- QMSat – Université de Sherbrooke
- Killick-1 – Memorial University
- VIOLET – University of New Brunswick
Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA Live.
You’ve seen the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images, right? A stellar nursery revealing previously invisible stars, a giant exoplanet’s atmosphere examined, a group of galaxies, a beautiful planetary nebula and the deepest image of our universe ever captured.
Pretty cool, huh? But were they real?
Of course they were real!
Were they exactly as Webb captured them in one single image, like you taking a photo with your phone?
No—not at all.
Webb is designed to be sensitive to light that we cannot see. It also has four science instruments and seventeen modes.
“When you get the data down, they they don’t look anything like a beautiful color image,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at STScI, who heads-up a team of 30 expert image manipulators. “They don’t hardly look like anything at all [and] it’s only if you know what to look for that you can appreciate them.”
Webb’s engineers had to heavily manipulate the images we saw a lot before they were published, and for some pretty simple and common-sense reasons.
So what’s going on?
This is not just snapping a picture on a phone.
First comes the shot selection. NASA was looking for objects that would produce a nice frame, have structure and make use of color—while also highlighting science.
Webb cannot see every part of the sky at any given time. So given that the launch of the telescope was delayed multiple times, there was no way that engineers could meticulously plan the first images until Webb went to skywards last December.
When it did so, engineers had a list of about 70 targets, which were selected to demonstrate the breadth of science web was capable of, and which could herald spectacular colour images.
“Once we knew when we would be able to take the data, we could go down that list and pick the highest prioritized targets that were visible at that time,” said Pontoppidan. “The images were planned for a long time [and] there’s been a lot of work going into stimulating what the observations would look like so that everything could be configured just right.”
Before engineers can get to work manipulating Webb’s images the raw data has to be returned to our planet from a million miles away in space. That’s done by using NASA JPL’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which is how engineers communicate with, and receive data from, its 30+ robotic probes in the solar system and beyond—including Webb. There are three complexes in the DSN, each placed 120º from each other; California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia.
Radio waves are very dependable, but slow. The data comes in at a ponderous couple of megabits per second (Mbps). However, the DSN will soon be upgraded from slow radio transmissions to super-fast “space lasers” that could massively increase data rates to as much as 10 or even 100 times faster.
“We plan things out, upload them to the observatory, take the data and get them back down on Earth—then we have another long period of time where we process the data,” said Pontoppidan.
Are the Webb telescope images colorized? Are the colors in space photos real? No, they are not. The Webb telescope sees in red. It’s up there specifically to detect infrared light, the faintest and farthest light in the cosmos.
It essentially sees in heat radiation, not visible light. It sees another part of the electromagnetic spectrum:
Think of a rainbow. At one end is red at the other end is blue or violet. That rainbow is, in reality, much wider, but both extremes represent the limits to what colors the human eye can perceive. Beyond blue are shorter and shorter wavelengths of light that we have no names for. Ditto beyond red, where the wavelength of light gets longer.
That’s where Webb is looking—the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It uses masking techniques—filters—to allow it to detect faint sources of light next to very bright ones. But none of it is in “color.”
So how can the photos we see possibly be in color for us?
Webb’s images are moved up the electromagnetic spectrum from a part we can’t perceive into the visible light part that we can see.
They take mono brightness images from Webb using up to 29 different narrowband filters, each of which detects different wavelengths of infrared light. They them assign each filter’s collected light a different visible color, from the reddest red light has the longest wavelength) to blue (which has the shortest wavelength). They then create a composite image.
Is that cheating? All the engineers are doing is taking radiation from one part of the spectrum our eyes can’t see and shifting it into another part of the spectrum we can see.
It’s like playing a song in a different key.
Besides, all cameras—including your smartphone’s camera—use filters to take the images you see. No, not Instagram filters, but individual red, green and blue filters that, when combined, produces a visible image that looks “real.”
If you think Webb’s images are not real then you also have to think that your own smartphone’s photos are fake.
It’s a complex process that for data from Webb just hadn’t been done before. So it takes a few weeks for each image to emerge in their full colorful glory.
“Typically, the process from raw telescope data to final, clean image that communicates scientific information about the universe can take anywhere from weeks to a month,” said Alyssa Pagan, a science visuals developer at STScI.
It was surely worth the wait.
“In the first images we have just a few days worth of observations,” said Pontoppidan. “This is really only the beginning and we’re only scratching the surface.”
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Watching the celestial event safely is possible with the right equipment and some preparation.
