Hubble/Webb may be one of the only things I think the government has ever wisely invested in.I agree, and would include the entire space exploration budget.
Update, it has been moved to the 25th...
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/james-webb-space-telescope-launch-update
Really looking forward to some shots from what some have said is twice the distance we may have seen before.
Anyone heard how long it will take to get it on line and giving pics and data? In 5 years, I am willing to bet our understanding of the universe is going to look a lot different that it is today.
If all goes well, we should see pictures 6 months from now. If all goes well.
Do remember the glitches with the initial Hubble deployment. If I remember right, we had an STS mission just to repair/replace the lenses and /or mirrors.
Do remember the glitches with the initial Hubble deployment. If I remember right, we had an STS mission just to repair/replace the lenses and /or mirrors.
NASA sure picked the slimiest of the slime to name a project after.... Webb?
Terrible person, terrible governor and worse senator...
@EdinVA
There was a guy named James Webb who used to run NASA.....
https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/whoIsJamesWebb.html (https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/whoIsJamesWebb.html)
How long before it starts coming on line with images?
'29 days on the edge:' What's next for NASA's newly launched James Webb Space Telescope
Space.com By Mike Wall 12/26/2021
https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps (https://www.space.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-next-steps)
Launch kicked off a long journey for the $10 billion observatory.
NASA's next big space observatory is finally aloft, but it'll be a while before it starts its highly anticipated science mission.
The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana yesterday (Dec. 25), kicking off a long-delayed, potentially transformative mission to study the early universe, nearby exoplanets and more. Telescope team members (and the rest of us) will have to remain patient, however, for Webb has a lot of work to do before it gets up and running.
The telescope is headed for the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a gravitationally stable spot 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet in the direction of Mars. It'll take 29 days for Webb to get there, and there will be lots of nail-biting action for the telescope along the way.
"The Webb observatory has 50 major deployments … and 178 release mechanisms to deploy those 50 parts," Webb Mission Systems Engineer Mike Menzel, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a deployment-explaining video called "29 Days on the Edge" that the agency posted in October.
"Every single one of them must work," Menzel said. "Unfolding Webb is hands-down the most complicated spacecraft activity we’ve ever done."
Webb has notched a few major milestones already. About half an hour after liftoff, for example, it deployed its solar panels and started soaking up energy from the sun. And last night, the big telescope performed a crucial 65-minute engine burn that put it on course for L2.
The following is a brief rundown of the big steps yet to come. (For more detail, see NASA's Webb deployment site.) The timelines given are approximate; Webb team members have stressed that the deployment schedule is flexible, so don't panic if the times and dates shift a bit, or if some things occur out of order.
One day after launch, Webb will rotate its high-gain antenna toward Earth to further facilitate communications with its handlers. A day after that, the spacecraft will perform another engine burn to refine its trajectory toward L2. And three days after launch, the pallet holding Webb's huge sunshield — a five-layer structure designed to keep the infrared telescope and its instruments cool — will be lowered.
Each of the shield's five sheets is about the size of a tennis court when fully extended, far too wide to fit inside the payload fairing of any currently operational rocket. So the sunshield launched in a compact configuration and must be unfurled.
This is an incredibly complex process. The sunshield structure has 140 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, 400 pulleys, 90 cables and eight deployment motors, all of which have to work properly for the five layers to deploy as planned, NASA officials said in the video.
The protective cover will come off the sunshield at five days after launch, and its booms will extend a day later. Sunshield deployment should be complete by eight days after liftoff, at which point team members will start shifting their focus to the optics.
At around 10 days after launch, Webb will extend its 2.4-foot-wide (0.74 meters) secondary mirror, which is so named because it's the second surface that deep-space photons will hit on their way to the scope's instruments.
More at link.
Tim Urban
@waitbutwhy
The James Webb mirror is a 6.5m/21ft beast. It can also see infrared light way better than Hubble, which will reveal galaxies so far away they’re redshifted beyond the visible spectrum. It’ll show us the first stars and formation of the first galaxies - our best time machine yet.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHhfy4tWUAM8gut?format=jpg&name=large)
It's a very complicated endeavor.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is three days into the deployment of its massive sunshield — and it still has about three days to go.
