreme fascist a chance! Let's not get too cocky surey! :lol:

"The Old Shadow" (Freddy N.) – Erdős was merely projecting. :wink:

"The Old Shadow" (Freddy N.) – Erdős was merely projecting. :wink: — 180 Proof

What is so fascist about God? Late Paul Erdős is not alone in this particular or rather peculiar point of view in re the God-human relationship. The late Christopher Hitchens refers to YHWY as a, get this, celestial dictator. There are others like Mikhail Bakunin who supposedly said "If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him."

Why do people fear a theocracy? Look at Iran, look at North Korea. I don't know how clear my ideas about theocracies and autocracies are but in my mind both these countries are associated with the color dull grey - such systems suck the life out of you; truth is (I got this from an article on how technology - MRI scans, CT scans - can virtually unwrap mummies) religions and dictatorships are tools that are used to conduct virtual lobotomies of entire populations, numbering in the millions. :chin:

I hope I haven't derailed this thread to the point of it becoming irrecoverable. There's a mention of color and infrared (JWST) is a color, it's just that only our skins can "see" it, not our eyes. :grin:

:roll:

:smile:

JWST Mission Objectives (in a nutshell)

1. Detect first stars (astronomy)

2. Detect first galaxies (astronomy)

3. Atmospheric studies of potentially habitable exoplanets (colonization)

It looks like old habits die hard (3). Worse, all of us will be doing what we kvetch that some (Europeans) did to others (Indians, Africans, Asians).

This thread seems to have died a month ago, just when things were getting interesting.
It's apparently online now sufficiently for something like this:

The title makes it look like WISE is older than Spitzer, but it's a wide survey instrument and is simply smaller.

3. Atmospheric studies of potentially habitable exoplanets (colonization) — Agent Smith

Easy there, conquistador. :sweat:

This thread seems to have died a month ago — noAxioms

Not really, but I will admit I haven't paid it much attention. But, hey, thanks for the update!

Easy there, conquistador. :sweat: — 180 Proof

:grin:

344 single points of failure. :yikes: — Wayfarer

No one's ever made the first jump. — Tank

Everybody falls the first time, right Trin? — Cypher

Amazing team! Mantra: Failure is not an option!

Recent video update from NASA

The first pictures looked good. It was nice to see the 18 separate images merge into one. What secrets the incoming light has in store? Will the secret finally be unveiled?

simply smaller — noAxioms

It's turtles all the way down

3. Atmospheric studies of potentially habitable exoplanets (colonization)
— Agent Smith
Easy there, conquistador. :sweat: — 180 Proof

:lol:

Enthusiastic as ever!