The alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After a thorough review, the observatory has been confirmed to be able to capture sharp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful scientific instruments. After completing the seventh and final phase of the telescope alignment, the team held a series of key decision meetings and unanimously agreed that Webb was ready to proceed with the next and final set of preparations, known as the commissioning of scientific instruments. This process will take about two months before the scientific work begins in the summer.
The telescope alignment across all Webb instruments can be seen in a series of images that capture the full field of view of the observatory.
“These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope show what people in countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision for exploring the universe,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb’s telescope’s director at Goddard Space Flight. NASA.
The telescope’s optical performance continues to be better than the engineers’ most optimistic predictions. Webb mirrors now direct fully focused light that is collected from space down into each instrument, and each instrument successfully captures images with the light provided to them. The image quality provided on all instruments is “limited diffraction”, which means that the detail that can be seen is as good as possible of course, given the size of the telescope. From this point on, the only changes to the mirrors will be very small, periodic adjustments to the main mirror sections.
“With the telescope alignment complete and half the effort it owed my life, my role in the James Webb Space Telescope mission is coming to an end,” said Scott Acton, Webb’s detection and control scientist at Ball Aerospace. “These images have profoundly changed the way I look at the universe. We are surrounded by a creation agreement; there are galaxies everywhere. I hope everyone in the world can see them.”
The Webb team will now focus on outsourcing. Each instrument is a highly sophisticated set of detectors equipped with unique lenses, masks, filters and personalized equipment that helps it perform the science designed to succeed. The specialized features of these instruments will be configured and operated in various combinations during the commissioning phase of the instrument to fully confirm their readiness for science. With the official completion of the telescope alignment, key personnel involved in the commissioning of each instrument have arrived at the Mission Operations Center at the Baltimore Space Telescope Science Institute, and some telescope alignment staff have completed their duties.
The Webb telescope completes the alignment phase. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Although the telescope alignment is complete, some telescope calibration activities remain: As part of the operation of a scientific instrument, the telescope will be commanded to show different areas in the sky where the total amount of sunlight hitting the observatory will vary to vary. the thermal stability when changing targets. In addition, continuous maintenance observations every two days will monitor the alignment of the mirrors and, where necessary, apply corrections to keep the mirrors in their aligned positions.
Webb telescope completes first multi-instrument alignment Provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Report: NASA Webb Telescope is now in full focus, ready for instrument commissioning (2022, 28 April) Retrieved 28 April 2022 from
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