The $10 billion Webb launched on Christmas Day (Dec. 25) to seek out heat signals from the early universe. To pick up these faint signals, the observatory's optics and instruments must be kept extremely cold, and that's where the sunshield comes in.
The five-layer structure will reflect sunlight and radiate heat extremely efficiently, allowing Webb to maintain its "cold side" at a frosty minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 223 degrees Celsius) or so, if all goes according to plan. The observatory's sun-facing "hot side," by contrast, will be around 230 degrees F (110 degrees C), NASA officials wrote in a Webb sunshield explainer.
The kite-shaped sunshield measures 69.5 feet long by 46.5 feet wide (21.2 by 14.2 meters). That's far too large to fit inside the payload fairing of any currently operational rocket, so the structure lifted off in a highly compact configuration and must now unfurl in space.
That operation is incredibly complex, involving many different nail-biting, time-consuming steps.
"Webb's sunshield assembly includes 140 release mechanisms, approximately 70 hinge assemblies, eight deployment motors, bearings, springs, gears, about 400 pulleys and 90 cables totaling 1,312 feet [400 m]," Webb spacecraft systems engineer Krystal Puga said in "29 Days on the Edge," a video about Webb's deployments that NASA posted in October.
"All this just to keep the sunshield under control as it unfolds," added Puga, who works for the aerospace company Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor for the Webb mission.
That unfolding began on Tuesday (Dec. 28) with the sequential deployment of two pallets that contain the sunshield structure. Webb took the next step on Wednesday (Dec. 29), extending its Deployable Tower Assembly, a move that, among other things, created room for the sunshield membranes to unfurl.
Two more milestones came on Thursday (Dec. 30): Webb released the cover that had protected the sunshield during ground operations and launch and also deployed its "aft momentum flap," which will help the observatory maintain its orientation and position without using too much fuel.
"As photons of sunlight hit the large sunshield surface, they will exert pressure on the sunshield, and if not properly balanced, this solar pressure would cause rotations of the observatory that must be accommodated by its reaction wheels," NASA public affairs specialist Alise Fisher wrote in a blog post on Thursday. "The aft momentum flap will sail on the pressure of these photons, balancing the sunshield and keeping the observatory steady."
More at link.
NASA’s new space telescope is on the verge of completing the riskiest part of its mission — unfolding and tightening a huge sunshade — after ground controllers fixed a pair of problems, officials said.
The tennis-court-size sun shield on the James Webb Space Telescope is now fully open and in the process of being stretched tight. The operation should be complete by Wednesday.
Getting the sun shield extended on Friday “was really a huge achievement for us,” said project manager Bill Ochs. All 107 release pins opened properly.
But there have been a few obstacles.
Flight controllers in Maryland had to reset Webb’s solar panel to draw more power. The observatory — considered the successor to previous space telescopes including the aging Hubble — was never in any danger, with a constant power flow, said Amy Lo, a lead engineer for the telescope’s prime contractor, Northrop Grumman.
They also repointed the telescope to limit sunlight on six overheating motors. The motors cooled enough to begin securing the sun shield, a three-day process that can be halted if the problem crops up again, officials said.
“Everything is hunky-dory and doing well now,” Lo said.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is ‘hunky-dory’ after problems fixed
Los Angeles Times by MARCIA DUNN 1/4/2022
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-01-04/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-is-hunky-dory-after-problems-fixed (https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-01-04/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-is-hunky-dory-after-problems-fixed)
A final latch unhooked to deploy the radiator into place, clearing the way for final mirror unfolding steps.
NASA's new high-tech, low-temp observatory observatory is one step closer to gathering some cool science.
