The James Webb Space Telescope has locked down the guiding star in a major milestone
The James Webb . Space TelescopeAccording to two space agencies involved in the operation of the observatory, which is working well during testing.
The Good Guiding Sensor (FGS), a donation from Honeywell on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, successfully “locked” a particular guide star into tracking mode on Sunday (Feb 13), CSA report Thursday (February 17).
With FGS performing well so far, the next tool will be used to support the continuous alignment of the 18 hexagonal segments that make up the telescope’s main mirror, CSA added. Last week, Webb . engineers released a first image of a star showing multiple separate views from different reflective segments, which is to be expected because alignment is taking place.
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“In the coming weeks, with the help of FGS, each mirror segment will be carefully adjusted to ‘stack’ the [individual segment] view and correct the rest of the telescope’s optical elements, to ultimately create a highly focused image of a star,” the CSA said.
NASA declare Key facts posted on Thursday include commentary by both René Doyon (principal investigator for Canadian-made tools on Webb) and outreach scientist Nathalie Ouellette of the University of Montréal. The two scientists discussed the function of the FGS and what to expect in the coming weeks.
The scientists said in the statement.
Speaking of the milestone, the scientists said they were “delighted” that the guidance was doing well so far; they also expect FGS to continue to support Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) pointing in the right direction.
“From now on, the alignment of the telescope mirror will take place with the guidance of the FGS, while the NIRCam imaging provides diagnostic information for the mirror alignment,” the scientists added. .
Webb’s uptime is expected to take several months, in large part because the devices are still cooling off after the December 25 launch and the month-long journey to a Lagrange point deep in space. The instruments are designed to operate at minus 384 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 233 degrees Celsius) as Webb searches for radiating objects in the universe.
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https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-locks-first-star The James Webb Space Telescope has locked down the guiding star in a major milestone
