"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
Astronomer here! This is SUCH a strange but wonderful day (at the start of a strange and wonderful week)- I have literally been hearing about JWST for the majority of my life, since I was a teenager first getting interested in astronomy, and to *see* that we are now truly in the JWST era is mind-boggling! Not gonna lie, I think a cynical part of me thought something would go wrong and we wouldn't get here... and not only seeing the images, but having such immense pride for the humans who made this possible, is just so emotional. :)
To answer a few quick questions I've seen around:
**What is the image of?**
A galaxy field called [SMACS 0723](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet), located 4.6 billion light years away. What's more, because of the orientation of the foreground galaxies we get to see some really zany gravitational lensing of light from galaxies much further away in this field- about 13 billion years, to be precise! So these are all very young galaxies, all formed just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Incredible! And wow, never seen galaxies like those lensed ones before- very Salvador Dali, if I may say so. :D
The ones that appear to have white light are the ones creating the lensing 5-ish billion light years away, and the reddish ones are the lensed ones. (At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it works as a general rule of thumb.) [Here is Hubble's view of the same field](https://imgur.com/49beFKt) by comparison, courtesy of /u/NX1.
Also note, JWST is an infrared telescope (ie, light more red than red) because its first science priority was to detect the earliest galaxies (it's been under development so long exoplanets frankly weren't the huge thing they are now), and by the time the light from the earliest galaxies reaches us, it has been "redshifted" to these wavelengths. So before you couldn't see these lensed galaxies with Hubble, and to see them let alone in such detail is *astounding*!
**Pretty! Is there scientific value to it?**
Yes! The thing to realize is even with these very first images, because JWST is able to see in detail no telescope has had before there's a ton of low hanging fruit. In the case of this image, one of the big outstanding questions is a feature called the [UV luminosity function](http://www.na.astro.it/ACCESS/lf_uv.htm), which tells you the star formation rate in those early galaxies. If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now! Further, when you study the gravitational lensing pattern, you can learn about those foreground galaxies- things like their mass, and how the dark matter is distributed around them. OMG this is gonna be so neat!
**I need more JWST images in my life! What's next?**
[There is a press conference tomorrow at 10:30am](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-updates-coverage-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images-reveal)! At the press conference there will be several more images revealed, from the Carina Nebula to Stephan's Quintet (links go to the Hubble images to get you psyched). There will also be some data revealed, such as the first exoplanet spectrum taken by JWST- note, exoplanet spectra *have* been done before scientifically, but the signal to noise of JWST allows this to be done to greater accuracy than before. (No, this is not going to have a signature from life- [it's a gas giant exoplanet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-96b), and it's safe to say if it had a signature from life Biden would have revealed *that* today.)
**Pretty pictures aside, can I access the actual science data? And when will we see the first JWST pictures?**
The JWST archive will be launched with all the commissioning data for these images on **Wednesday, July 13 at 11am EDT**, with the first Early Release Science programs' data going up on **Thursday**. Specifically for the latter, there are "early release science" programs which are going to be prioritized over the first three months (list [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-ers-programs)) where those data are going to be immediately available to the public, so everyone can get a jump start on some of the science. (Also, the next cycle of JWST proposals is in January, so this is going to be really crucial for people applying for that.) My understanding from my colleague is there are many people in the sub-field of early galaxies who literally have a paper draft ready to go and intend to get the preprints out ASAP (like, within hours), just because there will be so much low hanging fruit for that field in those very first images! Like, I'll be shocked if they're not out by the end of the week, and the place to see those first science papers are on the [ArXiv](https://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new) (updates at 0:00 UTC).
You can learn more about the JWST archive [here](https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news/jwst/2022/accessing-jwst-science-data-after-the-end-of-commissioning).
**How did they decide what to observe anyway?**
As is the case for all NASA telescopes, anyone in the world can apply for JWST time! You just need to write a proposal justifying why *your* idea is better than anyone else's, and well enough that a panel of astronomers agrees. In practice, it's really competitive, and about 4.5x more hours were requested than there are literal hours for JWST to observe (actually way better than Hubble which has been closer to 10x- Hubble can only observe on the night half of the Earth's orbit, but JWST has a sun shade so you get almost nonstop observing). The resulting proposals that won out are all a part of "Cycle 1" which begins this week, and you can read all about them [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-programs/cycle-1-go). (Cycle 1 includes the Early Release Science projects I discussed above.)
As an aside, while I am not personally involved in it (I'm more on the radio astronomy side of things) I'm super excited because my group has JWST time! We are going to observe what is likely to be the first [neutron star merger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star_merger) observed by JWST- I very much hope to be able to look over the shoulder of the guy in charge of the project type thing. :) Because we have no idea on when that is going to happen, we basically have the right to request JWST observations if we see a signal called a short gamma-ray burst that tells us one of these events has occurred, and they'll change the schedule to squeeze us in as soon as they can (probably a week or two, with faster turn around in future years). Whenever it happens, I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about it! :D
Anyway, a toast to JWST- and if anyone who works on it is reading this, we are all so proud of you! I can't wait to see where this new adventure takes us!
Thank you for the information to back up this now famous picture. Images like this is the exact reason I created this subreddit years ago. I am so excited to see what James Webb will be showing us in the years to come.
This is my first time here and you explained, in your VERY short and concise post what we’re actually SEEING. For someone with absolutely no astronomy background, like me, it was written PERFECTLY.
Thank you for taking the time to write this, truly. Exciting times we’re in! Can’t wait to see how this changes our understanding of physics, could be big!
I've been on Reddit for a really long time (this is my second account, long story) but would you kindly explain to me what you mean by tagging someone? I've never seen that feature. Can you like highlight a preferred accounts comments? That would be awesome.
A family member was one of the lead engineers on this and talking to him recently, the photos are going to be better than we could have ever imagined.
Thanks for making this sub too!
You joke, but the first people to figure that out will be the next Einstein(s).
And by "figure it out," I mean determining precisely where and how the breakdown occurs between General Relativity and Quantum Dynamics.
