Encouraging Webb Telescope Image Shows a Single Star in a Familiar Pattern

A major milestone in the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope has been foregather , as engineers keep to bring the observatory ’s perspective of the macrocosm into focal point .

We ’ve go steady these 18 dotsbefore , but now they ’re devise . Oh , how attractively organized .

The $ 10 billion Webb telescope is currently fixated on this individual star , designated HD 84406 , as applied scientist exercise to align its 18 gold mirror . Eventually , these 18 dots will meld together to form a undivided image . At first , these dots were seen as 18 scattered , quasi - random spots , but now they ’re oriented to match the honeycomb shape of the basal mirror , in a process known as Segment Image Identification , allot to a NASAstatement .

Engineers have brought 18 dots of starlight into a coherent pattern.

Engineers have brought 18 dots of starlight into a coherent pattern.Image: NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale

“ We steer the segment Lucy in the sky with diamonds into this raiment so that they have the same relative locating as the physical mirror , ” Matthew Lallo , system scientist at the Baltimore - based Space Telescope Science Institute , said in the instruction .

With the dots point into a hexagonal geological formation , the team will now go about Segment Alignment in which large placement errors will be compensate for each segment . The team will also update the secondary mirror alliance , which will make each Transportation appear more focused ; it ’ll basically be like giving each mirror a pair of glasses . The third stage is hollo Image Stacking , and it ’s exactly how it sounds : the team will bring all 18 spots of light on top of each other to form a individual Zen .

The current orientation of the mirror should make the second and third steps more manageable . As Lallo explained , once the Image Stacking process gets underway , the “ familiar arrangement ” of the 18 mirrors will give the squad an “ nonrational and natural elbow room of visualizing changes in the segment place in the circumstance of the entire primary mirror . ” The commissioning squad “ can now actually watch the primary mirror slowly forge into its precise , intended shape , ” he added .

Annotated view of the new mosaic image, matching the mirror to each dot.

Annotated view of the new mosaic image, matching the mirror to each dot.Image: NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale

The alignment stage began on February 2 , and it should be completed by the end of the month . Launched on Christmas Day 2021 , Webb is expect to enter into the science phase of the mission in June , at which time it will explore some of the most distant region of the universe , the evolution of galaxies over time , and the atmospheres of extrasolar planets , among other ethereal phenomena .

More : Webb Space Telescope Successfully Sees Its First Glimmer of Light .

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A selfie taken by the Webb Telescope, showing the hexagonal pattern of the primary mirrors.