Webb Just Sent Back Its First-Ever Sharp Image of a Star, And It's Breathtaking

The state-of-the-art observatory is on track to commence science observations in a few months after the mirror alignment is completed.

The final round of fine phasing was done on March 11. No issues have been identified, and the team is sure that every optical parameter is working.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA, said that the team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals.

Today we can say that design will deliver.

A single star, named 2MASS J17554042+6551277, was the focus of the demonstration.

This bright object, around 2,000 light-years away, is just over 16 times brighter than the Sun. A red filter was used to improve visual contrast, and the telescope's instruments are so sensitive that background stars and galaxies can also be seen.

The performance is beating specifications because we have fully aligned and focused the telescope on a star. "We are excited about what this means for science, we are at NASA," said Ritva Keski-Kuha, deputy optical telescope element manager.

The first space telescope with a mirror consisting of 18 hexagonal segments was built by the NASA team.

To form a single mirror surface, the mirrors need to be within nanometers. The telescope is not easy to reach for service missions.

The L2 region of space is generated by the interaction between Earth and the Sun. The stable pockets are ideal for hanging out.

After the new telescope arrived, the project to map the Milky Way, called Gaia, was able to capture it with its finder scope instrument. Below, you can see it circled in green, and in the two inset, you can zoom in.

As seen by Gaia.

At the time, February 18, the two spacecraft were separated by a million kilometers, giving or taking, and in the image, the one with the star in it, looked like another star in a sea of them, spilled across the dark expanse of space. It is comforting to know that the two spaceships are not alone out there, far from home.

The alignment process will be completed over the next six weeks. The telescope will begin its final preparations. Sometime in the Northern Hemisphere summer, the first science observations from the telescope are expected.

Much that we can't currently see will be revealed by Webb. It is expected that it will show us distant reaches of the Universe, give us more information on how stars and galaxies formed, and show us in much more detail how stars and planets are born.

It is going to be amazing.