The James Webb space telescope reached its final configuration today and is ready to start operating, which should happen in about five months, announced the US space agency.
The telescope’s main mirror, with a diameter of 6.5 meters, is too big to fit entirely in the rocket that launched James Webb, so it had to be folded into two parts, the second of which was opened this morning, he said. to NASA.
Space agency teams continue to fix the mirror in yet another phase of the telescope’s installation, whose heat shield was also installed earlier this week.
Before being operational, the telescope will have to reach its final orbital position, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, and all its scientific instruments will have to cool down before being calibrated.
The most powerful space telescope of all time will have to observe the first galaxies, formed ‘only’ 200 million years after the beginning of the Universe.
The James Webb is flown from the US city of Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States, from where NASA broadcast live images today of the control room, where the agency’s engineers enthusiastically applauded the announcement that the telescope is installed.
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