Just like everyone else, I stare with wonder…
The Cartwheel Galaxy via JWST. Source NASA/ESA/CSA/STSci.
But we know that JWST is mostly sensitive in the infrared range, which means these images are false in the sense that our eyes wouldn’t see this. Scientists or algorithms select which visible color is mapped to by a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to which we’re not sensitive.
And what if our understanding of JWST’s instrumentation is defective? Here’s an article from NewScientist (20 August 2022, paywall) on that subject:
When JWST sends data back to Earth, it doesn’t come as complete images. Astronomers have to process it to make it usable, which requires understanding the sensitivity of the telescope’s scientific instruments. As JWST takes more data, we gain a better understanding of that sensitivity. But new information on the performance of an infrared camera caused the telescope’s operators to update its data-processing algorithms in July – well after the first images were released – and this threw some astronomers into a tizzy.
“When the first images came out, it was a bit of an ‘astronomers at Christmas’ scenario with everyone diving in to see what they could find,” said Nathan Adams at the University of Manchester, UK, in a statement. “What I think flew under the radar of a lot of astronomers was a part of that report mentions that NIRCam (one of the main cameras on the telescope) was overperforming in its reddest wavelengths.”
This isn’t nearly as easy as I thought it might be.
