Story at a glance
- NASA’s James Webb telescope, the most powerful telescope to ever be launched into space, has taken a new image of star.
- The shot was taken during a critical alignment phase and shows a bright star with dozens of other stars and galaxies behind it .
- The image is the result of a test shot and not an official observation.
NASA’s new James Webb telescope has reached another alignment milestone and sent back its clearest image of a star to date.
“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, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Today we can say that design is going to deliver.”
The James Webb Space Telescope launched from French Guiana on Christmas Day to replace the aging Hubble telescope and began the lengthy process of aligning its 18 mirror segments in January.
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On March 11, the telescope was able to complete the mirror alignment stage called “fine phasing,” the fifth out of seven total stages James Webb must undergo before being able fully capture images using infrared light.
As part of the fine phasing, Webb captured an image of a bright star located 2,000 light years away from Earth, according to the Associated Press, and numerous other galaxies and stars visible in the background.
Last month, Webb captured its first set of images with its mirror segments of a more closely located star in the constellation Ursa Major.
NASA emphasized in a statement that the image was a test photo to see how Webb’s 18 mirror segments were working and not an official scientific observation.
While NASA stressed that the telescope will not be able to capture images as designed for several more months, the test photo shows that Webb is on track to capturing shots that will deepen scientific understanding of the universe.
“We have fully aligned and focused the telescope on a star, and the performance is beating specifications. We are excited about what this means for science,” Ritva Keski-Kuha, deputy optical telescope element manager for Webb at NASA Goddard, said in a statement. “We now know we have built the right telescope.”
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