The images released by the James Webb Space Telesco pe team last week aren't officially the first light from the new telescope, but in a way, it feels like they are. The initial indications of how powerful the JWST will be are provided by these stunning views.
The images were released after the telescope's mirror segments were fully focused. Engineers say the optical performance of the JWST is better than the most optimistic predictions.
Mark McCaughrean, the European Space Agency, said that it hasn't broken the laws of physics, but it does lie at the very best end of possibilities thanks to the extraordinary efforts of many over decades.
Astronomers began posting comparison images from previous telescopes to JWST in the same field of view, showing the evolution of improvement in resolution.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the same field of view as the WISE telescope's image.
How awesome is JWST/MIRI? Well, let's compare the latest press release image to that of the WISE all-sky survey at 4.6 microns. This is the closest wavelength image I could find. Spitzer IRAC would have been better (slightly higher resolution and similar wavelength). pic.twitter.com/EXqP57sULt
— Andras Gaspar ??? (@AndrasGaspar) April 29, 2022
He realized that he had taken an image of the LMC and created a comparison of the three telescopes seen in the lead image.
To be fair, the 40 cm diameter telescope of WISE was half the size of the 85 cm primary telescope of Spitzer. Both resolution and sensitivity. MIRI gives mid-IR! The Hubble Space Telescope can't get this wavelength.
There's more.
Since #JWST's MIRI is getting lots of before-and-after love, I thought I'd do the same for the Fine Guidance Sensor: here's one of its two fields in the Large Magellanic Cloud as previously imaged in the near-IR by @eso's VISTA survey telescope.
1/ pic.twitter.com/G4yfhPWTqQ
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