The James Webb Space Telescope launched on Dec. 25 and has spent its time in space so far executing a complicated sequence of deployments to unfold the telescope to its final configuration. On Thursday (Jan. 6), the mission team notched another step of that sequence when at about 8:48 a.m. EST (1348 GMT), the telescope's Aft Deployable Instrument Radiator (ADIR) swung into place, according to a NASA statement.
The ADIR is a 4 foot (1.2 meters) by 8 foot (2.4 m) panel attached to the back of the observatory and connected by aluminum foil straps to Webb's instruments. The radiator is covered in honeycomb cells with an ultra-black surface, allowing the mechanism to pull heat away from the observatory instruments and send it into space, according to NASA.
The iconic golden mirror of NASA's massive new observatory is taking shape.
The James Webb Space Telescope unfolded the panel that carries the three leftmost segments of its hexagonal gold-coated primary mirror on Friday (Jan. 7). Nearly two weeks after the observatory's launch, the successful maneuver brings the telescope close to its final form.
"Webb's iconic primary mirror is taking its final shape. Today, the first of two primary mirror wings, or side panels, was deployed and latched successfully," NASA officials wrote in a statement.
Team members will repeat the process on the right, or starboard, side of the observatory on Saturday (Jan. 8). NASA has said it will broadcast the procedure live from mission control beginning around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT).
https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1479909293189173249
As the James Webb Space Telescope begins the lengthy process of aligning its 18 primary mirror segments, a question burns in the astronomical community: What will the huge observatory look at first?
Webb soared into space successfully on Dec. 25 and successfully completed its major deployments about two weeks later while speeding toward its ultimate destination: the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a gravitationally stable spot in space about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from our planet.
The telescope includes 18 hexagonal mirror segments that need to be gradually aligned into a single, nearly perfect light-collecting surface. A necessary part of that process is taking images of the sky to see how well the alignment is proceeding, but Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist, warned everyone not to expect much from the "first light" of Webb.
"The first images are going to be ugly. It is going to be blurry. We'll [have] 18 of these little images all over the sky," Rigby told reporters during a livestreamed press conference on Saturday (Jan. 8) discussing the successful deployment of Webb's 21.3-foot-wide (6.3 meters) primary mirror that day. Rigby was speaking from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where telescope operations are centered.
As of Wednesday, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a fully deployed primary mirror, with each of its 18-mirror segments fully extended and ready for fine focusing later. That leaves one final task for JWST before reaching its destination for operations — an orbital insertion burn expected to take place Monday, January 24.
As of Thursday afternoon, JWST was barely 35,000 miles from its destination, Lagrangian point 2 (L2), around 1 million miles from Earth. A point where the Sun and Earth’s gravity cancel out, orbit L2 allows JWST to maintain a constant position relative to Earth as they both orbit the Sun.
Once in orbit around L2, JWST’s optics and instruments will undergo more months of fine-tuning and testing before the historically powerful space telescope begins peering deep into the distant reaches of time and space.
If all goes well and according to plan, ground operators will fire JWST’s thrusters at 2 p.m. Eastern on Monday, and the space telescope will finally take up its deep space perch shortly thereafter. NASA will host a live broadcast about JWST’s successes so far at 3 p.m. on the space agency’s YouTube channel, NASA Science Live website, and its Facebook and Twitter accounts.
But arrival at L2 marks only the end of one portion of JWST’s journey. With all deployments out of the way, JWST will enter the commissioning phase, beginning with what NASA calls the “wavefront process.”
The wavefront process will see ground operators use the six actuators attached to each of the now free-to-move mirror segments to make nanometer-scale adjustments to ensure the 18 segments focus light as one large primary mirror. This process of aligning the mirror segments so that JWST produces focused images will take about three months.
Following the mirror alignment, JWST’s scientific instruments must be calibrated and tested, which will take many more weeks. NASA expects JWST’s first scientific observations to begin sometime in the summer.
The James Webb Space Telescope has traveled nearly 1 million miles to its final destination, completing another milestone in a months-long commissioning that must be completed before Webb will take its first images this summer.
