A month following its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope was able to observe its first star, this Friday, February 11. A first image, blurred, represents eighteen times the same star.
This photograph is completely normal, as it is part of the process of aligning its main mirror.
In order to facilitate the maneuver, the telescope James Webb had targeted a particularly bright star, located in the Big Dipper.
Thus, the 18 luminous points received correspond to the light reflected by the star in the 18 hexagonal segments which constitute the large main mirror. It is now a question of aligning them little by little so that they only produce a clear and single image.
James Webb’s amazing selfie
This process will take regarding a month, then it will have to be repeated with the other scientific instruments on board, which have not yet cooled down enough to use. And this time, stars in increasingly dim light will be used as a test.
Alongside this first shot, the telescope also took a selfie, once more thanks to NIRCam. In this black and white image published by the Nasa, the 18 small mirrors of the telescope appear very clearly, thanks to the light coming from the stars and being reflected there. A photo which is very useful because the NASA teams will be able to check the alignment of the device with its scientific instruments.
Bonus image! When it’s time to focus, sometimes you need to take a good look at yourself.
This “selfie” taken by Webb of its primary mirror was not captured by an externally mounted engineering camera, but with a special lens within its NIRCam instrument. #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/XtzCdktrCA
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) February 11, 2022
However, it will be necessary to wait until this summer to discover the first observation images of this telescope, but they already promise to be spectacular.
