[late]

Every time we build a better telescope, the Universe gets bigger, and weirder.

That's about to happen again.

I am almost certainly wrong, but here's my 2 cents. There wasn't a Big Bang for the entire Universe, just for our part of it. We're missing something fundamental about the universe, and I'm hoping the Webb scope will answer what, but it's unlikely that will happen for some time to come. Assuming we become able figure it out over the course of this century.

My Mom died just after Hubble went up. She would have loved it.She was really into astronomy. She dragged me to meetings and cold middle of the night viewings using huge amateur scopes (huge by the standards of hobbyists). I'm hoping I last long enough to see some of the stuff we get from the Webb scope. I wish she could be see it, she'd love all this. I find it interesting, but that's only because I see Space as Mankind's future.

Anyway, we will be looking back in time to the beginning of time, as we know it. It should be amazing. If you haven't studied the history of Science, it's hard to understand that you can never know what's important ahead of time. This could wind up being just more cool astronomy, or it could change us in ways subtle or profound.

Hope it works.

[Drlee]

I got up early Christmas morning to see the launch. It was magnificent.

I wish your mother could see this play out. As an amateur astronomer myself I am eager to see what they find. I agree with you that this machine may give us some pretty earth shattering stuff.

Still. My amateur telescopes help me enjoy the mystery of it all.

[Igor Antunov]

Hope it unfolds ok. Making it infrared was wise, will be able to see much more in that spectrum on top of being much larger than Hubble. I want them to discover something that throws cosmological physics on its head. Fuck that dark matter shit I want them to find something that throws that crap out the window. I'd rather have more questions, more blanks and fewer answers across the spectrum than stop-gap made up nonsense filling in the perceived blanks.

Sadly even if all goes perfectly according to plan, we still won't see any imagery for many months. And if just one thing goes wrong it's too far out to prep and send a fix, would take years and tens more billions i.e it would be cheaper to build and send a new one and that ain't happening so...good luck and best wishes I really want to see something new.

[JohnRawls]

Hope it unfolds ok. Making it infrared was wise, will be able to see much more in that spectrum on top of being much larger than Hubble. I want them to discover something that throws cosmological physics on its head. Fuck that dark matter shit I want them to find something that throws that crap out the window. I'd rather have more questions, more blanks and fewer answers across the spectrum than stop-gap made up nonsense filling in the perceived blanks.

Sadly even if all goes perfectly according to plan, we still won't see any imagery for many months. And if just one thing goes wrong it's too far out to prep and send a fix, would take years and tens more billions i.e it would be cheaper to build and send a new one and that ain't happening so...good luck and best wishes I really want to see something new.

Dark Matter is something that physicists use for "Something that is there or at least we think it is there but we don't know what it is". So it is very hard to throw it out.

Although the telescope is cool.

[Igor Antunov]

Dark Matter is something that physicists use for "Something that is there or at least we think it is there but we don't know what it is". So it is very hard to throw it out.

Although the telescope is cool.

If the underlying principles that led you to pick up the crutch are wrong, then you're just embellishing shit. 'A mysterious mass comprising up to 90% of the universe - composed of mystery undiscovered particles that neither absorb, nor reflect nor emit light.' LHC should have found that particle by now. No bueno.

Ah yes, black holes, except there aren't nearly enough of them to account for all this apparent mass. Unless we consider the influence of primordial black holes and their ongoing cosmological effects all the way from the beginning of time. So this telescope is perfectly equipped to answer that question once and for all because it should be able to spot the dramatic, concentrated gravitational lensing of those black hole clusters by looking back in time. If it doesn't find them then we're fucked, means our understanding of gravity is fundamentally retarded.

The fact we haven't come up with a decent unified theory of gravity yet, after decades of trying...

[JohnRawls]

If the underlying principles that led you to pick up the crutch are wrong, then you're just embellishing shit. 'A mysterious mass comprising up to 90% of the universe - composed of mystery undiscovered particles that neither absorb, nor reflect nor emit light.' LHC should have found that particle by now. No bueno.

