On April 28, NASA and JPL announced another crucial achievement for the James Webb Space Telescope—the alignment of the telescope is complete, and it’s been confirmed that each of its powerful onboard science instruments is capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images, which were proudly posted by NASA on the website.
The team has decided to move forward with the next and final steps in preparation for its scientific operations, which are known as the science instrument commissioning. This is expected to take about two months.
Mashable India website reported on April 30: “For the test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, revealing a deep, dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars, registering across all the observatory’s sensors. Though space telescope images sometimes recreate color the way people’s eyes perceive them, other times they’re selected to highlight specific features. Engineers chose the scarlet palette to emphasize contrast.”
NASA’s caption on the Webb Telescope Image Sharpness Check concluded: “Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process.”
The optical performance continues to exceed the engineering team’s wildest expectations. NASA’s website continues: “Webb’s mirrors are now directing fully focused light collected from space down into each instrument, and each instrument is successfully capturing images with the light being delivered to them. The image quality delivered to all instruments is ‘diffraction-limited,’ meaning that the fineness of detail that can be seen is as good as physically possible given the size of the telescope. From this point forward the only changes to the mirrors will be very small, periodic adjustments to the primary mirror segments.”
“`These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,’ said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center….
“`With the completion of telescope alignment and half a lifetime’s worth of effort, my role on the James Webb Space Telescope mission has come to an end,’ said Scott Acton, Webb wavefront sensing and controls scientist, Ball Aerospace. ‘These images have profoundly changed the way I see the universe. We are surrounded by a symphony of creation; there are galaxies everywhere! It is my hope that everyone in the world can see them.’ (https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/04/28/nasas-webb-in-full-focus-ready-for-instrument-commissioning/)
