THE INAUGURAL JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE:

Posted byDavid EdwardsPosted inAirbus Industries, Astronomy, General Aviation, N.A.S.A., SPACE FORCE, Space News, SpaceX, United States (U.S.) National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The image was sourced from the United States (U.S.) N.A.S.A: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/telescope_alignment_evaluation_image_labeled.png

Alignment of the James Webb space telescope eighteen (18) hexagonal mirrors, constructed of beryllium (Be2+) metal, is nearly complete.

The initial orbit of the James Webb space telescope is approximately one-million (1,000,000) miles (mi), or 1.6 million kilometers (km), from Earth, according to TIME magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger (TIME, The James Webb Telescope Took Its Best Picture Yet; 18, March, 2022)

“While the purpose of this image was to focus on the bright star at the center for alignment evaluation, Webb’s optics and NIRCam are so sensitive that the galaxies and stars seen in the background show up. At this stage of Webb’s mirror alignment, known as “fine phasing,” each of the primary mirror segments have been adjusted to produce one unified image of the same star using only the NIRCam instrument. This image of the star, which is called 2MASS J17554042+6551277, uses a red filter to optimize visual contrast. Credits: NASA/STScI”

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