HD 84406

bringing our world into focus

I posted a bit about the latest space exploration initiative of NASA, The James Webb Space Telescope. I thought it would be a good time to provide an update. 

Sometimes the Constellations require a bit of imagination to say “yeah I see that”. While many of us can find the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Polaris, more than that becomes a little more challenging. For those familiar with Ursa Major / Great Bear, the star on the bear’s back between Dubhe and Muceda is the bright star we are talking about today. Ursa Major is The Big Dipper when we extend and add a few more stars to envision a bear.

HD 84406 is the official designation of a certain star in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the best known of the basic constellations. Ursa Major is the Great Bear. The bear’s tail and back of the body are what amateurs (like me) call The Big Dipper. HD 84406 is 258.5 light-years away so frequent rest stops will be required on a trip.

What is so inspiring about this bright object in the night sky? Now that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been injected into its orbit about L2 (see previous posts), the next step is to focus all the mirrors. It is cool that an object about 1M miles away is going through a methodical process as we speak. Sometime soon, it will start sending up photos that help us better understand our place in the universe.

Two of my earlier posts “I See” and “JWST” were about the history of looking upward and looking for better answers than what we could only surmise with our eyeballs only 500 years ago. The second post is all about the JWST. After the launch, I provided occasional updates on the progress. The Babylonians, shortly before the emergence of the Bible incorporated a view of the celestial bodies based on what they could see. Both Judaism and Islam have incorporated the rings of heaven into their narrative. Christian scholars expanded to 10th Heaven in light of the new knowledge of Copernicus and Galileo. The classic work by Dante, the Divine Comedy takes us on the journey through the levels.

For the avid astronomers out there, this will be obvious but I am only a casual skywatcher. Ursa Major is a constellation while the Big Dipper is NOT. The Big Dipper is an asterism. An asterism is a small group of stars that form a recognizable pattern in the sky.

So what is Webb doing? For those who read the previous posts or just follow science with some interest, our newest telescope does not have a single mirror. Instead, it has a series of hexagonal mirrors (18) that work together to make a foldable, origami-style contraption that unfolds from a compact spot in a launch vehicle into an eventual size approximating a tennis court. The mirrors themselves can be individually controlled and adjusted.

The telescope is going through a rather ingenious process. Each of the mirrors is capturing a different image of our bright star named HD 84406. The software and hardware for the mission are now adjusting each of the 18 different images and bringing them all into a singular focus. While I get some statistics on how many people read my newsletter or press links, I am confident that only a precious few of you will watch this press conference about this amazing process. When you spend as much time as I do on a treadmill, I am a captive audience looking for content. If you are a glutton for even more information, here is an explanation and some images that astronomers are working their way through.

The website NASA maintains and updates about the mission can be found if you wish by Googling (or Binging I guess) “Where is Webb”. The site keeps updating with new and up-to-date information. For those of you concerned your keystrokes are being monitored, here is the website. It is time for my PSA. As I have stated before, Americans spend more money on adult diapers than they do on NASA so hopefully, that helps the avowed anti-government folks out there.

You can learn a lot about a person by examining what websites they have bothered to add to their favorites. For a Minnesotan on a cool and windy day, it is refreshing to get reports of temperatures all around the telescope. It is amazing that even one million miles away the side facing the Sun is still around 106°F while the unfolded protective screen is doing an amazing job as the cold side where the instruments and mirrors are, report temperatures as low as -381°F! Next time it seems cold here, I will check on JWST to feel better.

My favorite image of the Big Dipper (and Ursa Major). This is one of my favorite paintings. When my Mom came to visit me as a recent college graduate living alone she bought this art image for me and had it framed. My apartment was sparse and Mom had a great eye for what would stand the test of time.

Whether you are a football fan or not, lots of us will tune in for the Super Bowl half-time show (I wrote this a while ago). I think the NFL pivoted to embrace a younger audience and I thought it was great despite not my traditional playlist. Today’s topic aligned pretty well when the technology we can make all the stars seem closer. Here’s tonight’s tune. I have heard from some of you that you enjoy the links so I will try to include some more consistently that might be relevant. Here’s a song with a lot of references to space and stars and such. Not sure it makes sense though.

WHAT’S NEXT

Next time, I have a cool story about a woman stricken by a mysterious illness and the unexpected gift it unlocked in her life. The story is titled “How About A Run”.