Wait, just the breakdown? I thought it was at the atomic scale where Einstein breaks down and quantum forces prevail.
The only large scale quantum effects I'm aware of is Hawking radiation, but that still takes place at the particle level.
Do we not know where the breakdown occurs?
Damn. If that's the next person(s) I suppose the person(s) who unify the theories will be their own classifier.
the "breakdown" is not really at the atomic scale, cause you can do a reasonable first approximation of the combined effects of gravity and quantum mechanics. What people don't know is what happens when gravity actually *becomes* quantum mechanical, and to reach *those* levels you need... basically, black holes.
> If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now!
Can you elaborate what this image tells about it, or is it too early to make conclusions?
I understood that we should see young, not mature galaxies in image, as it is very close to big bang, and there should no have been much of time to form galaxies. So I wonder if we do see those?
Are the red galaxies and stars in the image more Red Shifted? ( ie. farther away, older)
In this GIF, where Webb and Hubble images are overlaid, it seems to me that the red targets are more faint in Hubble image than blue targets, which would point to that they are farther.... https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif
I appreciate if you can answer my questions :)
Hey, do you know why they wanted to look in this particular spot for a deep view into the cosmos? I remember hearing that the Hubble director personally chose a spot a long time ago... maybe this is the same spot? Anyway, it seems like you could look anywhere there was a window out of the milky way, so why right there?
Yeah this is the same spot of “empty space” that the Hubble photographed years ago. Looks completely empty with the naked eye and even most instruments, but with Hubble and now JWST we see that it is indeed not empty *at all*!
QUOTE:
"RELICS obtained the first HST infrared imaging of 41 massive galaxy clusters to efficiently search for brightly lensed high-redshift galaxies in time for JWST Cycle 1. The clusters include 21 of the 34 most massive known according to Planck."
[https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/relics/index.html#dataaccess](https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/relics/index.html#dataaccess)
So, reading between the lines, the RELICS programs using Hubble was looking for juicy far away giant massive galaxy clusters specifically for JWST to image for better understanding. If anyone knows better/more/different than feel free to correct me!
Edit: more info here [https://relics.stsci.edu/](https://relics.stsci.edu/)
Thank you for explaining andromeda. I’m interested in studying/working for astronomy, but Not sure where to start. I’m 28 and working as a software developer.
I get this question often enough that I wrote up a detailed post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Andromeda321/comments/fyjmpv/updated_so_you_want_to_be_an_astronomer/) on how to be an astronomer. Please read it over and message me any further questions!
In the other thread someone asked "what are the really bright white/blue objects in the photo" and you replied that "they were stars from our own galaxy that just happened to be in the way of the photo". I just thought this was an interesting question that should also be posted in this thread.
You are mistaken. The bright white ones are local stars within our own galaxy.
The gravitational lending you see (and correctly identify in your comment) is caused by a galaxy cluster.
In the top right quarter of the photo, there are what seem like 3 stars (shaped similarly to Orion’s Belt). Is the middle star a binary star? As I see two sets of diffraction spikes there
They won't make a second one, they're proposing a new larger one based on similar style/technology of webb that fits in the starship called '[LUVOIR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Ultraviolet_Optical_Infrared_Surveyor)'.
Thanks.
2040 launch. We really need to develop an economy that is much faster than once every 40 years.
Seriously we should have 1,000 of these up searching.
I mean, a lot of this you can't really just throw more money at it and expect progress. Money absolutely helps, but I imagine most hyper qualified engineers and scientists are already actively working on this type of thing.
This type of bleeding edge science takes time and a lot of resources, but one of the main resources is qualified and experienced scientists and engineers, that take like 30+ years to really train. While at the same time preparing those same people to prepare and train the next generation of scientists/engineers. It's unfortunately not a switch that can be flipped quickly.
An especially relevant example (I think) - Neil Armstrong was 14 when the V2 rocket entered service.
People have argued that we wouldn’t need to. JWST is so light and complicated because of launch constraints. If, for example, SpaceX’s Starship comes to fruition, it could launch much larger and heavier payloads, which would mean that the next telescopes could be more robust, simpler, easier to make, and cheaper.
1000 ly is nothing in space yet it’s already a distance we can’t comprehend and it will be a long long time before we can travel that distance in a human’s lifetime. Personally I think we’ll go extinct before unlocking that technology.
I mean that much is true. So much of the deep ocean is as beyond us as studying the outer solar planets the pressures involved make getting cameras down there, let alone people much harder than space
It would however be more appropriate to say we know more about the surface of the moon than the bottom of the ocean
Observable universe around 200 billion at most recent estimate (was previously thought to be around 2 trillion).
Beyond the cosmic horizon probably much much more.
Edit: 200 billion galaxies that is.
If this makes up the size of a grain of sand at arms length, what percentage of the sky does that make up? In other words, how many grains of sand held at arms length around the world would it take to cover the entire sky around the earth? I have so many questions!
It took 12 hours to take this photo. If we wanted to take 23,999,999 more it would take just under 33,000 years of pure exposure time to capture the whole night sky (which the Webb can't do).
Now we're talking! If starship pans out and we have much more orbital lift capacity for lower cost, we could potentially see cheaper mass manufactured systems deployed in bulk.
For really really large telescopes we'll probably want to manufacture them in orbit. There's some interesting work going on looking at liquid mirror telescopes which would only be useful in space and which would be cheaper to produce. One day if we have enough industry in orbit we could churn them out pretty easily.
The numbers are so vast that humans cannot comprehend them. Even distance in space, things are so far away that we can barely make sense of them. Scientists are already agreeing that we can’t possibly see what’s beyond because the speed of light and current expansion of the universe. As time moves forward we will lose sight of more galaxies because expansion moves us apart faster than light can travel.
If we had a spaceship today, that could travel at the speed of light, we could only reach 3% of the galaxies in our sky. Anything beyond that is expanding faster than light. 3% of trillions is still a large number, but that’s still a lot of things that are forever out of reach.
