NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). The sizes and positions of the images shown depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The alignment of the telescope across all of Webb’s instruments can be seen in a series of images that captures the observatory’s full field of view.įeatured in this video are engineering images demonstrating the sharp focus of each instrument. It is official, alignment of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. The James Webb Space Telescope was named after the NASA Administrator who crafted the Apollo program, and who was a staunch supporter of space science. Webb is currently in its operational orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth at a location known as Lagrange Point 2 (L2). Both the mirror and sunshade are too large to fit onto the Ariane 5 rocket fully open, so both were folded which meant they needed to be unfolded in space. Webb has a large primary mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Webb's instruments are designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range. Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. After launch, the observatory was successfully unfolded and is being readied for science. The observatory launched into space on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on December 25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope.
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