Webb discovers new feature in Jupiter's atmosphere | Hacker News Reader

Webb discovers new feature in Jupiter's atmosphere

phys.org

63 pointsPaulHoule22 comments

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What I really want to see is the JWST images of Sedna

Hubble can only produce one pixel

https://esahubble.org/images/opo0414d/

Apparently JWST was pointed at it a year ago but all they released was an image-less paper on the spectrum?

BTW you know the "deep field" image they use for testing?

I have a new favorite instead. "Abel 2218" just look at that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abell_2218

While the JWST has a larger aperture (6.5 m) than Hubble (2.7 m), the wave lengths it is sensitive to are also longer. So the overall resolution is only between 2 and 3 times better for JWST. So if Hubble can only resolve something to 1 pixel, I'd only expect you'd get at most 9 pixels for JWST.

Spectrometers don't always make "images", it's possible they didn't take a picture?

Also, that deep field has some amazing gravitational lenses!

Much of The Algebraicist by Iain M Banks is about navigating the environment on a gas giant. Not part of his 'Culture' sci-fi setting and perhaps more re-readable for that.

>Not part of his 'Culture' sci-fi setting and perhaps more re-readable for that.

BOOOOOOOOOOOO.

But in all seriousness, as someone who genuinely re-reads the culture series at least once a year, do you not find them re-readable? And why not?

I do find them quite re-readable, or at least some of them; others I can cheerfully never look at again. Banks' output is pretty uneven in quality, and some of his work is very formulaic.

But my point is that not everyone is into franchises or wants to commit to reading all 7 or 8 when they pick up one. Self-contained works are good too.

That's the thing I like about the culture series though. They're all pretty self-contained with only one exception (that I'm not going to include because it's a pretty major spoiler in The Use of Weapons and Surface Detail), I think. I can't think of any reason you can't just read one and be fine.

>Banks' output is pretty uneven in quality, and some of his work is very formulaic.

I'll fight you.

All joking aside - so for sci-fi or hard sci-fi, who/what do you suggest? I love getting recommendations from people for this genre.

The Culture is some of the best scifi I've ever had the pleasure of reading :)

I'd definitely be interested in some recommendations

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It’s either a (relatively) small solid or molten/fluid core. We don’t know for sure.

What always bothers me is Jupiter isn’t considered the hottest planet, but I guarantee where it transitions from gas to liquid/solid is far hotter than anywhere else.

The overly repetitive descriptions reak of AI poorly written articles

Can Webb be used for military purposes (observing Earth)?

No, due to heat reasons:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faqLite.html#:~:tex....

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/forScientists/faqSolarsystem.h...

No, it can't be pointed at the inner solar system or Earth; too bright, and its heat shield would point the wrong way.

But the military doesn't need it. Supposedly some military tech was declassified recently showing that the military had Hubble-level telescopes about 15 years before Hubble. So whatever they are using is much better (and more specialized, of course) than Webb.

Here’s an article from 2012 describing the military donating two unlaunched hubble-class telescopes to NASA: https://newatlas.com/spysatellite/22813/

Sure, the military had the test rig to pre-flight test Hubble's optics, except that someone slipped up and well dang, Hubble needed corrective lenses.

Not sure the technology needed is quite the same.

They probably have better up there, but we know that military satellites are able to see the individual poles in a chain link fence crisply due to Trump leaking that capability a few years ago on twitter.

Webb can only point away from Earth as the Sun is on the other side of Earth from Webb's location. All it would see is a bright source of IR; nothing much useful there. I'm afraid it would also likely be destroyed in the process as it is assuming near-absolute-zero temperatures for much of its instruments.

An exhaustive, through and entertaining answer to that question (for the bubble) is provided here

https://what-if.xkcd.com/32/

The short answer is not really and drones are better for it anyway.

Makes sense that Jupiter would also have jet streams.

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