JWST Alignment Mosaic
all hardware has been deployed, andArrive smoothly at the L2 Lagrange pointFor the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the next step is to align the primary mirror, overlapping the images of all 18 mirrors into a single image. To carry out this step, NASA’s mission team selected a lone planet near the Big Dipper as a target to align the primary mirror.
The picture above is “Before Alignment” image captured by JWST’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera). In order to shoot, although it looks like 18 irregular planets, they are actually the same star, just because of the deviation of individual lenses and the difference in focal length, making them appear in different positions. The so-called alignment is to first find out which lens corresponds to each point, adjust the focal length of the lens, and finally overlap all the small points to complete the work.
JWST Primary mirror
In addition to the images used for alignment, NIRCam can also take “selfies” of the main mirror through a set of special lenses. Although it looks blurry, it also helps to confirm the condition of the primary mirror. Only one of the mirrors in the picture is bright, because only this mirror reflects the light of the stars, and the other mirrors are not aligned.
The mission team estimates that the entire alignment will continue into the summer, following which it can be officially put into use and see what surprises we can bring.
