NASA has released details of the new phase of the mirror alignment process for the James Webb Space Telescope. As shown, the image captured is of a bright star in the middle. The details are incredible and there are discoveries in the picture that scientists did not expect to find.
According to the US special agency, the steps for aligning the mirror are complete. Many will come down and may leave us in disbelief!
NASA Celebrate reaching a new stage with picture display. The image shows a bright star with beautiful diffraction peaks against the background of several galaxies. Until now, since then Placement at point L2Webb is located in the outermost part of the Earth's orbit along the line connecting the Earth and the Sun, and Webb is not yet ready for scheduled operations.
However, the scientists said they are excited about their performance so far and excited about what they will discover in time.
According to the information, the goal was to focus only on the star 2MASS J17554042 + 6551277. Take advantage of its brightness to experience beautiful diffraction rays. However, the device proved to be so sensitive (and advanced) that it was also able to clearly image other stars (points) and even galaxies (ovals), in the background.
Small adjustments, big progress!
After completing two more steps to align the mirror, # peopleAl Basri's performance will be able to meet or exceed its scientific goals. Now that's good optics! 😉 https://t.co/lGUdT9emkD #UnfoldTheUniverse
Curious about this photo? topic ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/OQXb20rrL7
- NASA's Web Telescope (NASAWebb) March 16, 2022
James Webb continues to calibrate himself to discover the universe
Currently, the Webb telescope has also completed alignment phase. More specifically, this means that Webb's primary photographer, the near-infrared camera (Nircam), perfectly aligned to its mirrors.
Now, the team still needs to align the other instruments on the telescope and expects to complete all optical alignments in early May. After that, they will work on preparing scientific instruments.
The high-resolution images are expected to arrive this summer.
How was the photo taken?
Some of the largest ground-based telescopes use segmented mirrors. However, James Webb is the first to use this technology in space. Its large primary mirror, 6.5 meters in diameter, is segmented into 18 hexagonal solid beryllium mirrors - one of the strongest, most stable and durable metals.
In its initial stage of work, called micro-calibration, the telescope aims to assess the alignment of these 18 segments. It all had to line up as one, with the precision of a human hair, to produce a uniform image of the same star.
Look how far we've come: We started with 18 scattered points — 18 reflections of the star itself, one from each of Webb's primary mirror segments. These dots were then rearranged, stacked, and polished, paving the way for our first science photos this summer! #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/N1KvmdoH7r
- NASA's Web Telescope (NASAWebb) March 16, 2022
As mentioned, the recording was made by NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera), an image-taking technology that operates at infrared frequencies invisible to the human eye.
Photographs originally taken in black and white. The star and other celestial bodies are not really red. For this result, NASA used a filter to increase the visible contrast.
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