A little perspective... James Webb telescope

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Would the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico have been on this list before the cables snapped in 2020?

It's not really that far away from Spain in the grand scheme and I'm not sure if it was the right kind of dish, but surely it was big enough.

It's not the size of the dish, it's the strength and frequency of your signal!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted

The Deep Space Network by Ridgecrest CA works in conjunction with Canberra Australia & Rota Spain.
Its run by JPL in Pasadena. Anything past Mars communicates via these world wide dishes.

Are you sure about Rota?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Deep_Space_Communications_Complex

The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC), in Spanish and officially Complejo de Comunicaciones de Espacio Profundo de Madrid, is a satellite ground station located in Robledo de Chavela, Spain, and operated by the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA). Part of the Deep Space Network (DSN) of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), along with its two sister stations at Goldstone, California and Canberra, Australia it is used for tracking and communicating with NASA's spacecraft, particularly interplanetary missions. The DSN and the Near Space Network (NSN) are services of the NASA Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN).

The MDSCC is part of NASA's Deep Space Network run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[1] The facility contributes to the Deep Space Network's mission to provide the vital two-way communications link that tracks and controls interplanetary spacecraft and receives the images and scientific information they collect. The complex is one of three NASA Deep Space Network complexes in the world, located at separations of approximately 120° longitude so that a spacecraft will always be in sight of at least one station; the others are the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex located in California, near the city of Barstow, and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia which is close to the city of Canberra.[2]

The complex also serves some missions of the European Space Agency.

Rota did have some communications stuff for sure, but less sciencey and more NSAy.

https://www.stripes.com/news/cold-war-relic-bull-ring-is-being-dismantled-at-rota-1.1674

[Geneman]

Can anyone explain why galaxies are visible so far back in time?. my understanding is that JWST can "see" back to very close to the Big Bang.. 13.4-13.6 Bn. However, my reading of the current evolution of the universe is that true, well-structured galaxies are a relatively late edition to the universe. meaning:. after the big bang, expansion, ionization,, then it took many yrs to aggregate real matter into galaxy structures. Thus if the light they are detecting is that old, mature galaxies should not be visible,.

[dewolf]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Voyager 1 is 14+ billion miles away from the Earth. Pluto is over three billion miles for perspective. (Voyager 2 at 11 billion)

Over 20 hours for Voyager 1 transmissions to reach earth.

Both were expected to have a three to five year functional operation span from 1977.

Well, lucky they weren't made in China.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Geneman

Can anyone explain why galaxies are visible so far back in time?. my understanding is that JWST can "see" back to very close to the Big Bang.. 13.4-13.6 Bn. However, my reading of the current evolution of the universe is that true, well-structured galaxies are a relatively late edition to the universe. meaning:. after the big bang, expansion, ionization,, then it took many yrs to aggregate real matter into galaxy structures. Thus if the light they are detecting is that old, mature galaxies should not be visible,.

Galaxies formed as soon as 500-700 million years after the big bang. The furthest quasar (so far...) is about 13 billion light years away, and quasars are the cores of galaxies...

Now, the first few generations of galaxies were morphologically different, the stars were massive hot short lived beasts made almost completely of hydrogen and helium, and they only lasted a few million years. The galaxies were smaller, and had no structure, just blobs of star forming regions in giant gas clouds. There was easily 1-2 billion years of galactic evolution before we started seeing galaxies with a core, and structures and such.

[Geneman]

thanks mike. copy that

[Hawkeye's-911T]

Ha. Just look how well the aliens did after that long inter galactic trip then landing the hard way in Roswell

Good one Bob - still chuckling whilst cleaning up spilled coffee

Cheers
JB

[Racerbvd]

[Steve Carlton]

Amazing!

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

https://webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery/images

[red 928]

Yes, a little perspective:

in the early 90's, someone in the government
asked what the human limit to fiscal waste
and inefficiency was, NASA said hold our beer.

They pitched a project that would cost $500 million
and take 12 years to complete.

That raised many eyebrows because it was a ridiculous
amount of money for another telescope, but NASA had many
friends in congress.

NASA proceeded to blow that 500 million budget by nearly 20 times.

They turned $500 million into a cost of $10 billion.
They turned a 12 year project into the ultimate boondoggle that took 27 years to complete.

I sure hope that happy feeling you get from the
purdy pictures lasts more than a few seconds, I'd hate
to think we didn't get our money's worth

/perspective

[flatbutt]

Then again there's the perspective of exploration. So take it to PARF.

[Steve Carlton]

$10 Billion seems like a bargain.

[asphaltgambler]

And yet in 2022 - security camera footage, especially in banks or convenience stores, all seem to so blurry that it looks like someone smeared Vaseline on the lens.......................

[GH85Carrera]

The list of inventions from NASA is so long it would take a large book to list them all.

The smartphone cell phone most of us have would not be remotely possible now without NASA paving the way. Digital photography was birthed from NASA. The IMU or internal Measuring Unit your phone has to let it know you just raised it up to use it, was all engineered for NASA. That is how the astronauts navigated to the moon and on the moon in the buggy. It was the size of a Microwave back then, now they fit on a fingernail.

It is just endless. And what is worth to really understand the origins of the universe, and conversely how we came to be here. To truly know the size of the universe, and look back to the beginning. To look for habitable planets, to do pure research.

So many times in science, someone was looking into the way a bacteria reproduces, and ends up finding a cure for some horrible human disease. Science is never a straight line, there are so many branches that all knowledge leads to more questions, and the desire to learn more answers.

Our government wastes trillions on total boondoggles, and it just vanishes into the politicians pockets. At least NASA is employing smart people, and keep the USA in a the lead for engineers and designers.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by red 928

They turned $500 million into a cost of $10 billion.
They turned a 12 year project into the ultimate boondoggle that took 27 years to complete.

Yes, it was silly expensive. However, there is an upside, the "contraption" could physically fail at any time.

[fastfredracing]

[cabmandone]

Sometimes I worry about having too much time on my hands. Then I open a thread like this and see Fred and Byron's pics at #28 and #36 and I go... you're doin okay fella.

Good stuff though guys! I gotta say though, I'm a little disappointed no one has taken the childish route and mentioned seeing "Uranus" yet. You know, something like "Shaun, If you focus really hard on that pic, I'm pretty sure you can see Uranus." You know, highbrow stuff.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by cabmandone

Sometimes I worry about having too much time on my hands. Then I open a thread like this and see Fred and Byron's pics at #28 and #36 and I go... you're doin okay fella.

Good stuff though guys! I gotta say though, I'm a little disappointed no one has taken the childish route and mentioned seeing "Uranus" yet. You know, something like "Shaun, If you focus really hard on that pic, I'm pretty sure you can see Uranus." You know, highbrow stuff.

You are such a 419 area code hayseed.

[fastfredracing]

When I have nothing intelligent or of substance to offer ( quite often ) I go for the laughs

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

You are such a 419 area code hayseed.

Ain't that the truth brother?