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Quantitatively, this difference a comparatively small. The Webb image is about 1.33 times higher resolution than Hubble at the wavelengths observed in this image. "Given Webb’s extraordinary performance and the public’s enthusiasm, it’s easy to overly interpret the image quality difference between Webb and Hubble. *Update from Ray Villard, Hubble Space Telescope News Chief IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble Heritage Project (STScI, AURA)
#James webb vs hubble images full#
Full credits for the image are as follows, broken down into science and image processing.
#James webb vs hubble images software#
Of course, since 1990 it's not just the quality of the deep-space telescopes that has improved, but the software used to resolve the images, stack them, and color them. "Hubble is in a very close orbit around the earth, while Webb will be 1.5 million kilometers (km) away at the second Lagrange (L2) point." The last major difference is the distance from the earth that both space telescopes orbit. Webb has a much bigger mirror than Hubble does, which gives it a bigger area for collecting light, and it can peer back in time further. Stars and planets are often obscured by a dusty region surrounding them, and infrared light can penetrate this dusty shroud to reveal more of what's there.
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It goes further, explaining that while Webb can look at the Universe in the infrared, Hubble works on optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. "The Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown in the left picture," says NASA. The image shows the Hubble Space Telescope on the left and the James Webb Space Telescope on the right. Hubble's science pushed us to look to longer wavelengths to "go beyond" what Hubble has already done. Webb often gets called the replacement for Hubble, but we prefer to call it a successor. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view." (Image credit: NASA) Webb vs Hubble telescope - what's the difference? As one NASA article put it: “Essentially, Hubble can see the equivalent of 'toddler galaxies' and Webb Telescope will be able to see 'baby galaxies.Right: "A new, near-infrared-light view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. This means Webb is essentially letting us see further back in time. So that image isn’t what the cliffs look like today, but what they looked like 7,600 years ago when that light left the nebula.
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For example, the Cosmic Cliffs region of the Carina Nebula (top of the page) is roughly 7,600 light years away from us. This is because light takes time to travel, so by the time it reaches us here on Earth we are not seeing a distant star as it is today, but as it was thousands or millions of years ago. To complicate things just a bit more, when we see objects farther away, we are actually seeing older objects. The infrared image from Webb allows us not only to see far greater detail, but to pierce through the nebula’s clouds and see numerous objects beyond. STScI A portion of the “Cosmic Cliffs” of the Carina Nebula as captured by Hubble (top) and Webb (bottom).
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