Punching a Hole Through the Clouds: On Christmas Day, the Webb Lifts Off Perfectly to Look for the First Moments of Time

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• mmack December 25, 2021, 9:21 AM

  “ and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.”

  By columns of flame we take our small steps into the universe.

  Merry Christmas Gerard. And to your “editor” 🐱

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• John Fisher December 25, 2021, 5:21 PM

  I really hope this works but this old engineer sees the presence of the Demon Murphy in the deployment sequence. We’ll know in a month.

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  • gwbnyc December 25, 2021, 7:36 PM

    cataloguing what could go wrong is the process.

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• Dirk December 25, 2021, 7:21 PM

  Is space really the next step. We are covered by 70% water, with only glimpses into what wonders are below. I know, Meglodons exist. Hope exists, explain new spices on earth in 2021. Truly amazing

  VI

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• Auntie Analogue December 25, 2021, 7:53 PM

  Voyager, now far beyond its original destinations, carried a record, which gave meaning to the phrase, “Space: the Vinyl Frontier.”

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  • Walter Sobchak December 26, 2021, 7:57 AM

    Actually gold plated copper.
    https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/

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• Walter Sobchak December 26, 2021, 7:52 AM

  And now for the hard part. Getting one of the most complicated machines ever built to assemble itself in about 300 steps involving latches, pulleys, gears, motors, etc. in a precise order so that the 18 segments of the mirror align to within 150 nanometers, all while traveling at 17,000 miles per hour.

  The mirror upon final assembly will be 6.5 meters across (256 in.) which for the sake of comparison is bigger than all but 13 earthbound telescopes. We await the pictures of wondrous things with bated breath.

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• Snakepit Kansas December 27, 2021, 5:54 AM

  James Webb. Former senator and secretary of defense. Author of Fields of Fire. Best novel on the Vietnam war, hands down.

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