JWST just dropped new photo of Sombrero Galaxy!

[u/Busy_Yesterday9455]

[u/90zvision]

Damn, Webb continues to impress.

Also love HST, especially for a better idea of true color appearance.

[u/FlyingPasta → u/90zvision]

I like that HST used to define space imagery, but now that we have a comparison it acquired a signature look of its own. It has gained more soul despite being outperformed imo

[u/CallsignDrongo → u/FlyingPasta]

Was gonna say, Webb is amazing and all, but damn I really prefer that Hubble photo. Even though the Webb photo clearly has better detail, that Hubble one just looks…. Cinematic lol I guess is the best word.

[u/Prasiatko → u/CallsignDrongo]

Probably truer to life since its sensors are closer to what our eye can detect.

[u/-roachboy → u/Prasiatko]

unrelated but your profile picture is the same as my twitter one and I was so confused for a second

[u/AcanthocephalaDue715 → u/-roachboy]

That is so wildly random

[u/mikefizzled → u/Prasiatko]

I do wonder if some clever artist could interpolate the two in some way, just to see what the result would be

[u/Fourth_place_again → u/CallsignDrongo]

Which is weird as this is almost the same thing I said about hi-def LED or Plasma screen TVs when the came out. The clarity definition contrast color richness were all so far and away better than my old Sony Trinitron 32” TV, the images looked so real they looked fake at the same time. Webb has made that same leap and we long for the old images. For a short while though. We’ll get over it with each passing year.

[u/FlyingPasta → u/Fourth_place_again]

Same principle when playing old pixel games on a new crisp screen. They look way better blurry (not that they had a choice vs denser graphics), more detail just accentuates the content’s “deficiencies”

[u/theoriginalmofocus → u/FlyingPasta]

Theres a lot to be said about all that. I think some movies lose their feel in all the UHD glory.

[u/Hawaii-Based-DJ → u/theoriginalmofocus]

Yes totally, you can see how they caked on the makeup to blend etc.

[u/Specialist-Elk-2624 → u/theoriginalmofocus]

I have the super good version of Jaws on Blu-ray, and like the original much more due to the “lack of quality”.

The UHD is insane. It’s absolutely incredible. But I find it loses some feel in a way.

[u/Comprehensive-Fun47 → u/Fourth_place_again]

I still feel that way about some TVs! So real it looks fake is a good way to describe it. I think of it as knowing the camera is there. Suddenly it doesn't feel out the characters are walking through a hospital, but a sound stage. I can picture the camera rolling along, following the actors, whose faces I'm seeing in far too much detail.

[u/AIien_cIown_ninja → u/CallsignDrongo]

Yall are making it too complicated. Webb sees through dust like it's not there cause it uses infrared. Hubble captures the beautiful dusty nebulous regions in all their contrast and glory in visible light. Space looks bland without the pretty dusty gas clouds. (But you get better scientific data when you don't have to look at something through dust).

Plus, while hubble has rightfully earned its place as the gold standard of astrophotography, it is now outdated by modern standards of ground based telescopes. And even amateurs can come close to hubble on a shoestring budget (like tens of thousands of dollars, but less than 100,000) with modern telescopes designs, digital cameras and post-processing techniques. Large telescopes in Hawaii and Chile are sharper than hubble when they use adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric distortion. Hubble never would have been funded if adaptive optics was a thing back then. What we can't correct for though, at least not well, is all the IR light our atmosphere absorbs (ever look at the backgroumd of IR camera images? Its basically nonexistant because IR is quickly absorbed by the gases in our atmosphere), and that's why Webb needed to be space based.

None of that is to take away from Hubble. In fact without Hubble we probably wouldn't even have the giant community of hobbyist astrophotographers that we have today, we might not even have this subreddit. It ignited an interest in the general public like nothing else could have done in the 90s, when film was still dominant.

[u/Comprehensive-Fun47 → u/AIien_cIown_ninja]

Damn, your shoestrings are expensive!

