With bleary eyes, the world’s new giant space telescope has roused from slumber and glimpsed its “first light,” the initial step toward an ultimate goal of seeing some of the universe’s “first light.”
Huh?
When it comes to the profoundly powerful James Webb Space Telescope, the terminology can be downright dizzying, especially when astronomers use the phrase “first light” twice in the same breath to mean two different things. It’s a double entendre unique to this unparalleled observatory.
“First light” means starlight has traveled through the optics of a telescope, bouncing off all its mirrors to reach its detectors for the first time. NASA confirmed Webb achieved that on Feb. 3.
“First light” is also a term cosmologists use to describe the first generation of stars formed in the universe, thought to be a period just 300 million years after the Big Bang. Once aligned and calibrated this summer, Webb is expected to see some of the oldest galaxies, over 13.5 billion light-years away.
In fact, about two decades ago, when Webb was in its infancy, astronomers dubbed it the “First Light Machine,” said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for the Near Infrared Camera aboard Webb. The nickname came from the telescope’s main purpose: to look back in time and see the origins of the universe.
But scientists decided the name “First Light Machine” was a bit of a stretch, overselling the observatory’s capability.
“We kind of had to get away from that moniker because the very first light would be a star,” Rieke told Mashable. “You need a telescope 20 miles across to detect the first single star.”
NASA surprised the astronomy community by releasing a first-light picture Friday. Its subject HD84406, an isolated sunlike star just 260 light-years away, is a relatively close neighbor to Earth. This was not the awesome, jaw-dropping spectacle the space agency has promised for years. Rather, the frame showed 18 random, blurry golden spots — some stretched and distorted into jelly beans, some ghostly apparitions — each a copy of the same star.
The James Webb Space Telescope sees its first light of HD84406 in each of its 18 mirrors. Credit: NASA
Relax, though. That doesn’t mean the telescope is broken, like a problem discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope, its legendary predecessor. It will take months to tune up Webb’s mirrors and instruments to perfection.
HD84406 can be found in the constellation Ursa Major. The star is a little too faint to see with the naked eye on Earth — a person needs binoculars to catch a glimmer — but it’s a bright object for Webb to fix its gaze on. In about four months, the 18 mirrors should be fully aligned, able to make the star look like one, clear star.
The James Webb Space Telescope focused on HD84406, a sunlike star near the bear’s head in the constellation Ursa Major. Credit: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
“The first images are going to be ugly,” said Jane Rigby, a project scientist. “It’s like we have 18 mirrors that are right now little prima donnas, all doing their own thing, singing their own tune in whatever key they’re in, and we have to make them work like a chorus.”
Each mirror segment is functioning like its own telescope now, explained Lee Feinberg, Webb’s optical telescope manager. The team needs to match the images within nanometers. For perspective, if the primary mirror were the size of the United States, each of the 18 segments would be the size of Texas, requiring the team to match them up with an accuracy of about 1.5 inches.
HD84406, an isolated sunlike star found in the constellation Ursa Major, taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey, via Aladin
It’s too early to say there’s definitely not a flaw in Webb’s mirrors, Feinberg said, but so far things look normal.
NASA took a sharp left turn in its plans with Friday’s rollout of the “first light” image. In earlier conversations with reporters, Webb scientists and managers said they would hold back pictures until the summer because the test pictures are notoriously bad. It’s not the first impression they want to make.
The Hubble Space Telescope saw its first light three decades ago. Credit: Left: E. Persson (Las Campanas Observatory, Chile) / Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Right: NASA / ESA / STScI
Perhaps the space agency didn’t want to repeat history: When NASA presented the first Hubble picture 32 years ago, the masses were underwhelmed. A photo of HD96755, a binary star 1,300 light years away, was a pixelated black-and-white smudge, barely better than a picture taken by a telescope on the ground in Chile.
“We want to make sure that the first images that the world sees, that humanity sees from this telescope, do justice to this $10 billion telescope,” and aren’t a “boring” star, Rigby said of Webb.
“For someone who’s worked on a project for 22 years, to see the light come through, it is beautiful.”
Contrary to previous remarks, NASA delivered early. Patrick Lynch, a spokesman for the agency, said NASA never made a formal decision on whether to release alignment images. The first science photos won’t come until the summer, but there will be “more updates” along the way, he noted.
Whether to make the first-light picture public was hotly debated, Rieke told Mashable: Though the space agency wants to be transparent about the fine-tuning process, some feared people would be reasonably crestfallen. Scientists, on the other hand, felt more than mere relief when Webb successfully collected HD84406’s photons.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
