Comments by "H. de Jong" (@h.dejong2531) on "What is the James Webb Space Telescope Currently Looking at?" video.

  1. Yes, that's a risk. OTOH, there's been life on our planet for a very long time. Finding a civilization is a lot harder than finding life.
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  2. Changes to the images include: 1. assign colors (required, since the source data is IR, but there is some freedom to choose colors depending on what the image is used for) 2. tiling (for images like the Carina nebula, which consist of multiple exposures) 3. artefact removal (dead pixels). Can often be done with tiling. 4. artefact removal (stray light). Done by subtracting a stray light calibration image from the image. None of that changes the source data.
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  3. 2 of the 4 science goals for JWST require observations of faraway galaxies. And for the showcase images, it was important to include a deep field to inform astronomers of what's possible.
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  4. The telescope is fully operational, and image quality after this hit is still better than required. All of the showcase images were taken after this hit. It wasn't "botched".
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  5. No, they're photos.
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  6. You can find all of the originals at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
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  7. That's incorrect. Novas only occur in binary stars, and our sun isn't one.
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  8. Look at the sky tonight. You can see satellites pass overhead. With simple tools, you can measure their speed and altitude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zApGNHOi0s You'll find an altitude of more than 200 km and a speed of 8 km/s. Every day, you benefit from data generated in space, proving space is real and Earth is not flat.
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  9. No. We can't do that for ships in a nearby star system, let alone at the edge of our galaxy.
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  10. That's baloney. The people who got paid for building the spacecraft are not the people now operating the telescope. And anyone doing this would be guaranteed their scam would be found out some day, because at some point, a more advanced telescope than JWST will be built.
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  11. For the General Observer program (i.e. observations requested by astronomers outside the JWST core team) there's a standard period of 6 months where the requesting astronomer has exclusive access to the images. After 6 months, ALL data is published via MAST. For DD-ERS (which is scheduled in between the GO program) images are released immediately.
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  12. No. It was hit, and there's some damage, but the telescope is fully operational, and image quality after this hit is still better than required. All of the showcase images were taken after this hit.
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  13. Not in the first year. No observations scheduled in the General Observer program, at least.
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  14. It's been hit by a grain of sand going at more than 1 km/s. Window washing won't help.
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