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Today, Explained

FYI those telescope photos are kinda fake

Today, Explained

Vox

News, Daily News, Politics

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

But the images from the Webb Space Telescope still provide our best look yet at the formation of the universe. NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn and science journalist Josh Sokol unpack humanity’s newest glimpse at the cosmos. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained   Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If I was actually shooting by the Korean anabula in a spaceship, would it actually look like that?

0:08.5

No. It would not actually look like this. I have to confess it would not.

0:12.7

Whoa! It would still look really cool.

0:17.4

Coming up on today, explained photos from the James Webb Telescope broke the internet last week and we're just getting started.

0:26.2

We're starting to get a hint to learn what these distant galaxies are made of because we've never been able to see that before.

0:35.2

But there also a digital representation of something no human could ever see with their own eyes.

0:44.2

Yeah, the raw data is black and white or I challenge you to imagine something even more abstract.

0:50.2

Earth is hot and stressful so we're going deep on deep space today.

1:00.2

Good morning, good morning everyone. We are live and this is it. Today is the day we have all been waiting for so let's get excited!

1:14.2

I am Amber Strong and astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

1:19.2

And I'm Sean Ramis from one of two hosts at today, explained Dr. Amber Strong is on a first name basis with the James Webb Space Telescope.

1:30.2

I am a scientist on the team at NASA for JWST.

1:35.2

James Webb Space Telescope's friends just call it JWST.

1:39.2

And I've been in this role for 11, 12 years now officially and I've been working on it even before then as a postdoc and grad student.

1:47.2

So it's been a while.

1:49.2

Which means she saw these mind expanding images before they were cool.

1:53.2

I mean I don't think you have to be an astronomer to appreciate the beauty of these images.

1:59.2

And I think you know the past 30 years of Hubble has demonstrated that.

2:04.2

The public loves Hubble because of these beautiful images.

2:09.2

And I don't know exactly why that is. It's a little strange that they're just sort of it's a universal human experience to be sort of odd by the beauty of the universe.

2:21.2

And I think that was the exact reaction. Although I don't think people actually know in most cases exactly what they're looking at.

2:30.2

So we were wondering if you could help us with that part of it.

...

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