James Webb Space Telescope has sent back its clearest image yet

A crucial phase of mirror alignment has been completed for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the process resulted in the highest resolution infrared image ever taken from space

By Leah Crane

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has reached a crucial phase in the alignment of its mirrors. Images from this process have shown that everything is working even better than expected, and the telescope’s operators say that its performance will be able to meet or even exceed the goals that were originally set for it.

JWST peers into the cosmos with the help of 18 gold-plated hexagonal mirrors. For it to work properly, all of these mirrors have to be aligned with extraordinary precision – within nanometres – so that they act as one. When the observatory sent back its first images in February, the mirrors weren’t yet aligned and the images were blurry. Now, although the alignment process isn’t quite complete, the image is crystal clear.

“This is as sharp an image as you can get from a telescope of this size,” said JWST scientist Marshall Perrin at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland during a 16 March press conference. It is the highest resolution infrared image ever taken from space.

The picture itself shows a bright star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277. If the alignment hadn’t been precise enough, there would be multiple copies of the star in the image, but it shows that the mirrors are now all working together to create a single image of a star flanked by distant galaxies.

“The telescope performance so far is everything that we dared hope,” said JWST scientist Jane Rigby at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland during the press conference. There are a few more alignment steps before the observatory can take its first science images, which are expected in June or July.

This image of a single star is only the beginning. Once JWST begins taking science images, it should help unravel some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, from exoplanet habitability to dark energy.

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