Judy Schmidt tells us about her magnificent treatment of James-Webb images

For 10 years, she has carefully inspected the data acquired by the telescope space Hubble, and now James-Webb. Judy Schmidt, better known as Geckzilla on their website and Flickror even SpaceGek on Twitter, amazes the world with the astronomical images it produces. Nothing escapes him: “I regularly check the files, so when something interesting comes up, I download it and check it out”he told Future. And lately, of course, it’s the JWST data that’s in the spotlight. army of one ” computer windows [qu’elle a construit elle-même]of a Tablet Wacom and Photoshop, as well as a software free from The European Space Agency is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape European space capability development activities and make…” data-image=”https://cdn.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/0/9/f/ 09f0b05e28_50034401_logo -esa-fs .jpg” data-url=”https://news.google.com/sciences/definitions/universe-esa-2466/” data-more=”Read more”>THIS called FITS Liberator”, Judy has already processed about 700 images. A meticulous process, especially for Sometimes the color…” data-image=”https://cdn.futura-sciences.com/buildsv6/images/midioriginal/7/9/5/7951943cc1_85596_couleur.jpg” data – url=”https://news.google.com/science/definitions/physics-color-4126/” data-more=”Read more”>colors. “I don’t know the exact number, but I’m sure it’s a pretty close approximation. »

She explains to the editor: “The colors are simply a product of the combination of data in the red, blue, and green color channels. The original data is all grayscale images. I usually download all the possible combinations and look at each one to see which works best. Then I take care of creating a white balance, that is, I adjust the color channels until the image does not look too tinted with one color or another. Once white balance is achieved, it looks more natural to our eyes. »

“Star-forming nebulae are among the most beautiful places in the sky”

When asked if he has any preference among the 700 images taken, he replies: “That is the most difficult question. There are several of them who are dear to me.” But ultimately, the chosen one turns out to be a nebula, more precisely a part of the chameleon complex. “In addition to being one of the first very difficult images for me to create, I think the nebulae Stars in formation are among the most beautiful places in the sky.” she gets excited. The chameleon complex has several segments: the one discussed by Judy is segment I, based on data acquired by Hubble.

Of course, this is not the only astronomical object that Judy has had the opportunity to study in detail. “I know what kind of object I’m dealing with most of the time, but many visible details in a given image that aren’t the primary target may not yet have a name or designation., she explains. In rare cases, I see something and I can’t figure out what it is, so it could be something exciting. This only happened once with the Galaxy IC 5063 and I’m not sure it will happen again. » In fact, this galaxy reveals strange crepuscular rays that have recently been analyzed by researchers.

Looking at this new photo of IC5063 (from Barth’s Prop15444), trying to figure out if I can make a color image… hmm, maybe not, but I’m wondering if these cones I’m straining to see are real. ???? pic.twitter.com/EtMSyhhTkj

—Judy Schmidt (@SpaceGeck) December 2, 2019

More JWST photos may be coming soon…

Although she is known internationally for her images, in particular for the POT with whom he collaborated very recently, judy schmidt don’t plan to make it a full-time job. “I certainly can’t and I don’t want to. » With an initial training in graphic design, she has always been fond of astronomy and a follower of APOD (astronomical picture of the day) for years before it started processing data itself.

And the last one was more complicated than the others: Jupiter ! “The rotation of Jupiter it was a challenge, she explains. The telescope does not take all of its images at the same time. Most of them are separated by at least a few minutes, but for the three-color image of Jupiter in particular, one was more than 30 minutes later than the others. Jupiter spins very fast, so 30 minutes is more than enough time for the planet to not line up with the other images. I fix this by projecting the image onto a 3D sphere, then use the 3D program to rotate that sphere to align with the previous images. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best way I know of to align them. » For this latest image, Judy collaborated with NASA. Other JWST images should be coming soon, but we won’t know more until they’re released!