James Webb telescope sends back a new image of star

Multimedia

19-03-2022, 21:09

INA - SOURCES

NASA's new James Webb telescope has reached another alignment milestone and sent back its clearest image of a star to date.

"More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Today, we can say that design is going to deliver."

The James Webb Space Telescope launched from French Guiana to replace the aging Hubble telescope and began the lengthy process of aligning its 18 mirror segments in January.

On March 11, the telescope was able to complete the mirror alignment stage called "fine phasing," the fifth out of seven total stages James Webb must undergo before being able fully capture images using infrared light.

As part of the fine phasing, Webb captured an image of a bright star located 2,000 light years away from Earth, and numerous other galaxies and stars visible in the background.