The James Webb telescope sends back the first unified photo of a distant star

The James Webb Space Telescope, which will provide unprecedented data on the origin of the universe, has successfully completed its alignment and calibration phase of its 18 mirrors and has already sent its first unified image of a distant star.

In a briefing on the advances in the preparations to have the largest telescope sent into space operational, something that is expected for next June or July, the experts showed themselves this Wednesday and consider that the most delicate part of the mission is already behind them.

With the completion of the “critical” fine calibration stage of the telescope’s alignment on the 11th, the team has successfully aligned Webb’s main imager, the near-infrared camera, with the observatory’s mirrors.

“More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope ever launched into space and crafted a bold optical design to meet demanding scientific goals”Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. “Today we can say that the design is going to give results.”

After the success of this first key phase, the new space observatory is capable of , highlighted NASA, which is collaborating on this mission with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.

An example of this is an image sent from Webb showing a star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277.

Last February the telescope had already obtained its first images, of lower quality and in this case of HD 84406, after taking off from Earth on December 25 and reaching its final position almost a month later.

NASA also posted a photo of a “selfie” of the telescope showing the 18 segments of the primary mirror.

The world’s largest space science observatory is still several months away from being ready to, as Zurbuchen indicated at the briefing, be able to “see the universe as we have never seen it before”.

What distinguishes the James Webb from previous generations of telescopes is that it will observe the universe in the infrared spectrum, so it will be able to observe the first galaxies,

Marshall Perrin, deputy scientist at the Webb telescope, indicated that until now images of a few colors could be captured, but, thanks to the new observatory, they will be able to be of “thousands of colors at the same time”.

But the project will also serve as a “pioneer” of a “new way of building telescopes,” which will hold for future generations of observatories, according to Lee Feinberg, manager of Webb’s optical telescope element.

This telescope is the first in space to use segmented primary mirrors, since its size of 6.5 meters was too large to fit inside a rocket and had to be folded for launch and then unfolded in space to form a single mirror surface.

NASA assured that all aspects of the alignment of the optical telescope are expected to be completed by the beginning of May and will subsequently dedicate about

Performance is exceeding specifications

The first full-resolution images and science data from Webb, which Perrin noted will be as focused “as the laws of physics allow,” will be released this summer.

“We have fully aligned the telescope and focused it on a star, and performance is exceeding specifications. We are excited about what this means for science.” said Ritva Keski-Kuha, deputy manager of the Webb Optical Telescope Element at NASA’s Goddard Center. “Now we know we have built the right telescope.”

Jane Rigby, a Webb operations project scientist, said the mission will help explain the history of the universe and “what’s out there,” including the atmospheres of the planets.

For this, they have already chosen the first stars of which the new observatory will send images, which will first be studied by the participating space agencies and later sent to the rest of the researchers.

Webb is the world’s premier space science observatory and, once fully operational, will help solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and explore the mysterious structures and origins of our universe. and our place in it.

Agencies