The James Webb Telescope, which was launched in December of last year and is considered the largest and most powerful space telescope in human history, has transmitted its first work to Earth, the Associated Press reported.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on the 11th (local time), the James Webb telescope captured 18 images of ‘HD-84406’, one of the stars that make up the constellation Ursa Major. The telescope’s main observation equipment is a piece of 18 hexagonal mirrors. The star was photographed by finely aligning the images captured by each piece of mirror to create a single, sharp image.
NASA also released a kind of ‘selfie’ in which the telescope took a picture of itself. A special lens of an infrared camera attached to the telescope takes a picture of 18 mirrors. This lens is only used for technical maintenance, etc., and it seems that it unintentionally performed a selfie function.
The telescope, which is about 20 meters long and has a main reflector diameter of 6.5 meters, was built by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) over 25 years and $10 billion (about 12 trillion won). It has 100 times the performance of the existing Hubble Space Telescope. It is currently floating in an observation orbit about 1.6 million km from Earth, and full-scale observation is expected from the end of June.
Reporter Kim Seong-mo [email protected]