After years of delay and decades of development, the James Webb Space Telescope mission is gradually progressing.
So far, the $10 billion mission has made it through each stage of its launch smoothly. His latest achievement was to detect the first starlight on his telescope earlier this week.
"This milestone marks the first of many steps towards capturing an initially out of focus image and using it to slowly refine the telescope," NASA said in a statement.
"This is the beginning of the process, but so far the initial results are in line with expectations and simulations."
This first set of photons was detected by Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument. The photon comes from HD 84406, a star nearly 260 light-years away and visible in the constellation Ursa Major.
With the starlight detected, the team can now begin a three-month process of positioning all 18 panels in such a way that they will form a single concave mirror.
Launched on December 25, 2021, the James Webb telescope is a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency. Once operational, Webb will search for light from the first stars and galaxies, study the formation and evolution of galaxies, and scan the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, among other astronomical and astrobiological purposes.
Webb reached his stable orbital point, Lagrange Point 2, on January 24, 2022. Since then, engineers have finished turning his science instruments on and off their heaters, which they did to initiate a prolonged cooling process.
A heater is needed to keep the Webb optics warm and to prevent condensation of water and ice. The alignment process can begin once the instrument reaches -153 degrees Celsius, according to NASA.
The alignment process will involve seven different steps, such as segment image identification, segment alignment, and image stacking. This work will require extraordinary precision.
The team of engineers will use the data collected by NIRCam to gradually align the telescope. Because the large mirror has not been aligned, the incoming photons produce an image that shows 18 points of blurry light.
They will continue to train Webb on HD 84406 and work on producing a single focus image of the star. NASA warns that the images collected during this three-month process will not look pretty but are very useful.
The end of this process will see the telescope fully aligned and will be the start of the next phase of instrument commissioning. Hopefully the next important stage will go according to plan and we will see spectacular results from the James Webb telescope in early June.