#189 Space & Time
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“A picture is worth a thousand worlds.”

I didn’t say that; Google did. On July 13, 2022, I saw this Google Doo­dle & imme­di­ate­ly clicked on it, for­get­ting what­ev­er it was that I was googling. I rec­og­nized the gold hexag­o­nal mir­rors & knew it had some­thing to do with the James Webb Space Tele­scope. Wow — it was announc­ing the first images sent to earth by JWST! Google’s phrase “a pic­ture is worth a thou­sand worlds” is a very clever pun, so I used it to blast off Amper­Art #189, Space & Time. The very first image sent, that of deep space, was used as the back­ground in my lat­est piece. Here’s the Google Doo­dle — click on it to see its amus­ing ani­ma­tion & read about its cre­ative development.

Have you heard of the James Webb Space Telescope? 

Ear­li­er this week I met a new friend who has been in tech­nol­o­gy through­out his career. I told him how excit­ed I was about the first images of space & time from the new tele­scope, expect­ing him to share in the excite­ment. Instead, he asked “You mean Hub­ble?” He was not even aware of the James Webb Space Tele­scope, Hub­ble’s suc­ces­sor. (He has since told me he Googled it, and said “it’s all over the news!” Yes it is.) 

I was amazed that some­one in tech­nol­o­gy had not heard of this tech­no­log­i­cal won­der. That alert­ed me to real­ize maybe not every­one has heard about the JWST — or oth­er inno­va­tions, for that mat­ter — even if it would be of inter­est to them. So I was com­pelled to add this video to intro­duce those of you (espe­cial­ly if you wit­nessed the first moon land­ing in 1969 on your black & white tubes) who have not heard of this suc­ces­sor to the Hub­ble tele­scope, which is mag­nif­i­cent in its own right & still in ser­vice. You just might be as awed as the rest of us are by the James Webb Space Tele­scope — espe­cial­ly after you see the spec­tac­u­lar first images that were revealed July 12, 2022.

This excel­lent video by Fras­er Cain at uni​ver​se​to​day​.com will explain & entertain:

(If the video does not appear, play it on YouTube.)

For those who pre­fer to read, there’s a good entry about JWST at Wikipedia.

Vis­it the web­sites list­ed below (includ­ing NASA​.org) for more infor­ma­tion about the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Space is hard to comprehend…

I have been fol­low­ing the jour­ney of the James Webb Space Tele­scope since it was first launched on Decem­ber 25, 2021. For some rea­son I just feel a deep pride in this ven­ture & I’m thrilled at every task it suc­ceeds in func­tion­ing even bet­ter than expect­ed. It seems like a mir­a­cle that noth­ing has gone wrong when there is so much that could have. Even the traf­fic acci­dent (appar­ent­ly they hap­pen in out­er space, too) of a micro mete­or dent­ing the mir­ror last month was planned ahead & com­pen­sat­ed for. 

It’s hard to com­pre­hend how vast space is & what’s real­ly out there, but…

The above image, Plan­e­tary Neb­u­la NGC 3132, aka South­ern Ring Neb­u­la, is cap­tured by JWST in dying star’s final moments (albeit very long moments). More fas­ci­na­tion about NGC 3132 here.

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AA #189 features Galaxy Cluster SMACS 0723

The image above is the deep­est & sharpest infrared image of the dis­tant uni­verse to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy clus­ter SMACS 0723 is over­flow­ing with detail. You can see a larg­er ver­sion & read all the details on the NASA web­site. Here are some highlights:

✴ The image above shows the galaxy clus­ter SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 bil­lion years ago. 

✴ This deep field, tak­en by Webb’s Near-​Infrared Cam­era (NIR­Cam), is made from images at dif­fer­ent wave­lengths, total­ing 12.5 hours

✴ Thou­sands of galax­ies – includ­ing the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time.

Now this should real­ly send your mind to infin­i­ty & beyond:

✴ This slice of the vast uni­verse — every­thing you see in the image above — is approx­i­mate­ly the size of a grain of rice held at arm’s length by some­one on the ground.

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Alien lifeforms

I’m sure if JWST ever finds a colony of intel­li­gent beings out there, they will all be naked. & hap­py. Maybe that’s what it will take to enlight­en us earth­lings to final­ly strip away our prud­ish, igno­rant, sense­less cen­sor­ship against our own bod­ies. After all, as my favorite bumper stick­er says: 

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There’s plen­ty of space & time for a bil­lion words or less, so please…

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Explore the James Webb Space Telescope & Mission & Images

NASA James Webb Space Telescope mission

First images from Webb Space Telescope

The ultimate guide to the James Webb Space Telescope

Other “webbsites” about the Webb Telescope

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Chaz DeS­i­mone, design­er & typog­ra­ph­er, is the cre­ator of Amper­Art & own­er of Des­i­mone Design. He was adding ser­ifs to let­ters when he was just a lit­tle brat scrib­bling on walls. Now he’s a big brat & his entire career is design, so long as each project requires the most sophis­ti­cat­ed, log­i­cal, cap­ti­vat­ing results. Con­tact him at chaz@​desimonedesign.​com.

Thank you for sub­scrib­ing to Chaz’s per­son­al design project, Amper­Art. Please invite your friends — those who are fans of the fun & fab­u­lous amper­sand — to sub­scribe at amper​art​.com.

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