JAKARTA – The James Webb Space Telescope has finally completed the mirror alignment phase, as evidenced by showing a sharp and focused image of a galaxy.
The image shows a star field in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a galaxy near the Milky Way that is 158,000 light-years away. If it orbited our galaxy, it would be by far the largest satellite galaxy. But there’s a chance it’s just passing through or is slowly merging with our galaxy.
By successfully capturing the image, it means that the four science instruments of the Webb Telescope are working properly.
“These images have profoundly changed the way I see the universe. We are surrounded by a symphony of creation, there are galaxies everywhere. My hope is that everyone in the world can see them,” said Webb wavefront sensing and control scientist at Ball Aerospace, Scott Acton.
Launching Space, Friday, April 29, the next step will be the commissioning of the science instruments, along with the calibration of the telescope. Instrument commissioning is a component in imaging instruments.
They can do things like filter out certain types of light, adjust the camera to certain adjustments, or apply certain lenses to work well in different configurations, this is to ensure they can do the scientific work.
Commissioning of the science itself will take roughly two months, with the Webb Telescope remaining on track to be completed by next June, if all goes to plan.
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For calibration activities, there is a list of achievements that the Webb Telescope must achieve before being declared operational.
“The telescope will be instructed to point to different areas of the sky, where the total amount of solar radiation hitting the observatory will vary to ensure thermal stability when changing targets,” NASA explained.
“Furthermore, continuous maintenance observations every two days will monitor the alignment of the mirrors and, when necessary, apply corrections to keep the mirrors in their aligned locations.”
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