[u/AIien_cIown_ninja → u/Comprehensive-Fun47]

You don't buy $50,000 worth of shoestrings at a time? Thats where you start getting the really good bulk savings. You must not have very many cats that eat them

[u/jjbananamonkey → u/FlyingPasta]

Just like old camera lenses still being used because of their imperfections and unique look that is different from modern lenses

[u/vikingdiplomat → u/jjbananamonkey]

also, the universe used to smoke everywhere. lends a nice warm glow to older photos.

[u/ForWhomTheBoneBones → u/vikingdiplomat]

HST really is the incandescent bulb to Webb’s LEDs.

[u/Elowan66 → u/ForWhomTheBoneBones]

And it was hard to get everyone to stand still while holding that big flashbulb.

[u/camwow13 → u/jjbananamonkey]

Not exactly an apt comparison. These photos are taken in completely different wavelengths.

It's like looking at the same scene in broad daylight vs at sunset. Or with different colored glasses. It's basically like looking at yourself through a FLIR infared camera and seeing all the red spots where you're warm, vs a visible light photo that looks like what your eyes would see.

JWST is higher res by virtue of being newer but it's just a different way to look at the same thing. This older hubble image is still huge since it's a bunch of smaller images stitched together. It was my desktop background for a while.

[u/Aliencoy77 → u/FlyingPasta]

There's a depth there. HST couldn't see to the other side, so there's a gradient. It looks cool.

[u/Pherexian55 → u/90zvision]

It's worth pointing out that Hubble is not true color. Hubble (and Webb) uses filters to block out all but specific wavelengths of light as recorded as grayscale images. Those images then get combined to give a RGB image. However the wavelengths used don't match up with what red, blue and green actually are, resulting in a false color image.

Take a look at the pillars of creation from Hubble vs true color photos of the eagle nebula (the nebula the pillars are a part of). you'll see the eagle nebula is mostly red with some purples and blues, however the photo from Hubble is full of greens and yellows.

[u/brucemo → u/Pherexian55]

I'm always frustrated by deep space and planetary false color images.

Imagine a white cat. You can process an image of the white cat so that subtle differences in the color of its coat are translated such that the cat looks like a rainbow. We wouldn't tolerate that as an accurate depiction of the cat, because we've seen the cat and know that it's white.

But with regard to space objects this has become the norm.

[u/Pherexian55 → u/brucemo]

Deep sky imaging is fundamentally different from your example and your frustration is rooted in ignorance.

These telescopes aren't created for you and me, the images they create are not created for you and me. These are tools of science created by scientists to assist scientists in studying space. The value to the public is, and will always be the lowest priority.

The photos they take are specifically created for the scientific value they have and are distributed to the public simply because they look amazing. These photos are a happy accident of the process.

[u/Imjokin → u/Pherexian55]

Yeah, the issue isn’t with the photos themselves. The issue is that science communicators could do a better job of explaining what the concept of false color is.

[u/Das_Mime → u/Imjokin]

To properly explain the difference between how telescopes measure light and how humans perceive color, the audience has to be familiar with:

• The electromagnetic spectrum

• The anatomy of the human retina including the response function for the three types of cone cells and the relative insensitivity of color-sensing cones to dim light as compared to bright light

• How these together produce the distinction between perceived color of a continuous spectrum and color of a particular form of monochromatic light

It's a very complicated and subtle topic that is made more difficult to understand by the fact that people reflexively treat their visual perceptions as the default or truest means of perception, ignoring several key factors including the fact that we are simply not good at color vision in low light/for faint objects.

The thing about scientific images is that all color is false; some color is useful.

[u/Propaganda_bot_744 → u/Imjokin]

On NASAs release it is clearly labeled as such and they have a dedicated page on this topic for both jwt and hubble. They have no control on social media and you shouldn't expect communication about science... Or anything really... to be good there Even reddit.

[u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ → u/Pherexian55]

enlighten us, oh non ignorant one

[u/loconet → u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_]

.. your frustration is rooted in ignorance.... The value to the public is, and will always be the lowest priority.

sigh.

It's not black and white (pun intended). You can bring the public along while also making objective progress towards scientific goals.

This superior attitude is what unfortunately ends up causing a gap between the public perception and the worth of scientific endeavor. It cripples understanding, curiosity and empathy. As much as what you say it's true, the tone of arrogance causes the drift which ends up hurting both sides as it is usually the public that funds these projects.

