This video is the stereo 3D version of “Pan Past JWST at L2 Point”.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the next of NASA’s Great Observatories, following in the line of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. JWST combines qualities of two of its predecessors, observing in infrared light, like Spitzer, with fine resolution, like Hubble.

The telescope has a 6.5-meter mirror composed of 18 hexagonal segments in a honeycomb pattern. Protecting the sensitive research instruments is a large sunshield about the size of a tennis court. Further protection comes from the observatory’s remote location in a place called the second LaGrange point (L2). Orbiting the Sun at L2, JWST will be about a million miles from Earth (roughly four times more distant than the Moon) and will always be positioned with the Earth and the Sun in the same direction, behind its sunshield.

In this animation, designed as an homage to a shot from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” we fly by and circle around a model of JWST at L2. The opening of the sequence illustrates the L2 location, showing the Moon in the foreground, Earth in the mid-ground, and the Sun in the background.

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This is the stereo 3D version of “Active Galaxy Hercules A: Visible & Radio Comparison.”

The active galaxy Hercules A was given that name because it is the brightest radio source in the constellation of Hercules. Astronomers found that the double-peaked radio emission corresponded to a giant elliptical galaxy cataloged as 3C 348. Unusually, this behemoth galaxy is not found within a large cluster of hundreds of galaxies, but rather within a comparatively small group of dozens of galaxies. The ‘active’ part of the galaxy is the supermassive black hole in its core, which spews out strong jets of energetic particles that produce enormous lobes of radio emission. Some astronomers suspect that Hercules A may be the result of two galaxies merging together.

This video envisions a three-dimensional look at the combined visible light (Hubble Space Telescope) and radio emission (Very Large Array) from Hercules A. The size of these radio lobes dwarfs the large galaxy and extends throughout the volume of the galaxy group. This visualization is intended only to be a scientifically reasonable illustration of the three-dimensional structures. In particular, the galaxy distances within the group are based on a statistical model, and not measured values.

For more information or to download this video, visit: http://hubblesite.org/videos/video_details/10-active-galaxy-hercules-a-in-3d-visible-radio

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A timelapse video of our team, including Tony Darnell, Dr. Bonnie Meinke and Dr. Frank Summers assembling the Webb and Hubble booth, including the partial Webb mirror model.