CAPE CANAVERAL- NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge golden flower-shaped mirror on Saturday, the latest step in the observatory’s dramatic display.
The last part of the 21-foot mirror was put in place at the command of flight controllers, completing the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope.
“I’m excited regarding it. It’s an incredible milestone. Now we see that beautiful pattern in the sky,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s chief of science missions.
More powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, the $ 10 billion Webb will scan the cosmos for light from the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago. To do this, NASA has had to equip the Webb with the largest and most sensitive mirror ever launched, its “golden eye”, as scientists call it.
Webb is so big that it had to be folded organically to fit on the rocket that left two weeks ago. The riskiest operation took place earlier in the week, when the tennis-court-sized sunshade was deployed, providing sub-zero shade for the mirror and infrared detectors.
Flight controllers in Baltimore began opening the primary mirror on Friday, unfolding the left side like a loose-leaf table. The mood was even livelier on Saturday, with upbeat music filling the control room as the right side settled into place. After clapping, the controllers immediately went back to work, fixing everything.
This mirror is made of beryllium, a light but robust metal that is resistant to cold. Each of its 18 segments is coated with an ultra-thin layer of gold, highly reflective of infrared light. The coffee table-sized hexagonal segments will need to be adjusted over the next few days and weeks so that they can focus as one on stars, galaxies and alien worlds that may contain atmospheric signs of life.
Webb should reach his destination within 1 million miles in another two weeks.
If all goes well, the scientific observations will begin this summer.
Astronomers hope to go back up to 100 million years from the Big Bang that formed the universe, closer than Hubble has achieved.
