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rbesfe ,

Can NASA let me know if that mole looks benign?

Plibbert ,

Is this in visible light or are there other spectrums involved? I m just wondering if this is real color.

nexguy ,
@nexguy@lemmy.world avatar

I do not believe JWST has visual spectrum detectors

Plibbert ,

That’s what I thought to. That’s why I’m wondering what spectrum this is in, or of it’s CGI/edit.

name_NULL111653 ,

Hi, amateur citizen scientist here.

James Webb space telescope has 2 major imagery instruments, and a couple others for alignment and spectrography. All these instruments are in varying portions of the infrared spectrum.

When making an observation, JWST uses NIRCam, a near-infrared imager, to take a series of images. There are two identical sensors in NIRCam, which capture adjacent portions of the sky in both a short and a long IR channel. There are also two filter wheels that take the images with an array of slitless filters.

Many images also use MIRI, a mid-infrared instrument that generally produces slightly less dazzling (but still amazing) pictures, but very valuable scientific data that allows us to see the most redshifted galaxies. MIRI also has an array of 9 filters. This instrument allows JWST to see farther into the universe than ever before.

But this is only where observations begin. While terabytes of grayscale imagery and spectrographs are invaluable to scientific study, the public usually prefers more artistic presentations of humanity’s collective efforts. The image is still authentic - nothing is “edited” or “photoshopped” in the traditional sense. But it takes hours of painstaking work to “shift” the images from infrared into visible light.

After the series of filtered grayscale images are colorized in a way that makes sense in visible light, they are still a series of separate images from monochrome IR filters. An analogy would be to take a long exposure picture with red, yellow, green, blue, purple, violet, and red filters. The images are then overlayed to create a composite, like what you see here. Sometimes MIRI images are added with low opacity to showcase the mid-IR whisps of “dust” in some nebulas (mostly glowing gasses and plasma), invisible to all previous telescopes.

All the raw data from JWST is available as soon as it’s fully received and uploaded by NASA at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) run by the STScI, for both researchers and hobbyist like me. If you have a lot of storage space and some basic images processing skills (or are willing to spend an afternoon to learn), I highly recommend reading more about the process and trying it yourself.

[Edited to fix broken links.]

Plibbert ,

This is an awesome explanation, that’s a really cool way to process an image. Thanks man, much appreciated.

name_NULL111653 ,

pawb.social/comment/4828956

young_broccoli ,

If im not mistaken The JWST can only see infrared light

name_NULL111653 ,

pawb.social/comment/4828956

young_broccoli ,

Thanks! ^.^

random_character_a ,
@random_character_a@lemmy.world avatar

You mean Urectum

Furimbus ,

I hardly knew ‘em!

TopRamenBinLaden ,

Ureckon?

YoorWeb ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/eafa613d-0aaf-42b1-92f3-88bac1178ff7.jpeg

FinishingDutch ,
@FinishingDutch@lemmy.world avatar

Hot.

chemicalwonka ,
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

In fact, Uranus is a pretty cold place its temperature is aroind 49 K (−224 °C; −371 °F)

thefartographer ,

AROIND??? Is that expected to be found in Uranus, doctor???

chemicalwonka ,
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Lol, My keyboard doesn’t have a corrector and English is not my native language. This explains a lot

thefartographer ,

What more could I expect from the Willy Wonka of chemicals? The methanol berries taste like gags and dies

threelonmusketeers ,

A little lick of methanol won’t kill you. You’ll “only” go blind.

chemicalwonka ,
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

This nickname has a dark history behind it but I laughed of your comment not gonna lie

FinishingDutch ,
@FinishingDutch@lemmy.world avatar

Good to know, I’ll bring a sweater when I’m exploring Uranus. Thanks 🫶

BloodSlut ,

well if i knew they would be taking pictures…

palitu ,

Yeah. They knew what they were doing…

Lophostemon ,

Does it look big in this outfit?

TragicNotCute ,
@TragicNotCute@lemmy.world avatar

Did I say gas giant?! No baby, you just misunderstood me.

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