NASA announced the beginning of the process of tuning the optics of the James Webb telescope. Space agency engineers have already tested the performance of 126 primary mirror mechanisms and 6 secondary mirror mechanisms. Over the next 10 days (possibly longer), the mirror segments will be moved from the launch configuration they were in to protect them from launch vibration. After that, engineers can begin the three-month process of aligning the segments and "assembling" a single mirror.

The main mirror of the telescope consists of 18 hexagonal segments, gold-plated to ensure the best reflection of light in the IR range. A secondary mirror is installed in front of it, which will receive light from the main one and direct it to scientific instruments. In particular, the James Webb is equipped with: a NIRCam near-IR camera, a NIRSpec near-IR spectrograph, a MIRI mid-IR instrument and FGS/NIRISS - a fine pointing sensor and a near-IR imaging device and a slitless spectrograph .

First of all, NASA will adjust the mirrors for the NIRCam instrument, the telescope's key instrument. After that, parallel individual tuning of the remaining instruments will take place.

A week ago, the telescope fully opened its main mirror and completed the main stages of its transformation into a scientific instrument. This stage ended with the deployment of the second lateral part of the main mirror, which lasted several hours. The next global stage is when the telescope reaches its destination - the Lagrange point L2 of the Sun-Earth system. According to the plan, he should arrive there on the 29th day after the start.

Approximately on the 100th day, the cooling of the devices will be completed. On day 120, engineers plan to complete the alignment in the working orbit, alignment and tuning of scientific instruments. Scientists are expected to receive the first data from the telescope in June 2022.

Chronology of events since the launch of "James Webb":

On December 25, the telescope was launched into space on an Ariane-5 rocket, solar panels were deployed;

December 26 - first course correction;

December 28 - start of deployment of rectangular sunshield trays;

December 29 - NASA opens access to data on the state of the telescope;

December 31 - the arrows for the sun screen were extended, the tension of the canvas and the separation of the layers began;

Jan 3 - Three and five layers of sunshield stripped and stretched, two more in progress;

January 4 - the process of opening and stretching the layers of the sunscreen was completed;

January 5 — deployment and fixation of the tripod with elements of the secondary mirror;

January 6 - Optical system heat sink deployed;

January 7 - one side of the main mirror unfolded;

January 8 - the main mirror is fully opened.

bbabo.Net