wp-plugin-hostgator
domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init
action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114ol-scrapes
domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init
action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23220109\/james-webb-space-telescope-stars-diffraction-spike<\/a> Stars in the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> look sharper than they did before. And I\u2019m not just talking about the image quality, which is astounding. I\u2019m talking about the fact that many of the bright stars in the images have very distinct Christmas-ornament-looking spikes or, as one of my colleagues put it, \u201cIt looks like a J.J. Abrams promo poster, and I love it.\u201d <\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t a case of too much lens flare<\/a>. Those are diffraction spikes, and if you look closely, you\u2019ll see that all bright objects in the JWST images have the same eight-pointed pattern. The brighter the light, the more prominent the feature. Dimmer objects like nebulae or galaxies<\/a> don\u2019t tend to see quite as much of this distortion. <\/p>\n This pattern of diffraction spikes is unique to JWST. If you compare images<\/a> taken by the new telescope to images taken by its predecessor, you\u2019ll notice that Hubble only has four diffraction spikes to JWST\u2019s eight. (Two of JWST\u2019s spikes can be very faint, so it sometimes appears as though there are six.)<\/p>\n From this moment on you will always be able to tell the difference between a Hubble image and a JWST image:<\/p>\n Hubble stars have four spikes in a cross. JWST stars have six in a snowflake. Thank you for your time. pic.twitter.com\/BWsv2WqCqD<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Hank Green (@hankgreen) July 12, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n The shape of the diffraction spikes is determined by the telescope\u2019s hardware, so let\u2019s start with a quick refresher of the important bits. Both Hubble and JWST are reflecting telescopes,<\/a> which means that they collect light from the cosmos using mirrors. Reflecting telescopes have a large primary mirror that gathers the light and reflects it back to a smaller secondary mirror. The secondary mirror<\/a> on space telescopes helps guide that light toward the science instruments that turn it into all the cool images and data we\u2019re seeing now. <\/p>\n Both the primary and secondary mirrors contribute to the diffraction spikes but in slightly different ways. Light diffracts, or bends, around objects like mirror edges. So the shape of the mirror itself can result in these spikes of light as light interacts with the edges of the mirror. In Hubble\u2019s case, the mirror was round, so it didn\u2019t add to the spikiness. But JWST has hexagonal mirrors that result in an image with six diffraction spikes.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/br><\/code><\/p>\n\n