The Raw Date Is Black and White

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Astronomers create images using an array of numbers. They then translate that into a black and white, like a gray scale image. The thing is, when your phone does this, you're not involved in the process at all. And what's happened with these telescope images is there were people involved at every step,. It's just much more intentional about what is being communicated in the images. If i was shooting by the korena nebula in a spaceship?

But the images from the Webb Space Telescope still provide our best look yet at the formation of the universe. NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn and science journalist Josh Sokol unpack humanity’s newest glimpse at the cosmos.

This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.

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