The newfound galaxy appears to be in the midst of a star-birth sprint, and its reservoirs of gas and dust are being pummeled with countless photons of light. It is this light the JWST has managed to see.
Neat!
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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Photons if light? What other kinds of photons exist?
They are paraphrasing from the original news release, but poorly.
The gas cloud is being hit with so many photons of light from the stars that it is shining extremely brightly
Photons of light from the stars, as opposed to light from other things.
Generally poorly worded, but I can see what they are trying to convey. But they could have done it better.
Space.com really doesn't have good quality articles.
Any headline pumping site, I always go find the original cited article. I trust the researchers who did the thing over someone who has a minor understanding and a good domain name.
Tho, I do like the articles on phys.org. They often seem to have direct quotes from the authors of the research, like they actually spoke to someone. But they are less space focused and more general science news from across the spectrum.
If you'd like a real answer, because of particle-wave duality, all electro magnetic emmission can be quantized as photons, including radio waves. Now is it redunant to say photons of light instead of just light? Yes
The kind where science communicators have to account for the lowest common denominator of reader that may not have payed attention in high school when the teacher was talking about photons being the reason for light.
Well light is also a wave and radio is also photons, and I'm sure that's not taught in high school
The process of scientific discovery is never “Eureka!” but rather “That’s funny…”
Rule number one is never outshine your stars!
scientist: That's weird...
I feel like we've seen this movie before...