The noosphere has just fully equipped itself with a new eye in orbit in space since NASA has just announced on March 16, 2022 that it had completed on March 11 a first stage of fine tuning of the mirrors hexagonal of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They now behave like a single mirror capable of forming a single sharp image.
It’s the camera in the near infrared NIR Camthe main imager of the JWST in the near infrared range (between 0.6 and 5 microns), which delivered, thanks to the unique mirror now available, a first image, the most resolved obtained in space for this domain of wave lengthand it first shows thestar 2MASS J17554042+6551277. As its name suggests, it is clearly part of the catalog compiled by the 2MASS observation campaign, to Two Micron All-Sky Survey (literally “survey of the whole sky at two micrometers”) carried out between 1997 and 2001 using two automated telescopes 1.3 meters in diameter specially built for this purpose, one located in thenorthern hemisphere (Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Arizona), the other in thesouthern hemisphere (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile).
The first image of Webb taken while aiming at a star to test the alignment of the mirrors shows his incredible sensitivity. Around the star, we see galaxies from the distant universe appear… pic.twitter.com/LZETfNTv8k
— Olivier Berné (@OliBern) March 16, 2022
This is a good omen because the NIRCam camera will be used to observe the first phases of stellar and galactic formation a few hundred million years after the big Bangstudy the black matter via effects of gravitational lenses and finally take a fresh look at the protoplanetary discs and the exoplanets.
Within the next six weeks the final stages of the complete adjustment of the 18 segments of the hexagonal beryllium mirror of the JWST should be completed. All the instruments equipping the space telescope should then be operational. But we will have to wait until the summer of 2022 to really have images and scientific data.
Explanations concerning the obtaining of the first image of a star by the James-Webb telescope. To obtain a fairly accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. The English subtitles should then appear. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Subtitles” and finally on “Translate automatically”. Choose “French”. © James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The Webb Space Telescope delivers its first images of a star in the Big Dipper
Article of Laurent Sacco published on 02/14/2022
the James Webb Space Telescope (Nasa) arrived at its destination, at the point known as Lagrange said L2, on January 24th. He begins to deliver images of his first target, HD 84406, one star type G and therefore similar to Sun, located about 258 light years in the Ursa Major constellation.
The James-Webb space telescope is expected to make it possible in particular to analyze theatmosphere ofexoterres orbiting solar-type stars hoping to find biosignatures testifying to the existence of a life similar to that which we know on Earth. We can therefore only be enthusiastic in noting that one of the steps planned for the commissioning of the instrument is proceeding perfectly, namely the obtaining of images of the star HD 84406 located at approximately 258 years- light of Solar system only.
NASA has just made public these images which are in the form of 18 luminous points, as can be seen in the photo below. They result from the accumulation of photons, grains of light, carried out by the instrument Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) for a total of approximately 25 hours of observation which began on February 2, 2022.
We observe 18 images of the star located in the constellation of the Big Dipper because the 18 hexagonal elements of the primary mirror of the telescope are not yet finely assembled and adjusted to produce a single and unique well focused image. This is also the whole point of the operation, the development in a way of the instrument to be able to make scientific observations later. The cooling of each of these elements to drop below 50 kelvins is still ongoing. The astronomers and engineers working on fully commissioning the James-Webb should take another month or so to complete the adjustments that will result in a single high quality image of HD 84406.
” The entire Webb team is delighted with the quality of the first steps in taking images and aligning the telescope. We were so happy to see light coming into NIRCam said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator of the NIRCam instrument and professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona.
Lee Feinberg, Elements Manager for the Webb Optical Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center from NASA, explains the first steps in the process of orienting hexagonal mirrors. To obtain a fairly accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. The English subtitles should then appear. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Subtitles” and finally on “Translate automatically”. Choose “French”. © James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
The Webb Space Telescope will open its giant eye to this star in the Big Dipper
Article of Nathalie Mayer published on 05/02/2022
The James Webb Space Telescope (Nasa) arrived at its destination, at the so-called Lagrange 2 point, on January 24. And he is now almost ready to turn to his very first target. A star located in the constellation Ursa Major.
This time there it is. The four main instruments of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, Nasa) are being powered up. And the telescope will soon be ready to turn to its very first target: a star dubbed HD 84406. A star in the Big Dipper, similar to our Sun and located some 260 light-years from Earth. With her magnitude about 6.7, it is not visible to the naked eye.
The images of this star will be taken by the infrared camera close to the JWST (NIRCam). They will not be used directly for scientific purposes. But the star makes an ideal target to help engineers line up the 18 golden segments of the James Webb Space Telescope’s more than 6-meter-wide main mirror. Their objective: to succeed in forming a clear image from the 18 blurred images that each segment should first return.
Star light, star bright…the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, a Sun-like star about 260 light years away. While it will be too bright for Webb to study once the telescope is in focus, it’s a perfect target for Webb to gather engineering data & start mirror alignment. pic.twitter.com/DleVjDZz8B
—NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) January 28, 2022
Still a lot of adjustments to make
These adjustments should continue until the end of April. And they are considered crucial. If the NIRCam were to fail in this mission, the engineers would lose any chance of aligning the JWST mirror.
According to NASA scientists, HD 84406 appears as “a perfect target to start our search for photons”. On the other hand, once the JWST is fully operational — not before next June, because it will notably still be weeks before its instruments reach their operating temperature — theUrsa Major star will become too bright to be studied by the mighty instrument.
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