NASA said that the James Webb telescope tested the operation of a mechanism to more accurately focus the 18 segments of the main mirror optical system on a single star. But because the optics of the apparatus and the capabilities of the NIRCam scientific instrument are so sensitive, the telescope also saw galaxies and stars in the background.
NASA explained that in the current stage of testing and aligning the telescope's optics, each of the main mirror segments has been adjusted to create a single image of the same star using the infrared sensor of the NIRCam science instrument.
Full image of the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277, NASA used a red filter to optimize visual contrast.
NASA said that during testing of the telescope's optics, it did not find any critical problems, noticeable contamination on the elements, or facts of partial blockage in the operation of the Webb optical system. According to agency experts, the space observatory can successfully collect light from distant objects and transmit it to its scientific instruments without any problems.
The James Webb ground control team has begun the fifth stage of preparing the telescoperation. In its course, the alignment of the optical elements will be performed by focusing and defocusing to correct errors after the stages of coarse and fine alignment of the segments of the optical system of the primary mirror. This procedure is carried out using special optical elements inside the NIRCam scientific instrument, which introduce a different degree of defocusing for the image from each segment of the primary mirror.
Video about adjusting the segments of the optical system of the main mirror of the James Webb telescope
On December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space on an Ariane-5 rocket.
On January 8, 2022, James Webb completed a full deployment of the primary mirror.
On January 24, James Webb completed one of the key stages of its journey: it arrived at the orbit of the Lagrange point L2 of the Sun-Earth system, located at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
In mid-February, a NASA team tuned each of Webb's 18 primary mirror segments to assemble 18 unfocused copies of a single star into a planned hexagonal formation.
At the end of February, James Webb aligned 18 segments of the primary mirror and obtained one in-focus image of the star HD 84406.
The parameters of the James Webb telescope can be tracked on this page of the NASA website. Webb is also available for study in NASA's Eyes on the Solar System 3D browser application.
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