Hubble vs Webb

submitted by chottohen from i.imgur.com

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]chottohen[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I read just one article but it said the flare was caused by a mistake in the manufacture. I have doubts about that and it seems to be an exaggeration. In other deep space photos, not from this new one, the nearer, bigger stars show the same sort of lens flare. So this could be an example of a writer who knew little on the subject and had no expert commentary to fall back on but was forced to produce copy based on the first photos released. I expect we'll be hearing from the experts over the next few days.

[–]package 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

If you mean the bright long spikes coming from bright objects, those are diffraction spikes and are expected on any scope that has any obstruction between the lens and the image sensor. Normally you see 4 of them on consumer telescopes where one of the mirrors is suspended at the front of the scope by 4 supports. If they’re not meant to be as prominent as they are on the James Webb telescope, some part of the assembly is probably mounted slightly farther away than intended, but near enough to still allow refocusing.