[u/MyNameIsDaveToo → u/90zvision]

It's downright amazing what JWST can see, but for every picture done by JWST that was previously shot by HST, I always wind up preferring the HST version.

The only exception I can think of so far is Uranus. JWST did that one a solid.

ETA: this is meant simply in the aesthetic, not scientific, sense.

[u/Scotsch → u/MyNameIsDaveToo]

Idk, pillars of creation from jwst were amazing.

[u/HotOutlandishness107 → u/MyNameIsDaveToo]

I agree, Uranus looks much prettier from the JWST lense.

[u/Spazmatazo → u/HotOutlandishness107]

I'm blushing.

[u/HotOutlandishness107 → u/Spazmatazo]

I mean, really. If you compare both pictures, on the JWST one we can see Uranus rings much clearly.

[u/Zhdophanti → u/90zvision]

From the hubble pictures some (like this) look better, but Webb is much more useful for science.

[u/Crayshack → u/90zvision]

I think this is a case of Webb giving us a photo that is more useful from a scientific standpoint, but Hubble being more beautiful. Something about the color balance just feels nice.

[u/pdx_via_lfk → u/90zvision]

Yes. Hats off to them.

[u/plasma_dan]

Sombrero's my fave

[u/uberguby → u/plasma_dan]

Me too!

One day I was at a temp job, and one of the real workers had sombrero as her background. I pointed at it and said "sombrero galaxy! That's my favorite celestial object!" and she was like "oh... Yeah... Cool!". You know like, not trying to be rude but clearly not interested. So I let it go and kept walking.

Less than ten minutes later a coworker asks about it and she says "oh yeah, my boyfriend found it. It's like a... Like a super nova. It's pretty cool"

I thought that was pretty funny. I still laugh about that sometimes.

[u/HairyNuggsag → u/uberguby]

She made sure you overheard that she had a boyfriend.

[u/KingofthePi11 → u/uberguby]

What a wanker haha

[u/ZiggyPalffyLA → u/plasma_dan]

More than the Milky Way?

[u/Atlas_Aldus → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

Been there it’s not the best

[u/ZiggyPalffyLA → u/Atlas_Aldus]

Andromeda or GTFO

[u/notagain8277 → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

nothing beats rigel-618b

[u/CitizenKing1001 → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

Messier 87 kicks all ass

[u/WCowgirl → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

Pegasus or bust!

[u/plasma_dan → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

I've never seen the Milky Way like I've seen the sombrero galaxy.

I'd probably still choose Sombrero even if I could.

[u/xSTSxZerglingOne → u/plasma_dan]

Been my dad's desktop background since Hubble dropped it 20 years ago.

[u/perpetualmotionmachi → u/xSTSxZerglingOne]

Time for him to upgrade

[u/xSTSxZerglingOne → u/perpetualmotionmachi]

Mayhaps!

[u/I_Magnus]

The difference in fine detail is amazing.

More funding for NASA please.

[u/Is12345aweakpassword → u/I_Magnus]

Give NASA the DOD budget. Let’s colonize the solar system

[u/RandomUselessPersonn → u/Is12345aweakpassword]

There has to be oil in other planets, we must take them over🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸

[u/I_Magnus → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

The oil must flow.

[u/LordCommander94 → u/I_Magnus]

Never let it stop, brother

[u/WalksTheMeats → u/[deleted]]

False Flag a Middle East Space Program, we'll be there the week after a deepfake convinces Twitter a Mosque is orbiting Jupiter.

[u/BatBoss → u/WalksTheMeats]

I'm pretty sure Iraq is hiding the WMD's on Titan, we gotta get there and make sure the terrorists don't win. USA! USA! USA!

[u/Troll_Enthusiast → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

Idk about oil but there's a lot of other very important minerals

[u/Crotean → u/Troll_Enthusiast]

Just find an asteroid thats all gold. If we could actually colonize the solar system raw materials would become completely valueless because there is so much more of them out there than on the planet.