With the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, the New England College of Optometry (NECO) urges the general public to observe this celestial phenomenon safely. Solar eclipses are rare events that spark widespread interest and excitement. To ensure everyone can enjoy the eclipse without risking their vision, NECO is sharing crucial guidelines for proper viewing.
“Solar eclipses present a wonderful opportunity for communities to engage with astronomy, but it’s vital that safety is a priority,” says George Asimellis, PhD, Msc, MBA, Professor of Vision Science at NECO. “Viewing a solar eclipse without appropriate protection can result in solar retinopathy, which can cause lasting damage to the eyes. You must take proper precautions to view the eclipse.” PLEASE NOTE: NECO recommends that individuals who have recently undergone eye surgery or who have chronic eye conditions should refrain from viewing the eclipse.
NECO will host an eclipse viewing party on Monday, April 8, from 2:00-4:00pm at their main campus located at 424 Beacon Street in Boston’s Back Bay. Media are welcome to attend and receive a free pair of eclipse viewing glasses. Faculty will be present to talk about the science behind safely viewing an eclipse.
The map below (courtesy of NASA) shows the eclipse’s path of totality.
For those who reside outside the path of totality: The Boston area is outside the eclipse’s path of totality. However, we will be able to view a partial eclipse starting at about 2:10pm. Our area will experience moderate darkness and a drop in temperature during the partial eclipse, which will last two hours. Eclipse glasses must still be used to protect your eyes from the harmful rays of the sun, even during a partial eclipse!
Our vision experts are available for comment and additional information on eye care during this astronomical event. Please contact our Marketing Department by calling (617) 587-5609, or email [email protected].
For more information from national experts on the April 8 solar eclipse, visit NASA or the American Optometric Association.
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One of the largest studies on wildlife activity—involving more than 220 researchers, 163 mammal species and 5,000 camera traps worldwide—reveals that wild animals react differently to humans depending on where the animals live and what they eat.
Bigger herbivores—plant-eating animals like deer or moose—tend to become more active when humans are around, while meat-eaters like wolves or wolverines tend to be less active, preferring to avoid risky encounters.
Urban animals like deer or raccoons may become more active around people, as they get used to human presence and find food like garbage or plants, which they can access at night. But animals living farther from cities and other developed areas are more wary of encountering people.
The new study, a collaboration across researchers from 161 institutions, used data from before and during the COVID-19 lockdowns to examine wildlife behaviour amid changing human activity levels.
“COVID-19 mobility restrictions gave researchers a truly unique opportunity to study how animals responded when the number of people sharing their landscape changed drastically over a relatively short period,” said lead author Dr. Cole Burton, an associate professor of forest resources management at UBC and Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Mammal Conservation.
“And contrary to the popular narratives that emerged around that time, we did not see an overall pattern of ‘wildlife running free’ while humans sheltered in place. Rather, we saw great variation in activity patterns of people and wildlife, with the most striking trends being that animal responses depended on landscape conditions and their position in the food chain.”
In Canada, researchers monitoring areas such as Banff and Pacific Rim national parks, Cathedral, Golden Ears and South Chilcotin Mountains provincial parks, and the Sea-to-Sky corridor in B.C. found that carnivores like wolverines, wolves and cougars were generally less active when human activity was higher.
In several of these parks, and in cities such as Edmonton, large herbivores often increased their activity but became more nocturnal with the presence of more humans. Large carnivores were notably absent from the most human-dominated landscapes.
These findings highlight the importance of measures to minimize any detrimental effects of human disturbance on wildlife, including reducing overlaps that might lead to conflict.
“In remote areas with limited human infrastructure, the effects of our actual presence on wildlife may be particularly strong. To give wild animals the space they need, we may consider setting aside protected areas or movement corridors free of human activity, or consider seasonal restrictions, like temporary closures of campsites or hiking trails during migratory or breeding seasons,” said study co-author and UBC biologist Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor.
She added that strategies must also fit specific species and locations. In more remote areas, keeping human activity low will be necessary to protect sensitive species. In areas where people and animals overlap more, such as cities, nighttime is an important refuge for wildlife, and keeping it that way can help species survive. Efforts may focus on reducing human-wildlife conflict after dark, such as more secure storage of trash bins to reduce the number of animals getting into human food sources, or use of road mitigation measures to reduce vehicle collisions.
The findings are particularly useful amid the surge in global travel and outdoor recreation post-pandemic, Dr. Burton added.
“Understanding how wildlife respond to human activity in various contexts helps us develop effective conservation plans that have local and global impact. For that reason, we are working to improve wildlife monitoring systems using tools like the camera traps that made it possible to observe animal behaviours during the pandemic.”
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