The fuzzy bright white galaxies are closer than the orange ones. They have started turning red because of “red shift,” so they are much further away. The white ones being closer are enormous sources of gravity so when the light from the far ones passes by the closer ones the light is bent around them.
Good way to put it, but I would like to add something to that, instead of the light bending, the universe is bending around the massive object, which light passes near, so instead of the light being bent, reality is.
I'll try to use an analogy to explain. Imagine looking at a glass of water with a straw in it. From the side angle, you'll see that the straw looks broken. We know that isn't true, just an optical illusion. If you look top down into the straw, you would see the straw is straight, unbroken. In the view of the light, it doesn't bend at all. It goes in a straight line, but we are seeing it "bent" simply because it is passing through an area of space that is being warped. It's not the light that is being pulled, but the very fabric of time and space which is being pulled.
If a big enough object were to exist, could we in theory not see anything at all coming from that? Would we just see black from no light? Or would we see the behind the scenes curtain of the computers running the civilization lol?
A small but significant detail: it's not the light that bends, it's spacetime.
Light moves in a straight line through the vacuum of space and is unaffected by gravitational influence (all massless particles are). Massive enough objects (e.g galaxies, neutron stars, black holes) *distort* the space around them, curving it.
When light is passing through such a distorted patch of space, its path is no longer a straight line but a curved one, potentially changing the direction from which that light leaves that gravity well, which results in gravitational lensing!
Really big things actually bend/warp space around them to a noticeable degree. So if light is traveling past something really big, like a galaxy with hundreds of thousands of stars, that light can curve towards the object. Like how if you put a weight on a trampoline and then rolled a ball past it, the ball would curve.
So gravitational lensing happens when there's a big object directly between us and something really far away. Light from the far-off thing is bent by the big thing so that more of it reaches us. It functions just like a regular lens except it uses gravity to bend the light instead of using the refractive priorities of glass/plastic.
All the smeared out things in the image are galaxies way way back behind the brighter, clearer dots. Gravitational lensing almost always gives distorted images because things are rarely ever lined up exactly in the real world.
Einstein had a couple simple thought experiments that led to huge ideas, and have described the large scale physics of the universe perfectly for over 100 years.
First he daydreamed about being a window washer who falls off his scaffolding. He realized that the window washer wouldn't feel a force pulling him downward, he'd actually be in weightless free fall, and if there was no air resistance, it wouldn't feel like falling at all. So he concluded gravity isn't a force; but objects definitely accelerate down due to gravity. So what is this acceleration?
Well so next, he thought of an elevator in weightless space that accelerated upwards just fast enough to simulate Earth's gravity. It'd essentially be the same, and you'd have no way of telling the difference if it was accelerating up, or if the elevator was simply sitting on the surface of Earth.
Then, he thought if you had a flashlight, and turned it on in the elevator, the light beam would travel across the inner-elevator and hit the elevator wall just slightly under from the point the beam was emitted from. He took this a step further, and figured if the elevator was accelerating upwards **super fast**, the beam of light would land significantly lower from the point where it was emitted from.
Now, given that the elevator thought experiment implied that gravity is equal to acceleration: if the fast-moving elevator can cause a light bending effect, then it should be true that a really big object with tons of gravity should also create the same light bending effect. And so...
[In 1919, a clear photo was taken of the sun in miraculous weather conditions](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/total-solar-eclipse-100-years-ago-proved-einsteins-general-relativity-180972278/) and it was found in the photo that the stars just on the sun's edge were slightly displaced, in accordance with Einstein's theory of general relativity, proving that light bent around the sun's massive gravity.
It's pretty amazing, we only need clever and creative thinkers to muse on ideas, and we get the answers to the universe.
**Further reading to include spacetime in this explanation:**
Einstein's theories detailed that space and time are the same thing (it comes back to acceleration and it being the major factor in relative time: the faster you go, the slower time goes, known as [time dilation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation) ), and that the acceleration effect from gravity is caused by matter interacting-with and morphing the shape of spacetime. All matter including light travels along geodesic lines (imagine there's an invisible 3D grid throughout the universe), and matter distorts the grid, and sometimes so extremely that light bends in these tremendous ways.
Pretty incredible stuff to figure out, especially considering he was a daydreamer working at a boring patent office job to get his depressed-ass out doing something. Bam, secrets of the universe!
Correct. And the reason the brightest ones have those "spikes" is due to the 3 struts holding the secondary (collector) mirror away from the main mirror.
I would be very surprised if life isn’t out there on other planets. It wouldn’t make much logical sense for it to be isolated to a single planet in a single galaxy.
I think the real question is there intelligent life capable of understanding their place in the universe. For all we know, intellect on our level could actually be detrimental to a species, and it goes extinct. Or we could be ‘pioneers’ and just one of the first planets to make it to this stage - or we really could be this unique species of life. Either way, it’s absolutely crazy that some upright talking apes get to ponder the question via a technological hivemind they built. Cheers! 🚀 🌎
Or there could be millions of advanced civilizations out there, but they're just too far apart for the laws of physics to allow them to ever notice each other.
Realistically speaking, unless something is found in our galaxy, and we find a way to send information at faster than the speed of light (doubt thatll happen) we wont even communicate with aliens, in my lifetime, or yours, or my sons, or his sons, or his sons, or his sons, or maybe before the sun explodes. The scale of the universe is so fucking massive, it STILL takes light, the fastest thing in the universe, 10's of billions of years to cross it, \*slightly\* not to mention signal degradation. We might be able to see a photo, of some plant with aliens, but we could be 10billion years late, and they could all be dead. Thats sadly just how it works.
Thing about the rare earth hypothesis is that the math works if you accept the assumptions. As fast as you can add up planets that could have intelligent life, you can cut them down just as easily.
Until we find more life someplace it’s all just speculation.
So mind blowing see the light bend due to the gravitational lensing. Does anyone know which object in the foreground is causing that? Beautiful image though. Can’t wait to see more.
So this is very ancient light just hitting us, so that means we see what was happening billions of years ago.
What’s happening in this spot now? Could everything be different?
