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Does someone have any intuitive explanation on why Hubble images for bright stars seem to have a cross-shaped lens-flare effect, while for JWT it's got six spikes?

It might be because of a different post-processing algorithm, or some phi-related magic, just curious a bit.



I believe the six spikes from JWST are because of its hexagonal mirror segments.


This was my guess as well, but if it's correct, I don't understand why the Hubble images show 4 spikes. I thought Hubble's main mirror was circular, not a square.


As usual, wiki has the answer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike

>"...four spider vanes supporting the secondary mirror. These cause the four spike diffraction pattern commonly seen in astronomical images."




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