Can we use JWST to observe Betelgeuse? #shorts #JWST #astronomy

REUPLOAD DUE TO SCIENTIFIC ERROR - now corrected 👍 Turns out Betelgeuse is too bright to point JWST at. If you did it would saturate the telescope detector with light and leave a “ghost image” of bright Betelgeuse on it, possibly damaging the sensitive detectors.

👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.

[DrBecky]

Re-uploaded due to scientific error in the previous version. A stupid mistake on my part converting the logarithmic magnitude to a difference in brightness (it’s a base 2.512 not 10 logarithmic scale d’oh 🤦🏻‍♀️)

[I.amthatrealJuan]

This video is a reminder that even experts sometimes make simple mistakes in their field. I trust you so much it didn't raise a red flag to me when the brightness conversion factor you previously said was way off. 😬😂
Thanks for the timely correction.

[XYpsilonLP]

I like your content. Still can't resist: Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! ^^

[DreadEnder]

For anyone confused on what went wrong last time, they said -4 was 10, 000, 000 times greater than 4 instead of 1, 585 times greater in the logarithmic scale.

[ericfielding]

Thanks for updating this with the correction. The earthquake magnitude scale has a factor of 32 per unit, which is another source of mistakes.

[edd.]

I thought you just posted this. Thanks for the fix🙏🙌

[kkeegan]

How about centering Betel close to the defect in the damaged panel and turn all others off focus?

[thomasdillon]

Excellent explanation of how JWST works.👍

[JavSusLar]

Just brainstorming: what about using the lens they used for mirror adjustment? That lens puts the focal point at the mirror, instead of at infinity. Plus, let's misalign one of the segments, so that only that one reflects Betelgeuse into the instruments. Then, with the grid, let's choose only the tiniest part of that image. Will it be dark enough or still too bright for the instruments?

[AlanJames]

If not JWST is there another instrument we could use, or build relatively quickly, to help answer this question?

[joshuahunt]

There goes my idea of pointing it at Proxima Centauri or Barnard’s Star to check for rocky planets. Now I realize that could turn out poorly.

[Dodoskee]

What would you need... something like a very large baseline telescope array in the visible light in order to see details without saturating?

[gregorymcfarlane]

I love this beautiful woman Dr. Beck you have the most beautiful eyes

[Vertelemming]

The next obvious question is what current or future telescopes could provide the necessary observations, and how long might it be before we can collect the data.

[michaelmeyer]

I don't know how I stumbled upon your videos but they are so cool, easy to understand, and fun to watch. You better believe I hit that subscribe button. You're another one of those scientists I'd love to go have a drink with. (Neil deGrasse Tyson and Michelle Thaller come immediately to mind.)

[kevinflick]

Also dr. Becky if you could explain why all pictures of the big bang only show the Big bang expanding in one direction, I would appreciate it.

[artor]

Also, Betelgeuse is right next to the sun right now, and the JWST can't point in that direction.

[Santaquent]

could we use the cameras on the voyager? I'm talking astrometry here. with the longest baseline we get the
greatest parallax, we can calculate the distance more precisely, and then mass, and energy output. (and if the error bar on the distance is smaller than Gaia's we can claim voyager is still doing cutting edge science!)

[emmata]

Can't we usw the trick we used for the Jupiter pics?

[JereckNET]

What about the upcoming space telescopes?