![]() ![]() Once it reached its orbit, each mirror was adjusted to within nanometers, in order to form a single, large mirror surface to gather even the faintest light.īeing able to detect faint infrared light will allow astronomers to use Webb to peer deeper into the early universe, or detect faint atmospheres on distant worlds. The 21-foot, 4-inch primary mirror is made up of 18 hexagonal, beryllium mirror segments. While some of the largest ground-based telescopes on Earth use segmented primary mirrors, Webb is the first telescope in space to use such a design. This is in part possible due to its unique optical system and design - that required it to be folded for launch, and gradually unfolded over a month. And with a point of light we can measure the atmospheres of otherwise invisible planets.' ![]() 'This telescope is going to amaze us at every step. Hannah Wakeford, exoplanet scientist from the University of Bristol, said on Twitter: 'Look at some of those galaxy clusters in the background! In the background of the stunning bright star image are galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, that hint at what Webb will show us once fully online. 'That means we can go deep & see lots of detail, & deliver the amazing science that was dreamed of decades ago.' Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency, and Webb scientist, Mark McCaughrean, said Webb was now 'sending the sharpest possible images to its instruments. 'Today we can say that design is going to deliver.' 'More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals,' said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator. NASA says the image is so good that the optical performance from Webb 'will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve.' It was designed to see how well the 18 hexagonal mirrors worked together for a single coordinated image, and it was 'better than expected', providing a much more tightly focused view of the universe, that will improve scientific measurements. This is just a test shot from the Webb telescope, the latest engineering image, with the 'pretty pictures' and science releases not due until later this summer. The $10 billion observatory is going through months of commissioning, including aligning and focusing each of its 18 mirror segments so they work as one mirror.Ī star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277 is visible in the foreground of the stunning image - found 2,000 light-years from the Earth, although the background galaxies are millions, if not billions of light-years away - reaching back to the early universe. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was 'photobombed' by thousands of ancient and distant galaxies, when it took its first 'in-focus' image of a single star. ![]()
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