Interactive tool shows how JWST surpasses Hubble

Photo: WebbCompare

The world is buzzing with excitement about space thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). When NASA released the telescope’s first images in mid-July, everyone was struck by the results. And while the pictures are spectacular, we see so much incredible photography these days that we sometimes need to be reminded of how far we have come. That’s where the comparisons with the Hubble Space Telescope came in. And while we were busy making GIFs to show the difference, love astronomy and software developer John Christensen took things to a whole new level.

Christensen, who grew up looking at Hubble images and watching space documentaries with his father, actually went out and built a tool that makes it easy to compare the two telescopes. By swiping back and forth on WebbCompare, anyone can see the stark difference in quality between Hubble and JWST.

After posting his tool online, he was thrilled with the result. For anyone who thought “what’s the problem?” when you look at the JWST images, Christensen’s tools clearly provide an answer. What started as a personal project for Christensen has now become something much bigger.

Basically, he was simply trying to see why everyone was making so much fuss about JWST. “What’s different about that?” he wondered. “Why did we spend so much human engineering and time and money making this thing?”

Of course, once the app was coded, he immediately saw the difference. And now Christensen is excited to see that others enjoy the results as much as he did.

“I think my favorite answers were people who said they showed this interactive to their kids and made the kids really excited about it,” Christenson says. “That’s how I ended up going into science, was in a way inspired by Hubble images.”

Software developer John Christensen created an interactive tool that shows why the James Webb Space Telescope is a step above Hubble.

I created a tool to compare Webb’s new images with Hubble! https://t.co/1JqTxabgGC#JamesWebbSpaceTelescope pic.twitter.com/2wRO8t0LXD

– John Christensen (@ JohnnyC1423) July 12, 2022

When he posted WebbCompare online, astronomy lovers went wild everywhere.

THIS IS SO DOPE https://t.co/RIBR0NRpV6

– Hank Green (@hankgreen) July 12, 2022

Like removing a 10-stop filter and pressing the autofocus button. Wow.

– paul (@paul_kramarchyk) July 12, 2022

Wow. This is amazing. The fog comparisons are almost night and day differences.

– Frank (@franklinplatt) July 12, 2022

I feel so lucky and lucky to be alive right now. I can not put into words how all this makes me feel. Thank you so much for sharing this with me

– Marisela ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ (@mariselaxox) July 12, 2022

WebbCompare: Website
h / t: [NPR]

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