[u/MrOSUguy → u/Crotean]

Not lumber. We have very little respect for a resource that has never been found anywhere else

[u/24silver → u/MrOSUguy]

how i feel when i play starbound and other planets has increddibly ugly plants and trees

[u/chetlin → u/Crotean]

This exoplanet could be largely diamond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Cancri_e go here and put De Beers out of business.

[u/DarthTigris → u/Troll_Enthusiast]

ME2 minigame PTSD increasing ...

[u/-drunk_russian- → u/DarthTigris]

"Really, Commander?... Sigh, probing Uranus"

[u/big_guyforyou → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

i heard there's oil coming out of uranus

[u/road_rascal → u/big_guyforyou]

That's just the Olestra...

[u/Bacontoad → u/road_rascal]

[u/Sotonic → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

Titan has lakes of hydrocarbons. Not oil, but still. Just lying in enormous lakes on the surface.

[u/cjinaz86 → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

Sounds like we need to introduce some democracy and freedom to those planets. 🎶Rock flag and eagle 🎶

[u/MrTheFinn → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

Titan has hydrocarbon lakes!

[u/BrickAdventurous6040 → u/RandomUselessPersonn]

Irony is that there is basically unlimited resources in the solar system

[u/Diligent_Barber3778 → u/Is12345aweakpassword]

Boots on the moon!

[u/Is12345aweakpassword → u/Diligent_Barber3778]

Criminally underrated show

[u/Lv_InSaNe_vL → u/I_Magnus]

The fine detail is amazing and I know it's much better for science, but there's something I prefer about the Hubble image. Maybe nostalgia, maybe because it's in visual range it's "more pleasing", I'm not sure. But the Hubble image seems warmer (emotionally, I know it's warmer in color lol) and inviting.

[u/ChiralWolf → u/Lv_InSaNe_vL]

To me, part of it comes from how influential hubble has been on science fiction and the media landscape around space as a whole. When I think about space it's inseparably colored (literally and figuratively) by the groundbreaking work hubble has done.

[u/vertigostereo → u/I_Magnus]

Best I can do is tax cuts for billionaires.

[u/Daxx22 → u/vertigostereo]

And bibles as mandatory course material.

[u/cromstantinople → u/I_Magnus]

I worry Musk will inevitably cut NASA funding and direct more government contracts to SpaceX. Socialize the costs, privatize the profits.

[u/I_Magnus → u/cromstantinople]

When I was a kid I hoped the future would turn out like Star Trek but as an adult I realize we're looking at more of a Dune scenario especially with Elon Harkonnen acquiring as much power as he has.

[u/DJfunkyPuddle → u/I_Magnus]

My heart breaks from the thought of the world we should be living in.

[u/NancakesAndHyrup → u/DJfunkyPuddle]

And could be living in. 

With cooperation so many things could be so much better for the vast majority of people. 

Instead the selfish con and cheat and rise to power and make a system that empowers selfishness. 

[u/vand3lay1ndustries → u/DJfunkyPuddle]

Imagine if Bernie got the nomination in 2016

[u/NancakesAndHyrup → u/vand3lay1ndustries]

So much this. 

And Al Gore hadn’t stepped aside to keep the peace in 2000. 

[u/really_nice_guy_ → u/NancakesAndHyrup]

George Bush’s relative, the governor of Florida stood in his way at every step and the Supreme Court stopped the recount completely. There wasn’t much Al Gore could’ve done

[u/tiredoldwizard → u/I_Magnus]

Didn’t the federation only come about because of WW3?

[u/I_Magnus → u/tiredoldwizard]

It was the Eugenics War and then WW3 if I recall correctly.

According to the timeline, we're about 20 years past due on the prior.

[u/Reinhardt_Ironside → u/I_Magnus]

And about 3 months past due on the Bell Riots.

[u/PeanutButterSoda → u/Reinhardt_Ironside]

I thought you meant the fast food war.

[u/Parrotherb → u/I_Magnus]

I think it will be less feudal and anti-AI like Dune and more like the corporate overlord type of dystopia like in Cyberpunk. I mean, Musk is even funding Neurolinks lol, imagine Musk having direct influence on your mind.

[u/I_Magnus → u/Parrotherb]

Imagine having an implant which requires a subscription for service.

