The first photo to be released from the James Webb Space Telescope was unveiled yesterday. They say it’s actually a look back. Thirteen billion years back.
I’m not sure how all this really works, but it takes light a while to travel the distance to get to us. So the composite image, which was put together over a twelve and a half hour period, looks off into an area of space that is just a short time removed from the Big Bang. Not the TV show. The creation of the universe.
So the picture that was unveiled yesterday was showing light that was thirteen billion years old. (Just to be clear, the picture with this blog was actually taken by the Hubble Telescope, so it’s not quite that old. The picture is older, but the light isn’t.)
I enjoy a bit of stargazing. I don’t think how long the light has taken to reach me. It rarely occurs to me that the things I am looking at might have long ago ceased to exist. I’m usually too busy trying to figure out what is what. And you don’t get that up close view laying in the dark looking up at the sky with just your eyes.
While I enjoy going out and looking up, I would like to get a better idea of what I’m looking at. I find books and pictures and maps just don’t do a very good job. By the time I get out and actually get myself oriented, I’ve forgotten what I’m supposed to be looking at. And you can’t just turn on a light to look at a map while you’re looking at the stars, because then you can no longer see the stars.
One of these days I may figure out exactly which constellation is which. Until then, I’ll just keep making up my own names for them. And looking for meteors. I like watching for meteors. In fact, their should be a meteor shower coming up soon. Although the full moon will be around the same time, so they’ll be harder to see.
But it is interesting to look at this new picture of the past. Hopefully we’ll see more. I am a bit disappointed that there isn’t a dinosaur off in the corner waving to us. Maybe in the next one.