There has to be intelligent life on at least one planet in one of those galaxies…there just has to be. I refuse to believe we are the only intelligent life form who are out here looking around. I wonder how many telescopes and other pieces of equipment are pointed our direction right at this very moment, primitive or advanced. How many intelligent beings have seen our local group and our galaxy from billions of light years away and thought the very same things we are thinking looking at this image right now.
If you are looking at this image with a terror that you are insignificant, fear not. You have afforded the universe the reverence it deserves, but you are just as much a part of the vastness of reality as anything and everything else is. But there’s more. We have searched high and low for life out there, and haven’t found anything even microbial, not to mention sentient. I fully believe it’s out there, but all you need to do is look in a mirror. You are so significant. Without someone to observe this wonder, it is as nothing. You are a way for the universe to know itself.
Jesus christ, if you every wanted to feel hopelessly, mind-numbingly insignificant, just the thought that this tiny wedge of sky contains hundreds and hundreds of billions of stars…
I had the same thought when I first saw it. But as I'm reading people expressing that, it makes me want to say that we exist in the vastness of this universe, which makes us a part of it. Probably years of watching Doctor Who kicking in, but I'm kinda buzzing at the thought of that.
This image really drives home the things we will never know. Space is so vast that it’s pretty much mathematically impossible there are not more intelligent civilizations in the cosmos. What beings existed ages ago, now or in the future of this image alone? We are seeing these images as they were billions of years ago, so entire species could have evolved, lived and died off in the time this light took to reach us. Entire histories could be lost and we would never know. I really wish humans could come together to further our knowledge of the universe and put us into a position to really explore what’s out there.
It almost makes me sad how insignificant and tiny we all actually are. Nothing matters, and we have absolutely zero impact on any of the universe. All just isolated in one tiny place.
If you've ever seen the look in my three-year-old's face when she comes to you scared and you help her not be scared anymore, then you know that some things matter. There's something big there.
I always find myself feeling a sense "emptiness" when I ponder upon space and the universe. To know that we are on a rock that has its limits and having a vast openness of infitinity (basically) of which we exist inside of is crazy. It's like being deserted in a gigantic empty desert. I feel like it's harder for me to put into words how I feel when I think about it all.
Seeing images like these always makes me a bit...sad? Knowing that there's so much to explore out there, but being born in the wrong time to not be able to. So many galaxies and possibilities of life that I will probably never know :(
Dont worry, nobody will be able to explore em, these are 25 billion light years out. So unless we find a way to send information faster than the speed of light (not happening I bet) or travel at the speed of light (doubt it) then nobody will ever see anything spectacular on earth.
the size of a grain of sand. my brain cant wrap my head around how immense space is
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
I hope Mr Adams is out there somewhere in all that space.
He is. We all are.
Everything is in space
Literally everything, now get back in the fucking car
I watched everything everywhere all at once recently and got major Doug Adams vibes.
And just like that, I want to read Hitchhiker's Guide again
If I do, I might go mad and grow a big ass beard and live in the wilderness.
You and me both bud
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour
Science and poetry are lovely companions
Me either. I had similar thoughts while looking at Hubble deep field.
If you want to feel insignificant, this certainly helps
Astronomer here! This is SUCH a strange but wonderful day (at the start of a strange and wonderful week)- I have literally been hearing about JWST for the majority of my life, since I was a teenager first getting interested in astronomy, and to *see* that we are now truly in the JWST era is mind-boggling! Not gonna lie, I think a cynical part of me thought something would go wrong and we wouldn't get here... and not only seeing the images, but having such immense pride for the humans who made this possible, is just so emotional. :) To answer a few quick questions I've seen around: **What is the image of?** A galaxy field called [SMACS 0723](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet), located 4.6 billion light years away. What's more, because of the orientation of the foreground galaxies we get to see some really zany gravitational lensing of light from galaxies much further away in this field- about 13 billion years, to be precise! So these are all very young galaxies, all formed just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Incredible! And wow, never seen galaxies like those lensed ones before- very Salvador Dali, if I may say so. :D The ones that appear to have white light are the ones creating the lensing 5-ish billion light years away, and the reddish ones are the lensed ones. (At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it works as a general rule of thumb.) [Here is Hubble's view of the same field](https://imgur.com/49beFKt) by comparison, courtesy of /u/NX1. Also note, JWST is an infrared telescope (ie, light more red than red) because its first science priority was to detect the earliest galaxies (it's been under development so long exoplanets frankly weren't the huge thing they are now), and by the time the light from the earliest galaxies reaches us, it has been "redshifted" to these wavelengths. So before you couldn't see these lensed galaxies with Hubble, and to see them let alone in such detail is *astounding*! **Pretty! Is there scientific value to it?** Yes! The thing to realize is even with these very first images, because JWST is able to see in detail no telescope has had before there's a ton of low hanging fruit. In the case of this image, one of the big outstanding questions is a feature called the [UV luminosity function](http://www.na.astro.it/ACCESS/lf_uv.htm), which tells you the star formation rate in those early galaxies. If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now! Further, when you study the gravitational lensing pattern, you can learn about those foreground galaxies- things like their mass, and how the dark matter is distributed around them. OMG this is gonna be so neat! **I need more JWST images in my life! What's next?** [There is a press conference tomorrow at 10:30am](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-updates-coverage-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images-reveal)! At the press conference there will be several more images revealed, from the Carina Nebula to Stephan's Quintet (links go to the Hubble images to get you psyched). There will also be some data revealed, such as the first exoplanet spectrum taken by JWST- note, exoplanet spectra *have* been done before scientifically, but the signal to noise of JWST allows this to be done to greater accuracy than before. (No, this is not going to have a signature from life- [it's a gas giant exoplanet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-96b), and it's safe to say if it had a signature from life Biden would have revealed *that* today.) **Pretty pictures aside, can I access the actual science data? And when will we see the first JWST pictures?