[u/ConsidereItHuge → u/I_Magnus]

Unrelated but I got a notification from my central heating asking if I wanted to pay monthly for something or other today.

[u/randomizedasian → u/I_Magnus]

REPO men are coming.

[u/--Sovereign-- → u/Parrotherb]

It will be like the time before the Butlerian Jihad where few extremely powerful people used AI to enslave the entire human race.

[u/RamblnGamblinMan → u/I_Magnus]

To be fair, the eugenics war was horrible and was supposed to happen in 1996.

The Bell Riots, however...

[u/Sudden-Ad-1217 → u/cromstantinople]

Listen.... Weyland Yutani isn't going to build itself.....

[u/key18oard_cow18oy → u/cromstantinople]

I was about to comment "best we can do is fund more missiles", but sadly, I think this is what we're getting

[u/SysKonfig → u/I_Magnus]

Bad news.... we're about to privatize it all. :(

[u/TJ-LEED-AP → u/I_Magnus]

I have bad news for you.

[u/Busy_Yesterday9455 → u/I_Magnus]

A short comparison video showing photos of Sombrero Galaxy from different space telescopes; Spitzer, JWST, and Hubble.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, IPAC, STScI

[u/radclaw1 → u/I_Magnus]

Best we can do is defund the DoE, sorry.

[u/[deleted] → u/I_Magnus]

Sorry, Elon needs to pad his bank account...er, I mean, SpaceX needs to pad it's bank account.

[u/prudence2001]

I still love the Hubble image

[u/ReversedNovaMatters → u/prudence2001]

I think I prefer it also. Appreciate them both for sure!

[u/Revolutionary-Pin-96 → u/ReversedNovaMatters]

Humbles is more comfy, due to the softer light around the center and the color grading. Its a little unfortunate that the Webb photo isnt clearer, but its really cool how you can see a far more defined center. Makes me wonder why that one spot is SO bright, it must be a big black hole with a lot of neighbors but it makes me wonder why it cleared everything around it, unlike a lot of spiral and bar galaxies

[u/Awkward-Collection78 → u/prudence2001]

I agree, it is absolutely visually stunning. I love the advances in Webb! I love keeping up with all of this stuff.

I have a cheap ass space projector that projects various hubble photos on my ceiling. I just lay on the ground and look at it before bed. Super relaxing

[u/Wild-Word4967 → u/Awkward-Collection78]

Web to me is a better scientific tool. Hubble is a better camera for pretty pictures.

[u/rom-116 → u/prudence2001]

Yes, has more depth.

[u/ARTISTIC-ASSHOLE]

Highest resolution source image, please

Edit: Found it

[u/ZiggyPalffyLA → u/ARTISTIC-ASSHOLE]

Thanks! Shame it’s the wrong size for a desktop background.

[u/ARTISTIC-ASSHOLE → u/ZiggyPalffyLA]

I actually kind of like it in the ”Fit” mode with the black bars if my taskbar is transparent. Don’t have an OLED either

[u/talondigital → u/[deleted]]

The Hubble Space Telescope's image of the galaxy is in visible light only. The JWST image is mostly infrared, and not what you would see in an optical telescope. Because it is infrared we can cut through a lot of the fog and noise and get a more clear look at the actual structures of the galaxy.

[u/ieatbabies92 → u/[deleted]]

I love to see the curiosity. The red stars (which are galaxies, stars are very small comparatively), are red because they are moving away from us in space-time. This is called the doppler effect and the blue galaxies are moving towards the telescope. The whole color adjustment thing is purely up to the person rendering the data. For example, if the scientists wanted to color the JWST to a more realistic color (like the Hubble), all they would need to do is adjust it. You can also safely assume that most of these types of renderings are in a false color because of how the telescopes receive data and how we render them.

[u/Sanquinity → u/ieatbabies92]

I'd like to add that some of the blue ones could actually be stars, but stars in our own galaxy that happen to be in between us and the galaxy. Most would still be galaxies at least, though.

[u/ieatbabies92 → u/Sanquinity]

Yes! Thank you! Most of the stars that you’d see in our galaxy would have the trademark JWST refraction spikes. That’s (generally) the best way to tell if the star is in our local region.