“Webb, welcome home!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a news release. “Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb’s safe arrival. We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe.”
The telescope will orbit the sun at the second sun-Earth Lagrange point. This Lagrange point, named for 18th century Italian astronomer and mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, is a location where the gravitational forces of the sun and Earth are in equilibrium.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reaches its final destination after million-mile journey
Houston Chronicle by Andrea Leinfelder 1/24/2022
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/NASA-s-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-reaches-its-16800450.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/NASA-s-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-reaches-its-16800450.php)
Five weeks after rocketing off the Earth, two Canadian components that are crucial to the operations and success of the James Webb Space Telescope are set to face their first big test.
On Friday morning, the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) and the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) were switched on for the first time since the mammoth astronomical satellite was launched on Christmas Day. Both instruments were built in Ottawa by the Canadian aerospace company COM DEV, which has since become part of Honeywell International.
The successful activation of the instruments was announced by the Canadian Space Agency, which is a partner in the joint North American-European project. It marks a major milestone for the agency as well as the Canadian scientists and engineers who first began working on the project more than two decades ago – and who now hope the momentum it generates will propel Canada to commit to a future space telescope of its own.
he contribution is also about as critical as it gets. NIRISS is seen as key to the telescope’s quest to characterize the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems, one of its most anticipated science goals. And if the Fine Guidance Sensor were to fail, the telescope would be unable to hold its gaze steadily enough to capture revealing images of the deep cosmos and a host of other celestial objects on astronomers’ wish lists.
“Everything had to work up to this point and it has, so mostly it’s been a great relief, but we’re not there yet,” said Dr. Hutchings, who is officially retired from the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, but remains active in the research community.
“For me, the big-ticket item is when we close the loop between the guidance system and the attitude control system,” said Erick Dupuis, director of Space Exploration Development at the Canadian Space Agency. “This is when we’re going to start pointing the spacecraft using the FGS – and this is what it was designed for.”
Once all the instruments are fully checked and operational – a process that is expected to take another four to five months – the FGS will use stars as guideposts to make sure the telescope stays precisely on target while it acquires its images. As long as at least three stars are in its field of view at any time, the Canadian sensor can keep the telescope from drifting off target.
More at link.
@catfish1957MIne, too, @sneakypete. The GFF on this has to be astronomical...
Frankly,I am amazed when ANYTHING goes right. There are literally thousands of little things that can go wrong and kill a mission. Some of them are things like tiny little transistors that only cost pennies.
These engineers and mechanics have my utmost respect.
I can’t wait to start seeing photos from this.I agree!
I don’t think I’ll have the words to describe the beautiful and amazing things the Webb telescope will find
MIne, too, @sneakypete. The GFF on this has to be astronomical...
I agree!
Can you imagine if they find that there are an infinity amount of universes like ours? Corbe will have to pass the bong.
Can you imagine if they find that there are an infinity amount of universes like ours?
I actually do believe there are parallel universes. It’s an interesting idea.
@Gern
Frankly,I don't know what to believe,other than a LOT of the stuff they do discover may put me in a permanent state of awe.
I seriously doubt I am going to be surprised,though. After all,the universe is endless because how CAN there be an end to it? If there WERE to be an end,what is on the other side,and where does IT end?
And we ALL "know" that nothing is endless,right?
@sneakypete
The above statement might be incorrect but it did occur on “Futureama”
@Gefn
You are not trying to tell me you think your teabe would lie to you,are you?
Well, I know that Bender is great. Lol. @sneakypete
Webb team brings 18 dots of starlight into hexagonal formation
Behold! NASA releases stunning new Webb image of an unexpected starWhat is really neat about that image is that a significant number of the objects in the background appear to be galaxies, not just stars. It's humbling when you consider the scale of our universe.
INVERSE 3/16/2022
Happily homed in deep space, the James Webb Space Telescope has finally finished a critical stage: The telescope’s 21-foot-wide primary mirror is now fully aligned. And it has beamed down its first fully focused image to celebrate the milestone.
