Waiting On The Webb..(Yawn...)

The intrinsic brightness of galaxies may change with time.
George Gamow, Modern Cosmology, Scientific American, 1954

It is hard to believe that as the scientific community celebrates the Hubble Space Telescopes 25th anniversary, that there is already something bigger and better in the pipe and coming to us in 2018. But the Oracle of Ottawa just can't see how NASA can ever top the bang for tax payers buck that they have received from the Hubble. And as we all know the images that have come back from the Big Hub have sure kept the bangers up late through many nights. The Hubble changed our understanding of the Universe forever. There are indeed many people who are not amused at these unintended consequences.

JWST - Ya but, will it fly?

If you read into the Webb Space telescope  in any level of detail, you are soon forced to the conclusion that the sucker is doomed to fail. Who was the brainiac that thought an L2 halo orbit would be a good idea? And how are you going to engage the hearts and minds of the taxpayers with boring infrared images? It all sounds like a sour grapes surrender of the bangers and the dark energy and dark matter crowd.

In astronomy size is not always everything...

Hopefully this time around NASA will actually assemble the optics from the contractor out back in the parking lot and actually test the optics BEFORE it is launched into space. And yes I have watched the contractor video and I see a ton of potential screw ups. You would think that as man has been in space for over fifty years now, at the time of this writing, that there would be total and banned avoidance of delicate things that that are to be unfurled in space. The failure rate of such stupidity is very high.

If you have followed along this far you should now be coming to the realization that this device is actually being set up to fail. The bangers of the dark crowd just are not going to risk inadvertantly proving Fred Hoyle and Halton C. Arp right after all! But it is all nothing to worry about... Construction is now well under way on the European Extremely Large Telescope, The United States has lost its dominance, probably forever, and if you thought the Hubble changed everything, just be patient and look both ways before you cross the street and wait for the first light of the mighty EELT.