[u/Sanquinity → u/ieatbabies92]

Oh yea forgot about those. So, probably galaxies then. :p

[u/Spork_the_dork → u/[deleted]]

The thing that would really strike as odd in that regard is the green. No star or galaxy emits that specifically green light. Anything that does emit green light (like the sun) also emits enough of all the other colors of the visible spectrum to just end up looking like white or yellow rather than green.

[u/I_Magnus → u/[deleted]]

At the risk of oversimplification, the Hubble is designed to observe light in the visible spectrum, ultraviolet, and a little bit into the infrared range whereas JWST is optimized for infrared which is why Hubble objects are brighter while JWST has more detail.

[u/RocketKnobs → u/[deleted]]

So there can be a couple factors that would make the stars less apparent in the more recent picture photo:

1. JWST collects images in Infrared, which detects heat, so instead of seeing apparent brightness in the new photo, you are seeing something more akin to the “heat” of an object, which is why some appear blue, orange, or red. This may also be impacted by the red-shifting of the objects that are really far away.
2. Because the JWST collects images in infrared and it is a more sensitive instrument than the Hubble, the overall exposure time for JWST to capture this image may be less and than Hubble’s. Based on my experience with photography, long exposures tend to exaggerate the apparent brightness/abundance of light emitting objects. I am inferring a bit on this one, but if you compare two background objects in the two photos, the JWST ones tend to appear less bright which indicates to me a shorter exposure time.
3. There could be a lot of other factors at play here as well that are determined by physical phenomena or the instruments’ specific capabilities/limitations.

Fun fact a lot of those background objects are not stars, they are, in fact, distant galaxies. You can quickly identify the stars in the Hubble’s photo by looking for objects with the cross-shaped (+) light pattern. The big one in the upper middle region is a great example; it kinda looks like the star on a Christmas tree with the bright rays of light emanating horizontally and vertically. The particular cross-shaped pattern is dependent on the structure of the telescope’s mirrors. The JWST has its own unique cross pattern as well.

[u/29_psalms]

JWST is a phenomenal advance, but that Hubble image is so very beautiful

[u/Awkward-Collection78 → u/29_psalms]

Well put

[u/Palestine_Borisof007]

Hundreds of billions of stars, many times that in planets. Trillions of galaxies.

There's absolutely no chance we're alone in the universe.

[u/Hawaii-Based-DJ → u/Palestine_Borisof007]

Zero chance.

[u/SumpCrab → u/Palestine_Borisof007]

I'd like to think someone is looking back at us, but the amount of time between those glances is mind-bending.

29.3 million light years away.

[u/EmptyRedecans]

What is the name of the star in the middle....? Is it a star...? How big is it?! So amazing regardless...

[u/I_Magnus → u/EmptyRedecans]

It's a dense cluster of stars orbiting a supermassive black hole.

[u/EmptyRedecans → u/I_Magnus]

I really appreciate the response!

[u/InEenEmmer → u/I_Magnus]

So basically Hollywood?

[u/Echolyonn → u/EmptyRedecans]

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Sombrero galaxy is 1 billion times the mass of the Sun!

[u/SuperMajesticMan → u/Echolyonn]

Jesus christ. Sagittarius A at the center of the milky way is "only" 4 million times the mass of our sun.

[u/Echolyonn → u/SuperMajesticMan]

Check out TON 618, it’s over 60 billion solar masses…more mass than an entire galaxy in a single object! Thankfully it’s over 18 billion light years away because that mf can stay the hell away lol.

[u/lookuptoabluesky → u/EmptyRedecans]

I had the same question(s), Wikipedia helped me learn some new things in addition to the comments!

[u/mildpandemic → u/EmptyRedecans]

Just to add to the amazement, that ‘glow’ around the galaxy in the Hubble picture is not gas. It’s made up of billions of individual stars that are too small on this scale to even be a pixel.

[u/sdk005]

Why do galaxys form disks and not spheres

[u/I_Magnus → u/sdk005]

Elliptical galaxies exist but conservation of angular momentum will turn a cloud of objects into an orbital plane. It's like how black holes have an accretion disk.

[u/seanrm92 → u/I_Magnus]

Or how Saturn has its rings!