Although the subject of the image is a rather ordinary star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277, the image itself is anything but.
“Even though there are weeks and months ahead to really fully unleash the power of this new observatory, today we can announce that the optics will perform to specifications or even better,” gushes Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Zurbuchen’s remarks came during a press conference on Wednesday, March 15.
“This is one of the most magnificent days in my whole career at NASA,” he adds.
The Webb Telescope is engineered to detect light outside of the visible range — in infrared. Doing so allows it to produce images of the faintest and most distant objects in the universe. The $10 billion telescope is fitted with a 21-foot-wide, 4-inch-thick tiled mirror made up of 18 beryllium panels that are themselves coated in gold. Together, the 18 panels act as one large mirror.
NASA reveals that on March 11 those mirror segments aligned in space for the first time (almost), following a months-long process. The milestone gives hope to the mission team on the ground that Webb’s optical performance will meet their goals. This feat is only possible now because when you design a mirror this big, it has to fold up to fit in a rocket to get it into space.
After its mirror alignment was complete, Webb snapped a stunningly sharp image of a star — 2MASS J17554042+6551277. The star is a switch in target for the Webb: Previously, it used HD 84406, a star in the Ursa Major constellation, to focus its mirrors and align them as a unit.
A red filter amps up the visual contrast:
(https://imgix.bustle.com/uploads/image/2022/3/16/bcfa6434-bb70-444a-b0f8-86a6ba638835-telescope_alignment_evaluation_image_labeled.jpeg)
“It’s sort of just a generic average star in our in our galaxy,” Marshall Perrin, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, says at the press conference.
“This star is one of many stars we use throughout the commissioning process of Webb... they’re generally picked not because they’re special stars, but because they’re the right brightness in the right parts of the sky for our engineering tests.”
The Webb Telescope observes the cosmos in wavelengths beyond that which the human eye can see. The Webb’s infrared capabilities will help it stare right through opaque areas of space, capturing the universe in wavelengths that would not be possible to capture from Earth.
Webb’s optical sensitivity reveals not only the star in focus but also shows distant galaxies and other stars as faint objects in the background.
The image is also a major upgrade from Webb’s first go at photography.
More: https://www.inverse.com/science/nasa-webb-telescope-star-images (https://www.inverse.com/science/nasa-webb-telescope-star-images)
What is really neat about that image is that a significant number of the objects in the background appear to be galaxies, not just stars. It's humbling when you consider the scale of our universe.
@Smokin Joe
I'm waiting for someone to show me photos and explain to me what is on the OTHER side of our universe.
EVERYTHING has a beginning and an end,right? Which means there MUST be something on the other side,or it would all just fly apart.
I might be waiting a while.
@Smokin Joe
I'm waiting for someone to show me photos and explain to me what is on the OTHER side of our universe.
EVERYTHING has a beginning and an end,right? Which means there MUST be something on the other side,or it would all just fly apart.
I might be waiting a while.
@Smokin JoeIf space bends, we might be looking at our own backsides...just billions of years ago (transit time for the light).
I'm waiting for someone to show me photos and explain to me what is on the OTHER side of our universe.
EVERYTHING has a beginning and an end,right? Which means there MUST be something on the other side,or it would all just fly apart.
I might be waiting a while.
QuoteIt could curve around on itself, and so not really have a beginning or an end.
@Kamaji
Nope! That might be the ILLUSION,but everything has beginning and an end.QuoteIf one is a two dimensional creature on the surface of a three dimensional sphere, one's "universe" is the surface of that sphere, which has neither beginning nor end, but which is finite and can be traversed (even if it takes a really, really long time).
@Kamaji
Nope! That might be the ILLUSION,but everything has beginning and an end.
I agree with the word "seems" and freely admit the only possible true answer not only makes my head hurt to think about,but scares the hell out of me. What else can the impossible do when it seems like it MIGHT be possible?
You or I can be wrong,but reality cares nothing about what we think. It just is what it is.
QuoteIf space bends, we might be looking at our own backsides...just billions of years ago (transit time for the light).
