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JWST reveals its first direct image discovery of an exoplanet

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
342 points divbzero | 4 comments | 27 Jun 25 17:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.864s | source
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BitwiseFool ◴[27 Jun 25 22:03 UTC] No.44400670[source]▶
The JWST is a marvel of engineering. It is also a machine designed around the restrictions of what the most powerful rockets of the 1990's were capable of. Just imagine how capable future telescopes will be now that we have multiple super-heavy launch vehicles with cavernous payload fairings in development.
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1. adriand ◴[28 Jun 25 00:03 UTC] No.44401390[source]▶
My fantasy is that at some point we’ll have a sufficiently powerful telescope to cause a galactic “Van Leeuwenhoek moment” where, just like that discoverer of microbes, we will suddenly see the galaxy swarming with spacecraft.
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2. sneak ◴[28 Jun 25 04:26 UTC] No.44402299[source]▶
Assume for a moment that happens. Can you possibly imagine the chaos and turmoil that causes on Earth?
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3. unfunco ◴[28 Jun 25 05:00 UTC] No.44402401[source]▶
No? I genuinely think most of the world will have moved on and will be caring about something else within a day, the world will be about as chaotic and tumultuous as it was shortly after the discovery of microbes.
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4. booleandilemma ◴[28 Jun 25 10:29 UTC] No.44403649{3}[source]▶
Microbes weren't discovered everywhere all at once though. I think if the entire planet found out (through modern media) people would go ballistic.