[u/ejdebruin → u/sdk005]

Why do galaxys form disks

Think of someone spinning a pizza dough ball into pizza dough. It flattens as it spins.

As gas moves together due to gravitational pull, its rotational momentum is conserved. As it gets denser and pulls together, it spins faster. Think of spinning with your arms out and then suddenly pulling them towards your body. You start spinning faster.

As gas starts pulling towards the most dense area (e.g. this would be where the star will form in a solar system), rotation can negate the inward pull for some of the matter. Then you have a bunch of matter orbiting around a dense area which will also pull towards each other forming other bodies.

[u/Chrisrevs1001 → u/sdk005]

Rotation & centrifugal force is my non-expert understanding.

[u/Rujasu → u/sdk005]

All the stuff that's rotating in other planes eventually interacts or collides with each other.

[u/RetroGamepad]

This is what the Sombrero Galaxy looked like.

Tens of millions of years ago.

[u/ravennme → u/RetroGamepad]

This!!!

[u/Friendly_Engineer_]

Hats off to JWST and NASA for this one

[u/SomeUnskilledArtist → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

Sombreros off you mean

[u/J-Nice]

Does anyone else get bummed out when they see pictures like these and know that there has to be other complex and intelligent life out there and I live on a planet where I sit in a cubicle 40 hours a week.

[u/General-Royal → u/J-Nice]

Still, the odds of the universe creating you were insanely low and the odds of you being intelligent enought to wonder, were even lower.

We are all incredibly lucky.

[u/DogshitLuckImmortal → u/General-Royal]

Except it is guarenteed that such observers happen and you can't very well observe as a rock. It is like having a meeting of people all to celebrate having a sperm reach the egg and saying the odds of this are insanely low.

[u/mehdi_jemjoumi → u/J-Nice]

they're probably also paying rent in that galaxy too

[u/frequenZphaZe → u/mehdi_jemjoumi]

universal constants of physics:

• speed of light in a vacuum (c)

• the gravitational constant (G)

• Planck's constant (h)

• elementary charge (e)

• the permittivity of free space (ε0)

• rent is due (fU)

[u/bowls4noles → u/J-Nice]

Born too late to explore the world

Born too early to explore space

Born right in time to be a cubicle bitch

PS I'm right there with you but a different cubicle

[u/TheArmadilloAmarillo → u/bowls4noles]

😭 bro I felt this in my soul

[u/Uninvalidated → u/J-Nice]

We don't know if the chances for life should statistically emerge once every second in the universe or once every quadrillion years.

I too used to be sure of extraterrestrial life exist only due to the massive size of the universe. The more I learned about cosmology, astronomy and physics, the more I accepted we don know shit with only a sample size of 1 when it comes to life. If we also add to life emerging, the chances of life surviving, where we know more, at least when it comes to life as we know it. We know life wouldn't be long lasting around the absolute majority of stars, just thanks to the stellar type and their position in the galaxy. The majority gone thanks to two of very many reasons life would have extreme difficulties to survive, even as simple, far from complex and intelligent beings.

[u/I_am_darkness → u/J-Nice]

Statistically you have no idea if there's other life out there. We might be it. Philosophically you don't know we exist. It might just be you. Live accordingly.

[u/Dipandnachos → u/J-Nice]

I don't necessarily believe or not believe this but the "Dark Forest Theory" is an interesting concept that makes me feel better about this. Basic idea is that there is lots of intelligent life in the universe but they are hostile and themselves remain quiet in fear of being destroyed and the vastness of space allows them to stay hidden. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis

[u/ivanxdywea]

What fucks my mind is that we're looking at a single thing, a galaxy, but the light from the back of it took about 100,000 years longer to reach us than the light from the front. So, in a way, we're seeing different moments in time for different parts of the same object.

[u/Critical-Tomorrow-27]

Bro wtf is life. Where are we. What is going on

[u/trashyman2004]

All those galaxies in the background… Mesmerizing

[u/Working_Mix9797]

I guess we can see the black hole at center of the galaxy which is just lit 🔥 in webb

[u/Complex-Start-279]

It’s crazy to think that every dot could potentially have a planet that harbors alien life, and that they may be looking at us with our own satellite, wondering the same

[u/Agreeable_Addition48]

do i see a green star in the james webb picture?

