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Webb Telescope
Mar 16,2022
RELEASE
22-024
NASA's Webb Reaches Alignment
inlp
Milestone; Optics Working Successfully
Lee esta nota de prensa en espaiol aqui:
Following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope team expects that
Webb's optica
performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve_
On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as "fine phasing" At this key stage in the
commissioning of Webb's Optica
escope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is
performing at; or above, expectations
The team also found no critical
ssues and no measurable contamination or
blockages to Webb's optical
The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it
to its instruments without issue_
Although there are months t0 go before Webb ultimately
teLEScOPE AlignwEMT EvalUatiOM IMAGe
delivers its new view of the cosmos; achieving this milestone
means the team is confident that Webb's first-of-its-kind optical
system is working as well as possible_
'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
1
demanding science goals
said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate
administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
8
Washington. "Today we can say that design is going to
deliver:
While the pumpose of this
focus on the bright star at
the center for alignment evaluation, Webb's optics and NRCam
While some of the largest ground-based telescopes on Earth
sensitive that the galaxies and stars seen in the
use segmented primary mirrors; Webb is the first telescope in
background show up
At this stage of Webb's mirror alignment,
space t0 use such
design. The 21-foot; 4-inch (6.5-meter)
known as "fine phasing
each of the primary mirror segments
have been adjusted
produce one unified image of the same
primary mirror
much too big to fit inside
rocket fairing
star using only the NIRCam instrument_
This image of the star;
made up of 18 hexagonal, beryllium mirror segments_
It had to
which
called 2MASS J17554042-6551277 ,
Vses
red iilter t0
be folded up for launch and then unfolded in space before
optimize visual contrast
each mirror was adjusted
to within nanometers
to form
Credits: NASAISTScl
single
surface_
"In addition to enabling the incredible science that Webb will
achieve, the teams that designed, built, tested, launched, and now operate this observatory have pioneered
new way
to build space telescopes,
said Lee Feinberg; Webb optical telescope
lement manager at NASAs Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt; Maryland.
NASAs Webb Reaches Alignment Milestone, Optics Working Successfully
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WEBB
REACHES
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path.
iniage
mirror