Brief reflections on the first James Webb Space Telescope images
Click for this Resource!When I first saw the images from JWST I recognized immediately that they each represented one of the major science missions of the new telescope. It also struck me that in our Deeptime perspective each one of the images represents one of the expressions of cosmogenesis and a major theme of human (and life’s) experience. For example:
Carina nebula – birth
Webb Deep Field – origins
Southern Ring Nebula – death
WASP exoplanet – life
Stephan’s Quintet – relationality and transformation
So the JWST is expressing a yearning for exploring the most profound human themes of life, death, transformation, and relationality in a cosmic context, and is connecting up these themes with their origins in the cosmos. They’re doing the work of Deeptime in a scientific framework. I also appreciated how they expressed JWST as not only being solely a NASA/ESA mission but an instrument that represents humanity and our collective search for a common origin. Sarbmeet said it so well in his recent blog post: we build telescopes to get to know where we come from.
The launch and success of JWST is really a pivotal moment for the global community and I think the first year of results is really going to be spectacular!
See the first images here: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
- Used by people who call the work: Cosmic Evolution, The New Story
- Applies a deep time evolutionary perspective to: Science
- Learning Stages: Lifelong
- Type: Blog
- Keywords: jwst, james webb space telescope
- Why I love this Resource: These images are amazing!
- Link to Resource: Click here
- Posted By: Stephan Martin
- Date Added: July 14, 2022
Stephan, thank you for your vision in identifying the distinctive stages represented by the first set of images from the JWST. The cycle of life really is part of the story of the universe. It has been great to see the images so soon after completing the 9 month Deeptime Network course. Hopefully the next few months will allow all of humanity to see more awe-inspiring images of our ever expanding and evolving common home. Dan Troy