FIRST LIGHT

From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14        4142    15512         1151        189       712

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853    13667        3025      3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95

 July   7          251      8440        1595         817     411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532     423 

Sept  22       2228      9326          839        279     124

Oct    6         2102      8255          543        315       59

Nov   3         1436      7830         186         458       23

Dec    1        1633      8475          266        477       28

Jan    7         2025      6729         148        285      140

       14          2303      7872         238        430      128

       21          2777      9091         396        489      103

       26          3143   10,554         606        575        94

       27          2689   10,261         662        627        71

       28          2732   10,516         779        862      133

Feb  2           2990   12,012         946        991      175

        9           2785   11,827         1295      1241      213

      10           2465   11,110           922        659     203

      11            1917    11,193          1121        804      146

      17            2184   11,440        1129        496      435

      23           2440   10,731         956        302      110

Summary:

• The new deaths for the USA are not exactly declining, unlike those other locations above.
• What has happened, though, is that our new cases dropped yesterday to 75,300, putting us in 6th place in the World.  In the parentheses is new cases/million population.
• #1  Germany  219,859  (2617)
• #2  South Korea  171,448  (3342)
• #3  Russia  137,642  (943)
• #4  Brazil  133,626  (622)
• #5  Turkey  86,600  (1007)
• #6  USA  75,300 (225)
• Japan  66,373  (527)
• Vietnam  60,085  (607)
• Singapore  20,312  (3443)
• Taiwan  56  (2.33)
• China  205  (0.14)
• There are now two pandemic epicenters:  Europe and parts of the Orient.

So how has the invasion of Ukraine affected the world?

• The war has expanded to military installations throughout the country, including Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear power calamity.  Why?  The speculation is that Russia can use this facility to release radiation into Europe.
• Said to be the most significant European war in 77 years, which, of course, was World War II.

• 
  Petroleum prices exceeded $100/barrel for the first time since 2014.
• Worldwide, stock markets plunged, with the German DAX down 4%.
• Historically, how wars influenced the market:

• 
  The USA, European Union, NATO and UN are powerless to stop Russia, and, next...from China forcefully taking over Taiwan.
• Cyberattacks will become a far more serious problem for the rest of the world.
• The Russia-China Alliance has become a formidable new Axis.

Maybe not as dramatic as the Bible, when Let There Be Light was pronounced by God, and it was good, but the James Webb Space Telescope is close to attaining something similar.  For now, last week a test run was completed on the mirrors using the Near Infrared Camera to identify the same star in 18 primary segments.  

• As you can see, these mirrors are yet unaligned, for images are blurry.  
• When this phase of refinement is completed, the 18 images will each become the focused single star.  
• The star, incidentally, is HD 84406 (photo taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) in the constellation Ursa Major, located only 260 light-years away.  You can yourself see this sun-like star located near the bear's head with good binoculars.

So did the astronomers actually see the official first light?  

• Well, yes and no.  There are two first lights.  
• On February 3 detectors for the first time reflected that star.  This was significant because it shows that the telescope essentially works.
• 
  Then there is the official FIRST LIGHT, a term cosmologists use to describe the first generation of stars formed in our Universe, approximately 300 million years after the Big Bang.  Sometime this summer, the Space Telescope will see some of the oldest galaxies over 13.5 billion light-years away.
• The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion ago.
• Here is the logic:

You're not seeing the sun as it is today, you're seeing an 8 minute old sun. You're seeing 642 year-old Betelgeuse. 2.5 million year-old Andromeda. In fact, you can keep doing this, looking further out, and deeper into time. Since the universe is expanding today, it was closer in the past.

• 
  Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today, is quoted to say:

I always find it absolutely mind bending to think that all around us in every direction is the first light from the universe. It's taken 13.8 billion years to reach us, and although we need microwave eyes to actually see it, it's there, everywhere.

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