@Smokin JoeQuoteThat may be,and I suspect possibly is,true,but it doesn't mean nothing exists beyond it. How COULD it?
One of the implications of FTL travel ignored by all the movies, is the time dilation/relativity effects of going hundreds or thousands of light years rapidly. While you were buzzing across the universe at faster than light speeds for a few days, eons would pass where you left. When you went back, all the people you'd known would be long gone, governments would have changed, planets might no longer exist.. You would truly be committed to your ship and ship's company.
Once again,I may be wrong,but IIRC,which is always open to question these days,Issac Asimov wrote a novel based on that concept years ago. Can't even guess at the title at this late date.
@Smokin JoeHe may have. I have read so much Science Fiction over the years and seen so many movies, there are few movies or books that even approach a fresh idea.
Once again,I may be wrong,but IIRC,which is always open to question these days,Issac Asimov wrote a novel based on that concept years ago. Can't even guess at the title at this late date.
Looking at that photo, I can remember similar Hubble shots with maybe the same field angle, and maybe a few dozen galaxies come into view. Look at that shot..... There's got to be 100's there.Yeah...
(https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/447bf0d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4174x2208+0+0/resize/1440x762!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fda%2F6e%2F14f865d842a5acbbd7107844de6e%2Fwebb-img-sharpness.png)
The James Webb Space Telescope's onboard instruments are now aligned and capable of capturing in-focus images
Scientists working on NASA's James Webb Telescope have reached an important milestone, completely aligning the space observatory's massive mirrors. The achievement means the team can now move ahead with configuring the onboard instruments and prepare them to begin capturing sharp and in-focus images of the cosmos.
Back in January, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finished deploying its set of 18 mirrors, which it will use to direct light from cosmic objects onto its instruments to capture images. But to do so, the mirrors had to be precisely aligned over a three-month period in order to focus that light correctly.
In March, the mirrors were brought into alignment with the telescope's primary imaging instrument, the Near-Infrared Camera, enabling it to focus and snap a crystal-clear image of a bright star. The team then continued aligning the mirrors with the JWST's remaining instruments, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph, Mid-Infrared Instrument, and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph – a task that is now complete.
The video below provides an overview of the achievement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAx-D0GCvnI&feature=emb_imp_woyt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAx-D0GCvnI&feature=emb_imp_woyt)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope completely aligned and fully focused
New Atlas by Nick Lavars 5/1/2022
https://newatlas.com/space/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-mirrors-aligned-fully-focused/ (https://newatlas.com/space/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-mirrors-aligned-fully-focused/)
So, has the orchestra finished warming up now? Sorry if I'm impatient, but with everything sh*tty that's going on in the world, I really want to get blown away by pics of stuff that is, literally, out of this world.
(https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SfYnjggHhaa5JXe5RdN5w3-970-80.jpg.webp)
The Large Magellanic Cloud, as seen by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (left) and the new James Webb Space Telescope (right).
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right))
All four science instruments on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have achieved "perfect alignment" in advance of the telescope's official debut this summer, project officials said in a news teleconference on Monday (May 9).
"I'm delighted to report that the telescope alignment has been completed with performance even better than we had anticipated," Michael McElwain, James Webb Space Telescope project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said, according to CBS News. "We basically reached a perfect telescope alignment. There's no adjustment to the telescope optics that would make material improvements to our science performance."
To illustrate the telescope's readiness, NASA shared a teaser image taken by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The new image shows a side-by-side comparison of observations of a nearby galaxy taken by Webb, versus observations of the same galaxy taken previously by NASA's now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope.
More at link.
James Webb telescope reaches 'perfect' alignment ahead of debut science images
Live Science By Brandon Specktor 5/10/2022
The telescope's first science images drop in July.
https://www.livescience.com/james-webb-telescope-perfectly-aligned (https://www.livescience.com/james-webb-telescope-perfectly-aligned)
I can’t wait to see the pictures.
:2popcorn: