New images from the James Webb Space Telescope show that the space observatory has reached another important stage of preparation for full-fledged work. All 18 mirrors are now aligned enough to act as one powerful mirror. The NASA space agency has published a “selfie” of the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as an updated image of one star. The selfie was taken using a special camera that helps a team of engineers on Earth makes sure the mirrors are working properly.
After reaching the final orbit, an array of 18 telescope mirrors was focused on the isolated star HD 84406. Researchers are using it as a target to align the mirrors. The images presented last month showed 18 images of the star, taken individually on each segment of the mirror. The latest HD 84406 image shows what it looks like when all 18 mirrors work with a near-infrared camera. Researchers have been able to reproduce not only images of the star, but also distant galaxies behind the star.
Now that the 18 mirrors are aligned, they can work together as one. This will allow you to get images of distant stars, galaxies, and even images from a distance of up to 13.6 billion light-years. These will actually be images from the early stages of the formation of the universe.
Over the next 6 weeks, NASA will continue to prepare the James Webb Space Telescope for scientific work. The team now has to adjust other instruments, including a near-infrared spectrograph, a mid-infrared instrument, a near-infrared imager, and a slit-free spectrograph. Then the stage of final inspections and adjustments will begin before full operation begins. All preparatory work is scheduled for completion in early May. And in the summer it is planned to publish the first set of images and scientific data of the telescope.
