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The US space agency's James Webb space telescope has crossed an important milestone by focusing on a star for the first time.
Engineers say they experimentally focused on a star and that the quality of the image is much higher than they expected.
To reach this stage, all 18 parts of the web's central mirror had to adapt to the finer points of human hair.
But NASA says there is still a long way to go before the telescope can be fully operational.
Lee Feinberg, head of James Webb's optical equipment team, described the first image from Fox as "excellent."
"Not only do you see the star and the scattering of light from it, but the other stars in the picture are well focused, which is what we had hoped for, and there are other interesting things in the background." '
"We've done a very detailed analysis of the images we've received, and we've found that their performance is at least as good as our expectations, if not better than our expectations."
James Webb has been named the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It was launched from French Guiana on December 25, 2021 by an Aryan 5 rocket.
The purpose of this telescope is to see the first brightest stars in our universe.
In addition, the telescope will examine the planets far away from our solar system to see if they are habitable.
A six-and-a-half-meter-diameter central mirror has been installed to give James Webb the precision and sensitivity necessary for this mission.
But the mirror was so large that it was divided into 18 parts so that it would fold and fit inside the rocket.
So the important thing since the launch has been to open the mirror and other devices and start working in harmony with each other.
All 18 of these mirrors are arranged together by small motors so that they act as a single mirror.
"Images are now as focused as the laws of physics allow," said Marshall Perrin of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
The star chosen for this experimental image is not unique in itself, but is an ordinary and unnamed star whose light was appropriate.
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James Webb is watching this star in infrared. The human eye cannot see these waves of light. Red is only used to create contrast.
Mark McGregor of the European Space Agency said the protrusions from the star were due to the design of James Webb's main mirror.
He told the BBC: "The structure of these 18 mirrors is such that the bright stars seem to point out. This is not a problem for science, but it will give a unique look to the images taken on the web.
"The fact that the tips are so old shows that the mirrors are perfectly aligned with each other," he said.
A closer look at this image reveals galaxies billions of light-years away in the background.
Note that this is a test image taken for engineering purposes only. The images that the Hubble Telescope has been showing us for the last 30 years will not be available before this summer.
Jane Rugby of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said: "The images we see today are as vague and clear as Hubble can, but they are in a wavelength of light that Hubble cannot see at all. So this means that the unseen universe is now before our eyes.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a joint venture between the US, European and Canadian space agencies.
James Webb Space Telescope: Sunshield of area telescope opened to defend from sunlight.
James Webb, the world's biggest area telescope, has correctly finished the primary segment of his quest to seize brilliant stars.
The controllers of this area telescope correctly opened a massive kite-like 'sunshield' on Tuesday and controlled to defend the telescope from the sturdy rays of the solar.
Protected from the solar and heat, the protect is set the scale of a tennis court. This will permit the James Webb Telescope to locate indicators from the farthest gadgets withinside the universe.
Many professionals have expressed difficulty over the layout of the James Webb Telescope's protect as it contained too many motors, gears, wheels and wires. And that they'd issues approximately beginning it up absolutely in area and securing the distance telescope.
But years of revel in and studies have proven that the controllers of this area telescope will first absolutely resolve the exceptional layers of this massive protect after which tie them together.
The exceptional layers of the solar protect of this telescope are formed like human hair. During the protect set up on Tuesday, its 5th and very last vacation spot opened at 4:fifty eight p.m., International Time.
"It's crucial," stated Greg Robinson, application director of the James Webb Telescope Mission at NASA headquarters. "
He introduced that "this masterpiece of engineering needed to paintings with hundreds of elements to paintings correctly and absolutely in area. The crew has finished a complicated however daunting challenge at this stage, the precise set up of the Sunshield. Which, of course, made the video an in a single day sensation.
Alphono Stewart, head of NASA's James Webb Telescope deployment system, stated it changed into crucial to be aware that each one preceding experiments were achieved on Earth wherein gravity changed into present. This is the primary time the protect has been opened in area wherein gravity is zero.
"It changed into the primary time and we had been very a hit.
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Hillary Stock, head of the crew that opened the protect of the James Webb Telescope at Northern Roop Company, stated:
The world's biggest area telescope, James Webb, changed into released from French Guiana on December 25 remaining yr with the assist of an Aryan rocket.
The area telescope is taken into consideration the successor to the Hubble Telescope, as Hubble is now 31 years vintage and nearing the stop of its operational life.
Like the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb will unveil the mysteries of the universe and permit get entry to to stars and galaxies in area thru images. But not like the Hubble Space Telescope, it makes use of modern-day gadget and generation that permits it to look greater into area.
Space telescopes also are predicted to acquire mild from stars that mild up at once after the Big Bang 13.five billion years ago. These stars are taken into consideration to be the primary stars withinside the universe.
But maximum importantly, how touchy are James Webb's infrared sensors. Will mild from this a part of the universe attain the web's sensors correctly, or will James Webb acquire those indicators correctly?
For this, the distance telescope has to preserve itself cool and at a low temperature, in any other case those indicators will now no longer be detected.
Therefore, this protect of the solar will offer low temperature to the surroundings round this area telescope and could lessen the temperature across the glasses and units of this area telescope to minus 230 ranges Celsius.
Controllers working the telescope are stationed on the Baltimore Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, and are actually that specialize in its golden reflect.
Like Sunshield, the following step is to open the 2 primary and simple mirrors of this area telescope and set up it at the the front of the Aryan.
By the stop of this week, the second one reflect, seventy five cm extensive and 8 meters long, is predicted to be set up in the front of the primary reflect of the distance telescope.
The wings had been proven entirely to provide a experience of proportion. They will now be opened at a ninety diploma angle, making the floor 6.five meters extensive.