The James Webb telescope completes its optical system fine-tuning and sends an stunning photo of the Universe
(NASA/STScI)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team announced the successful completion of the fifth stage of the optical system alignment.
During this stage, the NASA scientists fine-tuned the position of the mirror segments, as well as the NIRCam infrared instrument.
At the same time, the team published new images of a test star for observation, as well as a selfie of the main mirror of the telescope.
At present, the observatory is adjusting the optical system, which is carried out in seven stages and will take three months.
The bright sun-like star HD 84406, located 260 light-years from the Sun, serves as a test target for observations.
The telescope has already made a series of rough adjustments to the position of the primary and secondary mirror segments.
Thanks to this process 18 randomly arranged out-of-focus images of the star turned into one.
On March 11, 2022, the fifth stage of the optical system alignment, referred to as the "fine phase", was completed.
At this stage, the alignment errors of the main mirror segments that occurred during the stage of coarse correction of their vertical displacement are determined and corrected three times.
In addition, the main adjustment of the NIRCam infrared instrument was completed, which received a new selfie of the main mirror of the observatory.
The engineers concluded that there were no critical problems with the mirror segments, as well as noticeable contamination or blockages in the optical path of the observatory.
Thus, it can successfully collect light from distant objects and direct it to its devices.
As evidence, scientists have published a new test image of the star HD 84406 obtained by the NIRCam instrument, where distant galaxies are visible in the background.
Over the next six weeks, the final two phases of alignment will be completed.
During these alignments, the optical system will be adjusted for each of the scientific instruments,
Any small residual errors in the positioning of the mirror segments will be corrected.
Only after that the adjustment of the optical system for all instruments will be considered completed, this will not happen before the beginning of May.