“These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in the NASA blog post.
Now that the mirrors are fully aligned, the telescope is successfully supplying its four instruments with incoming light from the far reaches of the universe, capturing images of stars in sharp focus. The instruments are the NIRCam, a near-infrared camera for imaging young stars and forming galaxies; the NIRSpec, a powerful spectrograph to study light from distant sources; MIRI, a camera and spectrograph that operate in the mid-infrared wavelengths; and FGI/NIRISS, which allows the telescope to aim with precision and study exoplanets.
Webb is now moving into the process of instrument commissioning, where these incredibly sensitive instruments will be tested across different configurations to ensure they are ready for full-scale operation. As a part of this process, the telescope will point at different patches of the sky to ensure that it’s thermally stable. Instrument commissioning should take around two months, and the official start of the science mission should finally begin this summer.