Photo Courtesy of Flickr
By Shira Sadeh ’25
Staff Writer
The new James Webb Telescope saw its first star on Feb. 11, according to NASA. The still blurry photo will allow the telescope’s segmented mirrors to align and capture never before seen images of our universe. Marcia Reike, a professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona and member of the Webb team, spoke to the excitement this news brought in a recent press statement,” Reike said. “The entire Webb team is ecstatic at how well the first steps of taking images and aligning the telescope are proceeding. We were so happy to see that light makes its way into [the Near Infrared Camera].”
Webb’s technology is the first of its kind due to both its scale and its design, Mount Holyoke astronomy professor Jason Young explained.
“Although there are several ground-based telescopes with segmented mirrors, this is the first space-based segmented mirror, and it’s reassuring that this new technology seems to be working,” he said. Young noted that the full size of the mirror is 21 feet wide, larger than any other of its kind. Due to its size, the mirror is broken up into 18 segments, which robotically unfold and align once the telescope reaches its final destination.
The process of capturing the first image began on Feb. 2, reported NASA. After selecting a star known as HD 84406 within the constellation Ursa Major, the Webb Telescope captured 54 gigabytes of raw data. It was pointed at the calculated position of the star from 156 different positions and captured 1,560 images. These images were then pieced together to form a mosaic-like picture. Because each one of the 18 segments captured HD 84406, the results can be used to calculate the current positions of each segment, which is critical to bringing the telescope into full alignment.
According to René Doyon and Nathalie Ouellette of the University of Montreal, who spoke to NASA’s Alise Fisher, the next step is to stay focused on the star by using a Fine Sensor Guide, which locks the mirror segments onto the star and ensures that they remain accurate.
A Canadian contribution to the mission, the Fine Sensor Guide uses highly precise technology to calculate the exact location of the guide star 16 times per second, and then sends adjustments to the telescope three times every second. “The degree of precision with which it can detect changes in the pointing to a celestial object is the equivalent of a person in New York City being able to see the eye motion of someone blinking at the Canadian border … 311 miles away,” Doyon said in a Feb. 17 update.
With the initial phase complete, NASA has reported that the team is ready to move into the next phase, segment alignment. During this stage, the segments will be continuously corrected using the images captured for reference. Once the images are focused enough, the team will transition into phase three: image stacking, which will bring the 18 captured images together to form one cohesive image by stacking the photos on top of each other.
The James Webb Telescope represents a step forward in the world of space exploration technology, Young said, noting that “it’s a landmark in space technology. Future missions in astronomy and other fields of space science will significantly benefit from the numerous new technologies developed for this project.”
According to CBS News, the Webb telescope will spend the next 10 years exploring the universe. They also reported that it is 100 times more powerful than NASA’s famous Hubble Telescope. Webb’s mirrors are mainly made out of beryllium but are covered in an ultra-thin layer of gold, meant to heighten the reflections of infrared light and increase sensitivity. The high sensitivity of the telescope allows it to detect heat from millions of miles away, or see a point as small as a penny from 25 miles away. These abilities will allow scientists to compare more recent galaxies to older ones, which can give them clues about the formation of the universe.
When fully functional, Webb will present scientists with previously hidden visual evidence of the first galaxies and stars from 13.5 billion years ago, NASA explained.
“[The James Webb Space Telescope] will let us see the first galaxies, study the formation of stars and planets in detail, and search for signs of life in nearby solar systems,” Young said. “Being the most advanced infrared telescope ever constructed, it will literally let us see the universe in a new light.”