The James Webb Space Telescope last week detected its first flash of light, which will allow it to collect information to carry out a three-month procedure to align the instrument’s 18 mirrors.
“This milestone marks the first of many steps in capturing images that were originally out of focus and use them for slowly adjust the telescopeNASA announced in a statement. “This is the beginning of the process, but so far the initial results match expectations and simulations,” the US space agency added.
The images were captured by the James Webb Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and correspond to the star HD 84406, located almost 260 light years away and visible in the constellation Ursa Major.
The alignment process will consist of seven distinct steps, such as segment image identification, segment alignment, and image stacking.
“To work together as a single mirror, the 18 segments of the telescope’s primary mirror must match each other within a fraction of a wavelength of light, regarding 50 nanometers,” NASA explained.
“To put this into perspective, if Webb’s main mirror were the size of the United States, each segment would be the size of Texas, and the team would have to align the height of those Texas-sized segments with each other to a accuracy of regarding 1.5 inches«, details the agency.
The James Webb was launched on December 25 and will allow astronomers to see space with new eyes and access hitherto unreachable corners of the universe. It is also the most powerful and expensive telescope in history. CCM/JML
Source: RT
