James Webb’s team has begun a three-month process of aligning the telescope, with all its optics expected to be calibrated by May 2022.
Engineers managed to record the first photons of starlight, which passed through the entire telescope – its NIRCam near-infrared camera.
In fact, these are the first photos of the telescope, but that’s it for now completely unfocused and can be used only for slow fine-tuning of the spacecraft, he writes NASA.
This is just the beginning of the process, but so far initial results meet expectations, engineers assure.
Images taken by Webb during this period, will not be beautiful, like the new species of the universe, which the largest telescope in the world will present in the summer of 2022.
To work together as a single mirror, 18 segments of the main mirror of the telescope must correspond to each other to a fraction of the wavelength of light.
Until Webb’s golden honeycombs work like 18 small telescopes, and not as one big one – the size of a tennis court. So all fans of the optical monster will have to wait.
Webba, we will remind, must look into the past of our universe, catching the light of the first stars. In addition, during the first 60 hours, it will be able to detect organics on other planets.
The new device, which is called a time machine in space, is 100 times more powerful than the most famous Hubble telescope and worth 10 billion dollars.
CERTIFICATE. Adjustment is a set of operations to bring the measuring device into working condition, which ensures its necessary accuracy, correctness and reliability of operation, writes Wikipedia.
Context.
- Engineers have already completed the remote movement of 18 segments of golden honeycombs Webb with his starting positions.
- The world’s largest Webb telescope was successfully launched on December 25, 2021.
- The engineers then unfolded all five layers of Webb’s sunbath and its golden mirror.
- Scientists also reported that the telescope will work for 20 years instead of the promised 5 or 10, as it managed to save a lot of fuel.