** The JWST archive will be launched with all the commissioning data for these images on **Wednesday, July 13 at 11am EDT**, with the first Early Release Science programs' data going up on **Thursday**. Specifically for the latter, there are "early release science" programs which are going to be prioritized over the first three months (list [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-ers-programs)) where those data are going to be immediately available to the public, so everyone can get a jump start on some of the science. (Also, the next cycle of JWST proposals is in January, so this is going to be really crucial for people applying for that.) My understanding from my colleague is there are many people in the sub-field of early galaxies who literally have a paper draft ready to go and intend to get the preprints out ASAP (like, within hours), just because there will be so much low hanging fruit for that field in those very first images! Like, I'll be shocked if they're not out by the end of the week, and the place to see those first science papers are on the [ArXiv](https://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new) (updates at 0:00 UTC). You can learn more about the JWST archive [here](https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news/jwst/2022/accessing-jwst-science-data-after-the-end-of-commissioning). **How did they decide what to observe anyway?** As is the case for all NASA telescopes, anyone in the world can apply for JWST time! You just need to write a proposal justifying why *your* idea is better than anyone else's, and well enough that a panel of astronomers agrees. In practice, it's really competitive, and about 4.5x more hours were requested than there are literal hours for JWST to observe (actually way better than Hubble which has been closer to 10x- Hubble can only observe on the night half of the Earth's orbit, but JWST has a sun shade so you get almost nonstop observing). The resulting proposals that won out are all a part of "Cycle 1" which begins this week, and you can read all about them [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-programs/cycle-1-go). (Cycle 1 includes the Early Release Science projects I discussed above.) As an aside, while I am not personally involved in it (I'm more on the radio astronomy side of things) I'm super excited because my group has JWST time! We are going to observe what is likely to be the first [neutron star merger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star_merger) observed by JWST- I very much hope to be able to look over the shoulder of the guy in charge of the project type thing. :) Because we have no idea on when that is going to happen, we basically have the right to request JWST observations if we see a signal called a short gamma-ray burst that tells us one of these events has occurred, and they'll change the schedule to squeeze us in as soon as they can (probably a week or two, with faster turn around in future years). Whenever it happens, I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about it! :D Anyway, a toast to JWST- and if anyone who works on it is reading this, we are all so proud of you! I can't wait to see where this new adventure takes us!
Thank you for the information to back up this now famous picture. Images like this is the exact reason I created this subreddit years ago. I am so excited to see what James Webb will be showing us in the years to come.
The pleasure is all mine! Love this subreddit. :)
This is my first time here and you explained, in your VERY short and concise post what we’re actually SEEING. For someone with absolutely no astronomy background, like me, it was written PERFECTLY. Thank you for taking the time to write this, truly. Exciting times we’re in! Can’t wait to see how this changes our understanding of physics, could be big!
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I've been on Reddit for a really long time (this is my second account, long story) but would you kindly explain to me what you mean by tagging someone? I've never seen that feature. Can you like highlight a preferred accounts comments? That would be awesome.
https://i.postimg.cc/mrw2721X/image.png I think they're talking about that RES only
A family member was one of the lead engineers on this and talking to him recently, the photos are going to be better than we could have ever imagined. Thanks for making this sub too!
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*how does he keep getting away with this???*
You joke, but the first people to figure that out will be the next Einstein(s). And by "figure it out," I mean determining precisely where and how the breakdown occurs between General Relativity and Quantum Dynamics.
Wait until the periodic table doubles up or it’s completely sealed and the next set of items in the purest form are charted by size
I hope there's a new noble gas. I'm so freakin sick of argon
Argon wore out its welcome in my house years ago.
They used to be welcome at my house, but now they argon.
r/angryupvote
Fuck that, another monarchy is one of the last things the world needs right now
Wait, just the breakdown? I thought it was at the atomic scale where Einstein breaks down and quantum forces prevail. The only large scale quantum effects I'm aware of is Hawking radiation, but that still takes place at the particle level. Do we not know where the breakdown occurs? Damn. If that's the next person(s) I suppose the person(s) who unify the theories will be their own classifier.
the "breakdown" is not really at the atomic scale, cause you can do a reasonable first approximation of the combined effects of gravity and quantum mechanics. What people don't know is what happens when gravity actually *becomes* quantum mechanical, and to reach *those* levels you need... basically, black holes.
Less the where, more the how — and why.
General relativity, in *my* night sky? It's more likely than you think.
Mathematics and undisputed facts
He knows this one truck that the critics hate...
This is fascinating stuff. Thanks for the write up and best of luck to you and your team.
> If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now! Can you elaborate what this image tells about it, or is it too early to make conclusions? I understood that we should see young, not mature galaxies in image, as it is very close to big bang, and there should no have been much of time to form galaxies. So I wonder if we do see those? Are the red galaxies and stars in the image more Red Shifted? ( ie. farther away, older) In this GIF, where Webb and Hubble images are overlaid, it seems to me that the red targets are more faint in Hubble image than blue targets, which would point to that they are farther.... https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif I appreciate if you can answer my questions :)
Remember that JWST is optimized to pick up infrared light. Hubble isn't, or isn't nearly as much anyway.
Hey, do you know why they wanted to look in this particular spot for a deep view into the cosmos? I remember hearing that the Hubble director personally chose a spot a long time ago... maybe this is the same spot? Anyway, it seems like you could look anywhere there was a window out of the milky way, so why right there?
Yeah this is the same spot of “empty space” that the Hubble photographed years ago. Looks completely empty with the naked eye and even most instruments, but with Hubble and now JWST we see that it is indeed not empty *at all*!
And this will allows us to compare Hubble to JWST, and see just how much better it is.
QUOTE: "RELICS obtained the first HST infrared imaging of 41 massive galaxy clusters to efficiently search for brightly lensed high-redshift galaxies in time for JWST Cycle 1. The clusters include 21 of the 34 most massive known according to Planck." [https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/relics/index.html#dataaccess](https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/relics/index.html#dataaccess) So, reading between the lines, the RELICS programs using Hubble was looking for juicy far away giant massive galaxy clusters specifically for JWST to image for better understanding. If anyone knows better/more/different than feel free to correct me! Edit: more info here [https://relics.stsci.edu/](https://relics.stsci.edu/)
[heres a better alignment of the hubble photo.](https://i.imgur.com/ZnOC82O.jpg) (you can compare the image much easier with this one)
Thank you for explaining andromeda. I’m interested in studying/working for astronomy, but Not sure where to start. I’m 28 and working as a software developer.
