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elizabeth498 t1_jacyuao wrote

Reply to comment by dvdmaven in Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists were able to accidently view a supernova explosion in a nearby galaxy. According to their study, the discovery could offer new insight into the cosmos. by Impossible_Cookie596

Yeah, I was wondering about that distance.

In any event, the JWST is the gift that keeps on giving. I’m thrilled at each turn.

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PsyOpBunnyHop t1_jadhp97 wrote

> JWST is the gift that keeps on giving

Sometimes I do this thing where I write down upcoming events and their expected dates on small pieces of scrap paper and tape them to the wall near my desk. Basically, significant upcoming events that interest me, but nothing so crucial that I need to put in an app to remind me. Often they are things that I tend to completely forget about for months at a time when there are no updates or whatever. They get removed as they occur.

I had one with JWST written in sharpie, which had been there for yeeears! I kept moving it back in the queue, as the launch kept getting rescheduled. At first, the paper had a year on it, but that part got cut off and I just taped a new year on a smaller paper every time. I was so freakin excited about it, but I had to not think about it or risk getting frustrated and disappointed by the delays or a lack of news. It was a long slow pain.

After the launch, I was somewhat happy to tear that one down, but also having to wait for more months as configs were done, then waiting for image captures, etc. It was such torture.

So happy it's up and running now. I'll probably never stop wanting more discoveries from it.

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TheAJGman t1_jae0849 wrote

I've been excited for it for as long as I can remember, I've followed it closely for most of my life. It was so valued by the scientific community before it even launched that when the Ariane 5 rocket that would carry it into space was being assembled they binned all of their components so they could ensure that this rocket was as high tolerance as possible. Sure any part off their shelves would be within tolerance and probably would have been fine, but they took the extra care to seek out only the best of the best for this launch. It's likely that JWSTs service life was increased by this extra care since the rocket was able to place it almost perfectly on course with very little correction needed.

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