Webb's instruments are being switched on as the telescope continues its commissioning.
The principal investigators of the Webb science team outlined their plan in a town hall Friday hosted online by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Webb's brightness changes in a repeatable six-hour cycle as the observatory's solar array reflects a glint of sunlight back towards the Earth, during its regular spin, Gardner said."The sunshield reflects the sunlight directly at the Earth, and [sometimes] has a glint and at other times, it's more diffuse light," Gardner said.
Optical commissioning will include several complex steps — sometimes sequentially and sometimes iteratively — such as identification of images, aligning different mirror segments, and eventually phasing the segments to within a fraction of a wavelength, McElwain noted.on a bright, distant star called HD 84406NASA's James Webb Space Telescope separates from its Ariane 5 rocket with the bright blue Earth in the background in this view captured after its launch on Dec. 25, 2021.
The European Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope aboard lifts off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Commissioning shows that the instruments are able to be calibrated, she noted, but calibration will not complete during the commissioning period."Each observing mode has specific quantitative criteria for science readiness that say, 'Okay, this looks ready to go,'"Rigby said."It doesn't mean it is perfect, [but] it means that this looks like it is ready to start science operations.
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