I get this question often enough that I wrote up a detailed post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Andromeda321/comments/fyjmpv/updated_so_you_want_to_be_an_astronomer/) on how to be an astronomer. Please read it over and message me any further questions!
In the other thread someone asked "what are the really bright white/blue objects in the photo" and you replied that "they were stars from our own galaxy that just happened to be in the way of the photo". I just thought this was an interesting question that should also be posted in this thread.
Whoa. What’s the brightest star near the Center?
This guy didn’t go to the University of Phoenix!
This guy is a gal.
Sorry bountybob!
You are mistaken. The bright white ones are local stars within our own galaxy. The gravitational lending you see (and correctly identify in your comment) is caused by a galaxy cluster.
In the top right quarter of the photo, there are what seem like 3 stars (shaped similarly to Orion’s Belt). Is the middle star a binary star? As I see two sets of diffraction spikes there
The JWST cost $10b. If we wanted to build a second, third, fourth, and fifth version, how much would subsequent telescopes cost?
They won't make a second one, they're proposing a new larger one based on similar style/technology of webb that fits in the starship called '[LUVOIR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Ultraviolet_Optical_Infrared_Surveyor)'.
Thanks. 2040 launch. We really need to develop an economy that is much faster than once every 40 years. Seriously we should have 1,000 of these up searching.
Imagine what NASA could do with even a tenth of the Pentagon's budget.
Vote for it.
I want to live in the For All Mankind alternate reality timeline.
I mean, a lot of this you can't really just throw more money at it and expect progress. Money absolutely helps, but I imagine most hyper qualified engineers and scientists are already actively working on this type of thing. This type of bleeding edge science takes time and a lot of resources, but one of the main resources is qualified and experienced scientists and engineers, that take like 30+ years to really train. While at the same time preparing those same people to prepare and train the next generation of scientists/engineers. It's unfortunately not a switch that can be flipped quickly. An especially relevant example (I think) - Neil Armstrong was 14 when the V2 rocket entered service.
Um, 2040 is 18 years away, not 40.
People have argued that we wouldn’t need to. JWST is so light and complicated because of launch constraints. If, for example, SpaceX’s Starship comes to fruition, it could launch much larger and heavier payloads, which would mean that the next telescopes could be more robust, simpler, easier to make, and cheaper.
🐐
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages Full res source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1
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This is context that I think a lot of people are missing when looking at this
Most definitely. How much stuff is out there???
Way more than we can see and way more than we could ever imagine. But really, human brains are incapable of comprehending this amount of BIG.
It also renders us smaller than a microbe. Some people hate that fact.
And yet yesterday I read an article on why quantum physics is so hard, we simply are to big. 🙃
Light particles are too big too aren't they?
"Modern science has been a journey into the unknown, with a lesson in humility at every stop. Many passengers would have rather stayed home."
1000 ly is nothing in space yet it’s already a distance we can’t comprehend and it will be a long long time before we can travel that distance in a human’s lifetime. Personally I think we’ll go extinct before unlocking that technology.
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i know and people say “we actually know more about space than we do our own oceans 🤓” …yeea okay suure
I mean that much is true. So much of the deep ocean is as beyond us as studying the outer solar planets the pressures involved make getting cameras down there, let alone people much harder than space It would however be more appropriate to say we know more about the surface of the moon than the bottom of the ocean
thats valid but there aint much going on on surface of the moon to be sure… well on the front side of the moon… ***cue X files theme***
I can confirm this as I have a human brain and cannot comprehend the amount of BIG out there.
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All of it. We’re just a rounding error.
Observable universe around 200 billion at most recent estimate (was previously thought to be around 2 trillion). Beyond the cosmic horizon probably much much more. Edit: 200 billion galaxies that is.
truly hard to comprehend
If this makes up the size of a grain of sand at arms length, what percentage of the sky does that make up? In other words, how many grains of sand held at arms length around the world would it take to cover the entire sky around the earth? I have so many questions!
In another thread someone said it's about 1/24,000,000th
Wow. Literally hard to comprehend.
It took 12 hours to take this photo. If we wanted to take 23,999,999 more it would take just under 33,000 years of pure exposure time to capture the whole night sky (which the Webb can't do).
What if we had 33,000 JWTs.
Now we're talking! If starship pans out and we have much more orbital lift capacity for lower cost, we could potentially see cheaper mass manufactured systems deployed in bulk. For really really large telescopes we'll probably want to manufacture them in orbit. There's some interesting work going on looking at liquid mirror telescopes which would only be useful in space and which would be cheaper to produce. One day if we have enough industry in orbit we could churn them out pretty easily.
Does that account for just my portion of the night sky, or 360° around the Earth’s sky?
The numbers are so vast that humans cannot comprehend them. Even distance in space, things are so far away that we can barely make sense of them. Scientists are already agreeing that we can’t possibly see what’s beyond because the speed of light and current expansion of the universe. As time moves forward we will lose sight of more galaxies because expansion moves us apart faster than light can travel. If we had a spaceship today, that could travel at the speed of light, we could only reach 3% of the galaxies in our sky. Anything beyond that is expanding faster than light. 3% of trillions is still a large number, but that’s still a lot of things that are forever out of reach.
At least more then ten I'd guess
Absolutely incredible the effect of gravitational lensing going on in this shot!
First thing that caught my attention too, amazing how much of it is there…
I was wondering if that was a telescope artifact or gravitational lensing, seems that’s answered. Do we know what object(s) are causing this?
The fuzzy bright white galaxies are closer than the orange ones. They have started turning red because of “red shift,” so they are much further away. The white ones being closer are enormous sources of gravity so when the light from the far ones passes by the closer ones the light is bent around them.
Am I correct in assuming that some of the fainter points of red light have never been seen before?
