Webb has a telescope. It has completed the third stage of aligning its mirrors, a crucial process in getting the last images from this $10 billion space telescope. This feat comes just in time as the telescope heads into the second month of its three-month alignment period.
Since Webb arrived at the observation point in space, a place called L2, NASA team members have been hard at work preparing the telescope for the science to begin. This process involves using a star, HD 84406, as a guide to align the 18 primary mirrors.
telescope Post your full mirrors at the end of January, saw its first light February 4 to pick up a kind of Photography On February 11, the ultimate goal is to make the mirrors identical to each other within about 50 nanometers, or 50 billionths of a meter. It was also filed by Alize Fisher. Recent NASA Blog“If the basic Webb mirror were the size of a US, then each part would be the size of Texas, and the team would have to align the heights of those Texas-size parts with each other to within about 1.5 inches”. TIt refers to the orientations of human-made mirrors here on Earth, a A million miles from the telescope.
On February 18, the mirrors lined up enough to organize 18 light points Captured by each of the 18 primary mirrors. The next step was to focus those 18 views of the same star onto a single point, literally stacking the images on top of each other. This is done now, since the file The image stack alignment phase was completed on February 25, three days ahead of schedule. HD 84406 seen by Webb is now a single point Of light, as it should be.
Lee Feinberg, director of the Webb Optical Telescope Element at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. agency statement. “Years of planning and testing are paying off, and the team couldn’t have been more excited to see what the coming weeks and months will bring.”
The mirrors still function as a single instrument, although they must be in place of a large telescope. Precise combinations are essential. Now the fourth stage of mirror alignment, called coarse gradient, will begin. This process involves matching 20 different mirror pieces to project light; The team can use these results to discover where differences in clip heights reduce image sharpness.
Rough stages will be implemented in the next few weeks, after which fine stages will come and align the telescope with the rest of Webb’s instruments (right now the team is just working on adjusting the primary mirror) and also the last Final corrections. plusThe details of the alignment stages can be read about it. here.
Webb will further our knowledge oThe early universe, galaxies and exoplanets, too Some objects within our solar system. the The telescope does not replace the veteran Hubble Space Telescope. It will detect infrared and near-infrared radiation, while Hubble works mainly in ultraviolet and visible light.
But Hubble launched again in 1990.. Webb will watch the universe along with his predecessor, but We will look back in time more than any previous device, with technology that was not possible 30 years ago.
Webb is still perfectly compatible and somewhat scientifically feasible, estimating the ballpark to be mid-summer 2022, but the fact that nothing has gone wrong so far is a testament to the hours and efforts of scientists and engineers. eager to give the world a whole. new look at the old universe.
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