Behind the Webb: The Golden Touch (Episode 15, June 2012) @NASAWebbTelescope

Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

Release Date: June 13, 2012

The Webb telescope's mirrors are coated in an extremely thin film of gold. This gold layer, only a few millionths of an inch thick, enables the mirrors to best reflect the infrared light the telescope seeks. The thinner the layer, the better off the telescope will be — every bit of weight counts when a telescope as big as Webb is being lifted into space by a rocket. Join us at Quantum Coating in New Jersey, where engineers are vaporizing gold to apply a thin, even layer to the telescope's mirrors.

Credit: NASA, Mary Estacion (STScI)

Behind the Webb: The Golden Touch (Episode 15, June 2012)

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$Webb Telescope Data, Translated to Sound — Cosmic Cliffs: Stars Experience the first full-color images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in a brand new way. A near-infrared image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, captured by NASA’s Webb Telescope, has been mapped to a symphony of sounds to create a data sonification. This video plays only the notes that represent stars in the image. All stars are represented by a combination of pitches and processed piano notes, but the brightest stars with longer diffraction spikes also carry crashes and clangs from cymbals. Sonifications support blind and low-vision listeners first, but are designed to be captivating to anyone who tunes in. This sonification, which scans the image from left to right, was adapted to a video to allow sighted viewers to watch as a vertical line moves across the frame. Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the bottom is loud and lower pitched. This sonification does not represent sounds recorded in space. Two musicians mapped the telescope’s data to sound, carefully composing music to accurately represent details the team would like listeners to focus on. In a way, this sonification is like modern dance or an impressionist painting – it converts Webb’s image to a new medium to engage and inspire listeners. Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-webb-s-first-full-color-images-data-are-set-to-sound Also listen to: 1. The full sonification: https://youtu.be/j9shIxS-W-8 2. The top of the image: https://youtu.be/ZjJpJwVEe2A 3. The lower half of the image: https://youtu.be/W-MUP2TbsWo Want more Webb sonifications? Check out the Southern Ring Nebula sonifications (https://youtu.be/La9DB-bcy5Y), and the WASP-96 b sonification (https://youtu.be/vqa94WD6smc). Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Accessibility Production: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Kimberly Arcand (CXC/SAO), Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), and Christine Malec (consultant).$