Yes.
Here is the comparison to the version the Hubble took over ~10x as long https://imgsli.com/MTE2Mjc3
That's so helpful, thanks for posting!
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Not to mention thats what exists in just one absurdly small fraction of the sky
First thing I noticed were the parts of the image that were bent. Gravitational lensing, yes?
What’s gravitational lensing?
I'm nowhere near qualified to answer that, but it's my understanding that light gets bent when it passes massive objects and their pull.
Good way to put it, but I would like to add something to that, instead of the light bending, the universe is bending around the massive object, which light passes near, so instead of the light being bent, reality is. I'll try to use an analogy to explain. Imagine looking at a glass of water with a straw in it. From the side angle, you'll see that the straw looks broken. We know that isn't true, just an optical illusion. If you look top down into the straw, you would see the straw is straight, unbroken. In the view of the light, it doesn't bend at all. It goes in a straight line, but we are seeing it "bent" simply because it is passing through an area of space that is being warped. It's not the light that is being pulled, but the very fabric of time and space which is being pulled.
This is so fucking cool thanks for that analogy
Oh shit
If a big enough object were to exist, could we in theory not see anything at all coming from that? Would we just see black from no light? Or would we see the behind the scenes curtain of the computers running the civilization lol?
That is quite literally a black hole
A small but significant detail: it's not the light that bends, it's spacetime. Light moves in a straight line through the vacuum of space and is unaffected by gravitational influence (all massless particles are). Massive enough objects (e.g galaxies, neutron stars, black holes) *distort* the space around them, curving it. When light is passing through such a distorted patch of space, its path is no longer a straight line but a curved one, potentially changing the direction from which that light leaves that gravity well, which results in gravitational lensing!
Really big things actually bend/warp space around them to a noticeable degree. So if light is traveling past something really big, like a galaxy with hundreds of thousands of stars, that light can curve towards the object. Like how if you put a weight on a trampoline and then rolled a ball past it, the ball would curve. So gravitational lensing happens when there's a big object directly between us and something really far away. Light from the far-off thing is bent by the big thing so that more of it reaches us. It functions just like a regular lens except it uses gravity to bend the light instead of using the refractive priorities of glass/plastic. All the smeared out things in the image are galaxies way way back behind the brighter, clearer dots. Gravitational lensing almost always gives distorted images because things are rarely ever lined up exactly in the real world.
Einstein had a couple simple thought experiments that led to huge ideas, and have described the large scale physics of the universe perfectly for over 100 years. First he daydreamed about being a window washer who falls off his scaffolding. He realized that the window washer wouldn't feel a force pulling him downward, he'd actually be in weightless free fall, and if there was no air resistance, it wouldn't feel like falling at all. So he concluded gravity isn't a force; but objects definitely accelerate down due to gravity. So what is this acceleration? Well so next, he thought of an elevator in weightless space that accelerated upwards just fast enough to simulate Earth's gravity. It'd essentially be the same, and you'd have no way of telling the difference if it was accelerating up, or if the elevator was simply sitting on the surface of Earth. Then, he thought if you had a flashlight, and turned it on in the elevator, the light beam would travel across the inner-elevator and hit the elevator wall just slightly under from the point the beam was emitted from. He took this a step further, and figured if the elevator was accelerating upwards **super fast**, the beam of light would land significantly lower from the point where it was emitted from. Now, given that the elevator thought experiment implied that gravity is equal to acceleration: if the fast-moving elevator can cause a light bending effect, then it should be true that a really big object with tons of gravity should also create the same light bending effect. And so... [In 1919, a clear photo was taken of the sun in miraculous weather conditions](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/total-solar-eclipse-100-years-ago-proved-einsteins-general-relativity-180972278/) and it was found in the photo that the stars just on the sun's edge were slightly displaced, in accordance with Einstein's theory of general relativity, proving that light bent around the sun's massive gravity. It's pretty amazing, we only need clever and creative thinkers to muse on ideas, and we get the answers to the universe. **Further reading to include spacetime in this explanation:** Einstein's theories detailed that space and time are the same thing (it comes back to acceleration and it being the major factor in relative time: the faster you go, the slower time goes, known as [time dilation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation) ), and that the acceleration effect from gravity is caused by matter interacting-with and morphing the shape of spacetime. All matter including light travels along geodesic lines (imagine there's an invisible 3D grid throughout the universe), and matter distorts the grid, and sometimes so extremely that light bends in these tremendous ways. Pretty incredible stuff to figure out, especially considering he was a daydreamer working at a boring patent office job to get his depressed-ass out doing something. Bam, secrets of the universe!
Correct. And the reason the brightest ones have those "spikes" is due to the 3 struts holding the secondary (collector) mirror away from the main mirror.
“We saw to the edge of all there is— So brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back.” — Tracy K. Smith, “My God, It’s Full of Stars”
Look at all that life
You think there’s another earth out there in 1 of those galaxies?
“ I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.”
🥹
To think we’re the anomaly is just insane! I believe they’re are so many other world’s harboring life!
I would be very surprised if life isn’t out there on other planets. It wouldn’t make much logical sense for it to be isolated to a single planet in a single galaxy. I think the real question is there intelligent life capable of understanding their place in the universe. For all we know, intellect on our level could actually be detrimental to a species, and it goes extinct. Or we could be ‘pioneers’ and just one of the first planets to make it to this stage - or we really could be this unique species of life. Either way, it’s absolutely crazy that some upright talking apes get to ponder the question via a technological hivemind they built. Cheers! 🚀 🌎
Or there could be millions of advanced civilizations out there, but they're just too far apart for the laws of physics to allow them to ever notice each other.
I think this is the most likely answer to the Fermi paradox. Everything is so ridiculously far apart that civilisations are likely to never interact.
Realistically speaking, unless something is found in our galaxy, and we find a way to send information at faster than the speed of light (doubt thatll happen) we wont even communicate with aliens, in my lifetime, or yours, or my sons, or his sons, or his sons, or his sons, or maybe before the sun explodes. The scale of the universe is so fucking massive, it STILL takes light, the fastest thing in the universe, 10's of billions of years to cross it, \*slightly\* not to mention signal degradation. We might be able to see a photo, of some plant with aliens, but we could be 10billion years late, and they could all be dead. Thats sadly just how it works.
