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Thread: Jwst

  1. #1
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    Jwst

    I started another thread rather than try to keep old ones going.

    My best friend, who developed the micro shutter detectors (he discovered little wafers of silicon bent when hit by photons, and has been perfecting them for decades), says in that first photo, that everyone has seen by now, they were able to get spectra from 40 galaxies simultaneously. One has a Red Shift of 8.5, which puts it Very early in the history of the galaxy, and Very far away from us. He said everything was working perfectly.

    Following is my non pro explanation of that:
    That first photo covered an area of the sky about the same as a grain of sand would occupy if you held it at arms length.

    Red Shift indicates how fast anything is going away from our location, and the faster it's going means it's farther away. The largest measured red shift of a galaxy seen before was a little over 11 (higher number means it's going faster). That was after a LOT of looking at galaxies all over the sky. To catch one at 8.5 in that first shot of a tiny spec of the sky foretells that there is an infinite amount of information to be found by the JWST.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom M King View Post
    My best friend, who developed the micro shutter detectors (he discovered little wafers of silicon bent when hit by photons, and has been perfecting them for decades), ..
    Tom, did your friend by chance work at the Oak Ridge National Lab or collaborate with someone who did (in the I&C division if I remember correctly)?

    At some point in my last 15 years there (I retired in 2006 so it’s been a while!) I was asked to do technical visualization on an R&D project that sounds a lot like what you are describing: an array of microscopic silicon cantilevers, each of which would physically bend when struck by photons, more sensitive when in the IR range (again, IIRC). I created 3D models, animated, and created a video illustrating one wafer reacting to a photon strike. One potential application they were looking at was specialized image sensors so I simulated that too, zooming out to a pixelated image of an eye blinking. I did some related visualization later but the names of the researchers escape me.

    It would be wild if that work at the lab was even remotely related to something that ended up on on the telescope!

    BTW, it was fantastic work - I did 100s of visualizations over the years in widely varied fields such as electronics, photonics, biology, physics, chemistry, nuclear and space applications, mechanisms, medical, the SNS, and a lot of architecture: stills for web and print/publication, animations for video. As a one-man operation with more potential projects across the Lab than I could do I could pick and choose the most interesting. I met and worked with some fascinating people. And a great thing was the commute - 15 seconds down the steps to my basement dungeon!

    C69B7BE5-CC62-4A61-A756-20BEBD8DE868.jpeg

    JKJ

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom M King View Post
    I started another thread rather than try to keep old ones going.

    My best friend, who developed the micro shutter detectors (he discovered little wafers of silicon bent when hit by photons, and has been perfecting them for decades), says in that first photo, that everyone has seen by now, they were able to get spectra from 40 galaxies simultaneously. One has a Red Shift of 8.5, which puts it Very early in the history of the galaxy, and Very far away from us. He said everything was working perfectly.

    Following is my non pro explanation of that:
    That first photo covered an area of the sky about the same as a grain of sand would occupy if you held it at arms length.

    Red Shift indicates how fast anything is going away from our location, and the faster it's going means it's farther away. The largest measured red shift of a galaxy seen before was a little over 11 (higher number means it's going faster). That was after a LOT of looking at galaxies all over the sky. To catch one at 8.5 in that first shot of a tiny spec of the sky foretells that there is an infinite amount of information to be found by the JWST.
    last night I watched an hour long PBS documentary building history of jwst. They did a good job of putting things in layman's term ...cant wait to see more!

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lawrence Duckworth View Post
    last night I watched an hour long PBS documentary building history of jwst. They did a good job of putting things in layman's term ...cant wait to see more!
    Yes, it was a great program.

    PBS is a gem…….Regards, Rod

  5. #5
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    John, Harvey has worked at NASA since he finished his PhD in the 70's. I don't remember exactly when he found out about the silicon reaction. I'm thinking it was in the early 80's, but it could have even been in the late '70's. I'll ask him. We usually talk every day. He has been working on infrared detection about his whole career at NASA, as well as some Xray detection. He's been perfecting the miniaturization of the shutters ever since, as well as supervising several floors in the building of younger scientists running experiments. For probably a couple of decades it looked like they would never get them consistent enough to be reliable, but they did.

    He retired soon after they hauled the JWST away for testing. I saw them assembling it in the giant 100 foot cube clean room. There is an observation window in the "Lab" building. A camera from the Hubble was sitting out in the hallway waiting for the Smithsonian to find a place for it.

    Back in the '70's, when I would visit the "lab" they'd have experiments set up on racks built from 2x4's and sheetrock screws. These days, all the special made racks look a lot more professional built from 8020 aluminum extrusions.

    One of his Summer interns from years ago is a leader at SpaceX since the beginning. I was eating dinner with some of them some years ago, and the SpaceX guy asked me who I was. I told him that Harvey and I built telescopes together when we were teenagers. He said, "Yeah, he still is." We all got a good laugh from that.

  6. #6
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    All,

    Here’s a question. Imagine that you can live anywhere in the universe. What view would you like with your morning coffee?

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Feeley View Post
    All,

    Here’s a question. Imagine that you can live anywhere in the universe. What view would you like with your morning coffee?
    My wife. .

  8. #8
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    I second that!

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