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.
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[EN VIDÉO] Understand the James Webb Space Telescope mission in one minute The James Webb Space Telescope, a new flagship in space observation, will be launched on December 18 from Kourou, Guyana. After a journey of 29 days, it will reach the Lagrange point L2, in the opposite direction to the Sun. With its mirror larger than that of Hubble, of which it is considered the successor, the JWST will be able to observe galaxies, planets, nebulae and stars to learn more about the history of the Universe.
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 theeye naked.
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 align the 18 golden segments of the mirror main over 6 meters wide from the space telescope James Webb. 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 begin 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 starwill become too bright to be studied by the mighty instrument.
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