A breakthrough has been achieved since the James Webb Space Telescope deployment. Its on-board instrument detected its first photons from a distant star. So, engineers can now begin the three-month attempt of aligning the space telescope’s 18 mirrors.
After years of delays, the $10 billion Webb mission is gradually working. The detailed process of unmasking the space telescope and preparing for groundbreaking astronomy has progressed. With that said, the first detection of starlight is a significant achievement.
“This milestone marks the first of many steps to capture images that are at first unfocused and use them to slowly fine-tune the telescope. NASA likewise stated that this is the very beginning of the process. So far, the initial results met the expectations and simulations.”
Where did the photons originate?
Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument spotted the first batch of photons. Officials said that the photons came from HD 84406, a nearly 260 light-years away star. The star is visible in the Ursa Major constellation. With image detection, the researchers can now begin the three-month process of adjusting all 18 panels so that they’ll form a single concave mirror.
What are the goals of the James Webb Space Telescope?
The space telescope is a joint endeavor of three space agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency.
Launched on December 25, 2021, the mission aims to search for light from the first stars and galaxies. Additionally, it will study the formation and evolution of galaxies and scan the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.
NASA revealed that Webb reached its stable orbital spot, Lagrange Point 2, on January 24, 2022. Since then, engineers have finished fueling its science instruments and turned off its heaters. The space telescope needed heaters to keep Webb’s optics warm and prevent the condensation of water and ice. The agency also said that the alignment process could begin once the instrument reached -244 degrees Fahrenheit.
You can browse the full details of the seven-step alignment process here. But as NASA explains, this procedure will require extraordinary precision as quoted below:
“To work together as a single mirror, the telescope’s 18 primary mirror segments need to match each other to a fraction of a wavelength of light – approximately 50 nanometers. To put this in perspective, if the Webb primary mirror were the size of the United States, each segment would be the size of Texas, and the team would need to line the height of those Texas-sized segments up with each other to an accuracy of about 1.5 inches.”
Engineers will use the data collected by the NIRCam to align the telescope gently. It is required to improve the quality of the incoming photons. The team will keep Webb directed on HD 84406 and work towards producing a single focused image of the star. NASA said that the visions gathered throughout the three-month process will be strictly functional and not “pretty,” It is also a pale comparison to what is expected in summer.
The entire process results mean a fully aligned telescope and the start of the next stage, which is instrument commissioning. Hopefully, these next vital steps will go smoothly, and we’ll see remarkable results as early as June.
The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever introduced. It is currently situated in an observing point called Earth-sun Lagrange point 2. There, the space telescope is expected to look into the cosmos to discover mysteries of the stars, galaxies and other astronomical phenomena.