[u/KiJoBGG]

Galaxy is flat!

[u/doc_block]

From a purely aesthetic perspective, the Hubble photo is better. The dark dust ring in front of the bright galactic center creates depth, shape, and is more visually pleasing. The JWST photo looks flat.

[u/Dense_Sun_6127]

[u/hallowed-history]

The power of a galactic black hole 😮. All of that spins around it

[u/PurpleDraziNotGreen]

Reminds me of the Praxis explosion/shockwave in Star Trek 6

[u/androidguy50 → u/PurpleDraziNotGreen]

Yes! Now that you mention it, it does! I'm looking for Excelsior.

[u/PurpleDraziNotGreen → u/androidguy50]

Turn it into the wave!

[u/androidguy50 → u/PurpleDraziNotGreen]

I can just hear Sulu seeing the approaching shockwave: "Shields! SHIELDS!!"

[u/superbhole]

maybe someone can elucidate me on something that's been running across my mind lately

i always pictured that everything in space is zipping around in every direction... like, our solar system is supposedly moving at 514,000 mph

how come stars are relatively in the same place despite everything travelling in aimless directions at unimaginably fast speeds?

when we look up with the naked eye, are we only seeking Milky Way stars?

are they pretty much static in position, from our perspective, because they're all locked into Milky Way's colossal vortex with us?

[u/ComicallyLargeAfrica]

Can't believe mexicans come from there

[u/thejunglegod]

The new one should be called the Urban Sombrero galaxy because of the new colours.

[u/Skinnx86]

Be interesting to see on overlayed/merged image? 🤔

[u/Shankar_0]

Hubble: "Here's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen!"

Webb: "Here's the dark and ominous truth behind that beauty."

[u/Big_al_big_bed]

I would love for a higher res pic

[u/MadTrapper84 → u/Big_al_big_bed]

Here you go!

[u/joesbagofdonuts]

It trips me out that I can't tell whether I'm viewing it from above or below, and the fact that distinction makes no sense in space is tripping me out more.

[u/Doc_Prof_Ott]

We're probably looking at life right now, we just can't see it

[u/EvilMoSauron]

4K HD never looked so good.

[u/Sea_Valuable_116]

Hubble looks better

[u/arthur2652]

Perhaps a stupid question, but what is the big white star at the very top near the middle in the Hubble picture? And why does it not appear in the Webb one? Is it just the framing leaving it out or something else?

[u/Spudanko]

Would give ANYTHING to be in that galaxy right now.

[u/saveourplanetrecycle]

Beautiful photo

[u/DreamArez]

Photos like this always make me feel comfort. Yeah, I may never leave this planet in my lifetime or explore the stars, but at least I existed at this time and can only imagine what is out there.

[u/CarefulAstronaut7925]

Nice to know that we get a little glimpse into the cosmos before we cease to exist as a species

[u/Emotional_Area4683]

I think I like the smoking section version a bit better.

[u/EFTucker]

Webb may be more detailed but the Hubble is still more beautiful for some reason

[u/qnssekr]

It’s wild how Hubble pic looks 3-d but JWST looks flat

[u/adventurepony]

Team Hubble cause it looks cooler and gives us more to imagine about. Webb is all, "na dawg its just empty an pretty like that older girl you liked in highschool."

[u/nonreturnableplug]

Can we get rid of the whole ”just dropped” phrase from existence?

[u/philipJfry857]

Am I the only one who finds the Hubble images more...I dunno aesthetically pleasing to the eye? Don't get me wrong I LOVE what the James Webb telescope has accomplished and I would give anything to see a gravity scope launched in my lifetime to see visual images of exoplanets regardless of the cost. All that being said there's just something so quintessentially beautiful about the Hubble images.

[u/Seibertpost]

Ay caramba!

[u/Im_Ashe_Man]

I think Hubble has Webb beat in this photo, as far as looking cool.

[u/Rough_Idle]

1,300 years from now...

"Human Edith, why does your report say I come from the 'Hat Galaxy'?!"