James Webb solar panels deploy early

[nowty]

Even without the typo it shows what a good job our atmosphere does in keeping the temp to a reasonable and liveable range. Shame we are still buggering it up.

Nice live info dashboard here,
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunc ... sWebb.html

[dan_b]

Oh dear, yes that's a typo! I think I'll keep that in the post though

2264C difference would be staggering, but I'm sure you're exagerating slightly

[dan_b]

The telescope should be completing its parking manoeuvre into L2 later this evening - at 4.30pm UK time, it has 1200 miles to go and is moving at 0.12 miles per second and slowing.

[spread-tee]

Promising looking image from all the segments of the mirror.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... t-galaxies

nice crisp looking defraction spike presumably from the support mechanicals in the light path.

Desp

[dan_b]

Dr Becky the Astrophysicist on the alignment image

[AE-NMidlands]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61086170 says

The James Webb telescope's MIRI instrument goes super-cold
It is perhaps the very definition of cool. The Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space telescope is now at its super-low operating temperature.

The UK-assembled instrument has reached a decidedly chilly -267C, or just six degrees above "absolute zero".

This unimaginably low temperature is not far short of the point where all atoms are supposed to stop jiggling.

MIRI's frigid status will allow the Webb observatory to see the distant Universe in unprecedented detail.

The temperature milestone, confirmed by the US space agency Nasa on Wednesday, was hailed by the instrument's British co-principal investigator, Prof Gillian Wright.
etc

It's looking good...

[spread-tee]

That's quite a fridge to keep a cool beer in

Desp

[nowty]

Hell of a difference in temp between the hot and cold side with just a few gapped layers of aluminium foil (or similar).

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunc ... sWebb.html

[dan_b]

Extraordinary technology isn't it!

[spread-tee]

It's like being in a vacuum flask, no convection and hardly any conduction to worry about, so if you can stop the radiative energy then all the heat leaks out into space which has an ambient temp of about 5 deg K IIRC.

Desp