The James Webb Space Telescope has been preparing for observations since its arrival at Lagrange Point L2 earlier this year and now the team behind the observatory have reached an important milestone.
The alignment of the mirrors the observatory uses has completed the fine phasing stage. This means that the primary imager on the observatory, the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is now fully aligned.
As a reminder, this is what alignment looked like in mid-February.
And this is what the NIRCam observed recently.
At this stage, NASA says that every optical parameter has been checked and tested. Following these checks and tests, the team appears confident that these parameters are performing at or above expectations. Importantly, no critical issues have been observed and the JWST’s optical path isn’t blocked or contaminated.
“We have fully aligned and focused the telescope on a star, and the performance is beating specifications. We are excited about what this means for science,” deputy optical telescope element manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Goddard, Ritva Keski-Kuha. “We now know we have built the right telescope.”
The image in the header above is a selfie that was taken using the pupil imaging lens inside the NIRCam. This lens is not used for scientific operation, but is used for engineering and alignment purposes. The image shows all of the 18 segments collecting light from the same star at the same time.
Once all elements of the Optical Telescope Element have been aligned, there are two months of science instrument preparations on the cards. Full resolution imagery and science data will be released in the Summer, which is sometime between June and September for those of us outside the US.
If you want to see how complex aligning the mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope is, check out the video below.
[Source – NASA]
