NASA officials revealed in a news conference that the main mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and performing better than it was designed to do.
The mirror had to travel to space folded. One of the main tasks that the control team has had to tackle since the launch of the giant telescope is to align it into one smooth reflecting surface.
Officials said that the alignment process, which involved fine- tuning the positions and inclinations of the 18 segments, has been completed. The most complex and expensive observatory ever launched is already producing images that take the scientists by surprise.
The performance of the telescope so far is what we dared to hope for, according to Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. This is making the invisible universe snap into focus.
The ultimate guide is the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
The ground team pointed the telescope at HD 84406 when the mirror alignment process began. The star, 100 times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye, was chosen because of its location and brightness.
Each of the primary mirror segments acted as a telescope on their own at the beginning of the alignment process. A bright amber-colored star is emitting streams of light across the universe. The background of the star shows dozens of specks and dots that were previously out of reach.
This is the first image of a deep field. The photographs aim to capture the most distant objects in the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope has deep fields. The ability of Hubble to peer into the depths is set to be defeated by the ability of the Webb.
There is no way that Webb can look for 2,000 seconds at any point in the sky and not see a deep field. It is a deep field wherever we look. We are seeing the light as it looked billions of years ago, without even really breaking a sweat.
In an interview with Space.com, Randy Kimble, NASA's project scientist for integration, test and commissioning, said that where Hubble requires weeks to obtain some of its best deep field images, the same results will be achieved within hours.
The universe is not imaged in the same wavelength by the two observatories: Hubble is an expert at visible and ultraviolet radiation and the other is in the realm of the IR.
The goal of the telescope was to be up to 100 times more sensitive than Hubble, and it has been accomplished, according to NASA officials.
Lee Feinberg, an element manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center said that they would know that the telescope was working properly when they had an image of a star that looked like a star. The optical performance of the telescope is amazing, it is really working well, and I am happy to say that. If not better than our most optimistic prediction, the performance is good.
A foldable mirror has been used to launch a telescope to space. To make the mission possible, the engineering teams at NASA and its partner organizations had to develop new technologies that had never been flown in space before. The project faced many delays and cost overruns. The work has paid off, as the telescope has sailed through all of its major milestones without the smallest hiccup.
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, said that all of the sleepless nights he had were behind him. We are way up that mountain.
The telescope deployed its sun shield in a smooth manner in early January.
The control teams will focus on the science instruments. The first scientific images are expected to be released in June or July. NASA is keeping the object that will be the first target of the scientific exploration a secret.
The mirror alignment was done with the help of a scientific instrument. The other three are not yet open to the world.
The scientists had to wait for the instruments to cool down so they could align the mirror. Since the telescope emits heat, it would make it impossible for the detectors to see the most distant objects in the universe.
The first stars that formed in the universe a few hundred million years after the Big bang will be seen by the telescope.
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