TIL the recent James Webb photo of the Pillars of Creation took 14 hours of exposure time total

I was reading through the technical specs on the Webb site last night and it blew my mind. The Hubble Pillars image we all know took like days to capture across multiple wavelengths back in the 90s. But Webb got that insane level of detail in just under 14 hours spread across 6 filters. That's basically one long afternoon of shooting for something that covers 5 light years of space. I always figured these deep field shots took weeks of telescope time. Makes you realize how much faster the infrared sensors work compared to visible light. Anyone know if there's a breakdown of exactly how many individual frames went into that final composite?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliot_king7h ago

Fourteen hours for a 5 light year panorama is honestly insane when you think about how long it takes me to decide what to stream on Netflix, lol. I bet if you totaled up all the individual frames it'd still be less than the amount of time Hubble wasted trying to see through its own blurry mirror back in the day. Infrared tech is basically cheating at this point, but I'll take it.

christopher_hunt5h ago

Honestly @elliot_king, you just made me rethink infrared. I used to hate on it.