James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update
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Updates here: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/
So far, so good
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https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-uncovers-sunshield
The James Webb Space Telescope has unwrapped its sunshield, crossing another important item off of its lengthy and risky deployment to-do list.
After successfully extending its deployable tower assembly (DTA), a structure that connects Webb's two halves, on Thursday (Dec. 29), the telescope had the room to begin the preliminary steps to unfurl its gigantic sunshield. Today (Dec. 30), mission teams completed two major next steps: deploying the James Webb Space Telescope's aft momentum flap and releasing the sunshield's protective membrane cover.
Webb still must unfurl the sunshield, which it will do in the next day or so by extending two booms. The mission team will then spend a few days getting the five-layer structure to the proper tension, wrapping up such work no earlier than Sunday (Jan. 2).
That will end the sunshield deployment, and the Webb team will move on to the telescope's optics. Webb's primary and secondary mirrors are expected to be deployed by Jan. 7, according to NASA, bringing the observatory's deployment phase to an end.
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Final mirror opening live now
Link to video -
"Let's align the mirrors."
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/02/11/photons-received-webb-sees-its-first-star-18-times/
Link to videoThe team’s challenge was twofold: confirm that NIRCam was ready to collect light from celestial objects, and then identify starlight from the same star in each of the 18 primary mirror segments. The result is an image mosaic of 18 randomly organized dots of starlight, the product of Webb’s unaligned mirror segments all reflecting light from the same star back at Webb’s secondary mirror and into NIRCam’s detectors.
What looks like a simple image of blurry starlight now becomes the foundation to align and focus the telescope in order for Webb to deliver unprecedented views of the universe this summer. Over the next month or so, the team will gradually adjust the mirror segments until the 18 images become a single star.
“The entire Webb team is ecstatic at how well the first steps of taking images and aligning the telescope are proceeding. We were so happy to see that light makes its way into NIRCam,” said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for the NIRCam instrument and regents professor of astronomy, University of Arizona.
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cool stuff!!
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Webb fully aligned! See the new test images
https://earthsky.org/space/webb-telescope-aligned-new-test-images/
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-commissioning-update-may-2022
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Countdown to first images
Now 16 days 20 hours
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Now 11 days 13 hours
NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears
Deep field images of the universe, exoplanet atmospheres, and more to be unveiled.
NASA said it plans to release several images beginning at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) on July 12, the result of Webb's "first light" observations.
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I read a "teaser" interview with one of the NASA scientists. They said the images almost brought them to tears.
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I read a "teaser" interview with one of the NASA scientists. They said the images almost brought them to tears.
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5 days 22 hours now
Tuesday July 12, 2022 10:30am EDT (14:30 GMT)
Find them here: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
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Stephan’s Quintet (galaxy group, 290 million lyr)
As seen from Hubble
The comparison will be interesting
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/25/2606-Image.html
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Stephan’s Quintet (galaxy group, 290 million lyr)
As seen from Hubble
The comparison will be interesting
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/25/2606-Image.html
@Copper said in James Webb Space Telescope Launch Update:
The comparison will be interesting
I have no clue about astronomy, but I'd guess that in some ways the two aren't comparable since they deal, AFAIK, with very different parts of the light spectrum.
.)
