James Webb, Spitzer, BOB discussed on The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
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Uranus because it's a great icebreaker. I love that. We're going to say something else. It really makes people listen and it makes kids laugh and why wouldn't you want that? So yeah, and I spent the last four years studying the gases of Uranus. I'm very pleased to love it. Yeast of the ridicule. So that's great. My son's gonna love this podcast. But it's hard, like when bob's bob basically asked, how deep are we going to dive into Uranus? I was looking at some pictures. I don't know if these are real or not. But I was looking at like Hubble compared to web, right? And I guess they're showing like the same piece of space. And I don't know if this is real, though. Like, I don't know if this was like a simulation on how much sharper it is or whatever, but do those pictures really exist or are those just showing you projections? What it is, but it's not real. Yeah, so there was an image going round or two images going around that was spitzer compared to web. And that's a real one. Because and it's a real comparison of the same field of sky and that's a really great picture because it shows how much more signal that we're getting and all of the details that you can see and the resolution is much better and it's very, very exciting, especially for people who are looking in the mid infrared like I was talking about before. Yeah, I've seen that picture. Those two pictures and oh my God, it's the difference between looking at something completely blurry and looking at something that's in focus. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. And yeah, they haven't even started. So it's really exciting that that's just, you know, that's just like they turned it on and pointed it at something convenient. So imagine what they can do with time and investing the science into it. Now, as high res and amazing as James Webb is and it certainly is. It's a marvel. But when you think, you know, when you think about, oh man, if only, or I can't wait until what kind of resolution, what kind of what kind of things would you love to see that even James Webb just does not is nowhere near having the capability of discerning. Honestly, I don't know. I mean, all of the questions that we got for the James Webb Space Telescope came from the spitzer space telescope. So until we answer questions with James Webb, will we know what questions we have for our next generation. Yes, exactly. Exactly. We don't know what we don't know. How about that for an answer, but I like it. I like it. What would you want to look at that's even better than the one that we're just celebrating now? Like, come on, come on, Jake. Bob, let the James Webb settle in, man. Let it let it do its magic. Yes, it has settled in, but I can't help but think as awesome as that is, what can our grandkids, what are they going to be looking at? I can't help but thinking they already have the planned one. Or they're planning it. It's like the Louvre slash had X and it looks like a giant James Webb. Oh gosh. So scientists are just as impatient as well. I kind of doubt that 'cause I'm thinking about like solar gravitational lenses. So that's kind of many generations down the road, but let's look at the exoplanet a hundred light years away and look at the continents. That's the kind of stuff I dream about, but you know what James Webb is good too. No, but seriously, I am for studying the outer planets, right? I mean, they think a probe is going to give us you're right there. That's true. Any telescope near earth. So I guess what I'm asking is, when are we going to probe Uranus? Steve. Well, actually, you mentioned this. We had something called the planetary decadal and that means that the national Academy of Sciences announced kind of what the priorities of science should be for NASA and NASA usually follows it. And they said that the priority mission, the flagship mission of the next decade should be a Uranus orbiter and probe. So you won't have to wait long. Oh my goodness. Awesome. It has been a while. Since Voyager. Exactly. I would imagine that that would be on the short list. Naomi Naomi will Hubble help James Webb like fine stuff. It's Hubble gonna be turned into kind of like let's have Hubble look first and then we'll have James Webb come in with the big guns. A spotter telescope? They're actually very complimentary, so it's not gonna even act as its sidekick. It's gonna be its partner. It's going to be looking with it because Hubble looks in the visible. So in the same light that we look in and it also looks in the UV, which is even further towards the blue. And then it also looks at a shorter range of the near infrared. And so that means that we can look at a planet in this entire range, and that's really exciting for scientists because lots of different things happen in each of the bands all the way from UV through to the mid infrared and it means that you can deduce lots of different scientific conclusions and do science better with more wavelengths. Hubble's Hubble's not dead. I know, the Hubble lasted way longer than I thought it was going to. 30 two? Is it 32? Still kicking. It's the same age as me. Yeah. Yeah, you can't have those problems with web, though. Yeah, exactly. It's pretty far away. It's a bit too far away to go for a servicing mission, yeah. Do we know how long it'll last? We know how long it could last, so when it went up, the ESA, so the European space agency were in charge of an Airbus. I don't remember. They shot it off and launched it. They killed it. And he did so well..