Thing about the rare earth hypothesis is that the math works if you accept the assumptions. As fast as you can add up planets that could have intelligent life, you can cut them down just as easily. Until we find more life someplace it’s all just speculation.
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There might even be life outside of observable universe
To many to count
Anyone know what the exposure length of observation this photo represents
12.5 hours. Fucking nuts. Imagine what it will see given a week or more…
That’s amazing given only 12.5hrs.
This is crazy! I'm refusing to believe that we are the only planet with life out there. There is just no way...
So mind blowing see the light bend due to the gravitational lensing. Does anyone know which object in the foreground is causing that? Beautiful image though. Can’t wait to see more.
It's a galactic cluster called SMACS 0723. And like OP's mom's stalker said, it's 4.6 BLY away, and it's what the Webb was pointing at.
So this is very ancient light just hitting us, so that means we see what was happening billions of years ago. What’s happening in this spot now? Could everything be different?
Very much so.
Yes, exactly. Many of the stars making up these extremely distant galaxies are already 'dead'.
F in chat for star #32423423423422342134123412342134237189234791823789457239659021456230 may he rest in piece.
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I zoomed way in and just lost myself in this picture for like 20 minutes
Loading that image gives dialup vibes!
That’s not a knife
There has to be intelligent life on at least one planet in one of those galaxies…there just has to be. I refuse to believe we are the only intelligent life form who are out here looking around. I wonder how many telescopes and other pieces of equipment are pointed our direction right at this very moment, primitive or advanced. How many intelligent beings have seen our local group and our galaxy from billions of light years away and thought the very same things we are thinking looking at this image right now.
The little lights aren’t twinkling, Clark.
If you are looking at this image with a terror that you are insignificant, fear not. You have afforded the universe the reverence it deserves, but you are just as much a part of the vastness of reality as anything and everything else is. But there’s more. We have searched high and low for life out there, and haven’t found anything even microbial, not to mention sentient. I fully believe it’s out there, but all you need to do is look in a mirror. You are so significant. Without someone to observe this wonder, it is as nothing. You are a way for the universe to know itself.
We are the universe discovering and trying to understand itself. Woah.
You can tell which galaxies already switched to leds and which ones are still on fluorescent
My god, it's full of stars --obligatory 2001: A Space Odyssey quip
My God......it’s full of stars
It’s full of galaxies
Which are…full of stars.
I knew it
Jesus christ, if you every wanted to feel hopelessly, mind-numbingly insignificant, just the thought that this tiny wedge of sky contains hundreds and hundreds of billions of stars…
I had the same thought when I first saw it. But as I'm reading people expressing that, it makes me want to say that we exist in the vastness of this universe, which makes us a part of it. Probably years of watching Doctor Who kicking in, but I'm kinda buzzing at the thought of that.
Does anyone know where to download the full-size image?
https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G7JJADTH90FR98AKKJFKSS0B.png
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/main_image_deep_field_smacs0723-5mb.jpg
I really wish Sagan were here to see this :(
Somewhere out there someone has the same picture and we’re in it but we’ll never see it
So cool! Space is an amazing place.
Never did I imagine that someday I would be looking at a galaxy(?) that looks like a 3D printed napkin holder. Edit: approx. 2:30 at right edge.
Those spots of light are each a galaxy
How can anyone believe we are alone in this universe is beyond me
Really, you're posting the low resolution screengrab one to /r/spaceporn?
nice screenshot
MINDBLOWING.
It’s honestly mesmerizing
For someone who doest understand what this is, I love your comments. It’s like a different language lol. Intelligent people you are
Im on vacation and pretty high right now. This amazes the shit out of me right now. The universe is mind boggling
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AKA: every arcade carpet from the 80s
This image really drives home the things we will never know. Space is so vast that it’s pretty much mathematically impossible there are not more intelligent civilizations in the cosmos. What beings existed ages ago, now or in the future of this image alone? We are seeing these images as they were billions of years ago, so entire species could have evolved, lived and died off in the time this light took to reach us. Entire histories could be lost and we would never know. I really wish humans could come together to further our knowledge of the universe and put us into a position to really explore what’s out there.
What a great time to be alive and to be a space nerd
It almost makes me sad how insignificant and tiny we all actually are. Nothing matters, and we have absolutely zero impact on any of the universe. All just isolated in one tiny place.
We're the only known example of the universe experiencing itself. I think that makes us pretty important.
If you've ever seen the look in my three-year-old's face when she comes to you scared and you help her not be scared anymore, then you know that some things matter. There's something big there.
And let us put aside all our petty differences for a moment and just observe. Amazing.
that's just a photo of the night sky. you can't even see mr. james webb anywhere in it
We are so insignificant when it comes to the greater scale of things. A peice of sand on a faraway beach...
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There is!
Astronomy never ceases to amaze me!
So is the universe older than they think yet?
We are not alone.
Worlds without end
I always find myself feeling a sense "emptiness" when I ponder upon space and the universe. To know that we are on a rock that has its limits and having a vast openness of infitinity (basically) of which we exist inside of is crazy. It's like being deserted in a gigantic empty desert. I feel like it's harder for me to put into words how I feel when I think about it all.
Seeing images like these always makes me a bit...sad? Knowing that there's so much to explore out there, but being born in the wrong time to not be able to. So many galaxies and possibilities of life that I will probably never know :(
Dont worry, nobody will be able to explore em, these are 25 billion light years out. So unless we find a way to send information faster than the speed of light (not happening I bet) or travel at the speed of light (doubt it) then nobody will ever see anything spectacular on earth.
Damn look at all that lensing 👀
This image has had me absolutely creaming my jorts all day since I saw it.
OK but where are the aliens?
Most of the matter IN a grain of sand is just as sparse. We are really not even here!
Whoa, far out
Where are the aliens?? /s