Ah yes, black holes, except there aren't nearly enough of them to account for all this apparent mass. Unless we consider the influence of primordial black holes and their ongoing cosmological effects all the way from the beginning of time. So this telescope is perfectly equipped to answer that question once and for all because it should be able to spot the dramatic, concentrated gravitational lensing of those black hole clusters by looking back in time. If it doesn't find them then we're fucked, means our understanding of gravity is fundamentally retarded.

The fact we haven't come up with a decent unified theory of gravity yet, after decades of trying...

Well, LHC was created to study more or less known side of matter that we had hypothesis on. "Dark Matter" was a side project. Actually there were news recently that some new particles were discovered but more conclusive tests are needed.

[B0ycey]

Fuck that dark matter shit I want them to find something that throws that crap out the window.

Shhhhiiiiittttttt! Is that something we agree on? Seems James Webb has already produced one miracle.

The problem with Dark Matter, is if you throw that shit out, you throw out the standard model. It has always been a fudge, but my instinct is so is most of our understanding of the universe. I don't know whether this telescope will put scientists on the right track. My instinct is most of our confusion of the universe is believing light is absolute. Or that we don't fully understand time. I have my own theory, won't bore you with it, probably is wrong in any case. But I do think whilst we seem hellbent on believing in matter which can't see detected in order for models to be maintained on assumptions that figures must be fixed, we will never even get close to discovering the truth.

[Rich]

I got up early Christmas morning to see the launch. It was magnificent.

That's a bit dodgy. Celebrating the launch of a satellite named after what some people are calling a White Supremacist.

It strikes me that the best evidence for dark matter is that some galaxies don't seem to have it.

[Drlee]

That's a bit dodgy. Celebrating the launch of a satellite named after what some people are calling a White Supremacist.

When in Rome.....

[late]

When in Rome.....

Only if the scope is wearing a white sheet..

I've heard of visiting the sins of the father on the son, but on his cellphone is a new one...

[Rancid]

If it doesn't find the Aliens, I don't give a shit.

[Drlee]

You live in Texas. You are awash in aliens.

[late]

If it doesn't find the Aliens, I don't give a shit.

It's science, not science fiction...

[Rancid]

It's science, not science fiction...

Where are my ancient aliens?

[late]

Where are my ancient aliens?

[MadMonk]

It's science, not science fiction...

If by science you mean that even if there are alien lifeforms, that space is too vast to find them with our current technology, that is most likely true. Even our small galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars and there are billions of galaxies after that.

Speculations of the number of intelligent alien civilizations has been around for ages but most agree that the chances of nothing existing but us is remote. Maybe we'll not exist at the same time as many of them. Humanity is not that old and perhaps we won't be.

[late]

If by science you mean that even if there are alien lifeforms, that space is too vast to find them with our current technology, that is most likely true. Even our small galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars and there are billions of galaxies after that.

Speculations of the number of intelligent alien civilizations has been around for ages but most agree that the chances of nothing existing but us is remote. Maybe we'll not exist at the same time as many of them. Humanity is not that old and perhaps we won't be.

He wanted to interact with them.

Ignoring the time problem, there's thousands of alien civlisations, just no way to get there, or for them to get here.

[Drlee]

Ignoring the time problem, there's thousands of alien civlisations, just no way to get there, or for them to get here.

How do you know?

[ingliz]

How do you know?

Drake's Formula

N = R_* . f_P . n_e . f_l . f_i . f_c . L

N = number of civilizations with which humans could communicate
R_* = mean rate of star formation
f_P = fraction of stars that have planets
n_e = mean number of planets that could support life per star with planets
f_l = fraction of life-supporting planets that develop life
f_i = fraction of planets with life where life develops intelligence
f_c = fraction of intelligent civilizations that develop communication
L = mean length of time that civilizations can communicate

[late]

How do you know?

“The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”
Carl Sagan

While there is a remote possibility of empires that span galaxies, I tend to discount the idea.