This is on the ESA web site: https://sky.esa.int/esasky/?target=...&lang=en&jwst_image=webb_orionnebula_longwave
Yeah, it's like when the Hubble first started sending back pictures, all over again. If you can look at these images and not be awed, you have no soul IMO.
...and if after looking at the images, you can't believe strongly that there has to be life elsewhere, you're dumb
The images are amazing! Thanks for sharing. As for life elsewhere, it's pretty much a guarantee considering the scale of the known universe. Just a shame that with the distances involved, we are extremely unlikely to ever have confirmation.
The laws of physics, as we currently understand them, don't permit us to get anywhere OUTSIDE the solar system that might harbor life any time within our lifetimes. Our current level of technology doesn't permit us to get anywhere interesting that might harbor life WITHIN the solar system in anything less than YEARS. However, as human beings, we have demonstrated over and over again that we find ways to get around the limitations imposed on us, and I have confidence that we will one day figure out a way to get around this as well. 500 years ago, we KNEW that humans couldn't fly. 100 years ago, we KNEW that the sound barrier couldn't be broken. Today, we KNOW that the speed of light can't be exceeded. I wonder what we'll KNOW 100 years from now?
Everything indicates that the speed of light is absolute. Of course, our understanding could be flawed, but everything indicates that it would require infinite energy for any object with mass to reach the speed of light. But, all that we know is nothing more than assumptions. We assume things work that way because the math we have worked out support what we see, and tests also support it. Still only assumptions, but pretty good assumptions. Also, I'm pretty sure we knew that the sound barrier could be broken 100 years ago. Einstein's theory of relativity came out more than 100 years ago, but I get your point.
Up until the late 1930s, it was thought that it was impossible for an aircraft to travel faster than the speed of sound. The effects of turbulence were believed to be so great as to destroy any feasible aircraft. The only reason bullets could go supersonic, it was believed, was because they were solid objects that were very dense for their size. The aeronautical formulae of the day showed that as you got closer to Mach 1, both the turbulence and the power required to overcome that turbulence approached infinity. This was borne out by wind tunnel testing as well. Wikipedia has a pretty nice article on this. Eventually, we realized that the problem was that we were trying to 'brute-force' our way supersonic, and we had to be smarter about how we approached the problem. In 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly an aircraft supersonic, and by the mid-1950s, supersonic flight was becoming routine. I suspect the same will be true with light-speed. We just haven't figured out the loopholes yet.
I didn't think of it like that, very interesting explanation. Thanks! Faster than light travel would be amazing, just a shame that we are not likely to experience any breakthroughs in this field.
