Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor also went into operation at this time. These images showed that the mirror segments were all pointing at a relatively small area of the sky, and the alignment was much better than the worst-case scenarios we had planned for. The NIRCam team was ecstatic when the first light image arrived. Once NIRCam cooled to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit, it was cold enough to start detecting light reflecting off of Webb's mirror segments and produce the telescope's first images. But before it could do that, NIRCam had to help align the 18 individual segments of Webb's mirror. NIRCam is designed to study the faint infrared light produced by the oldest stars or galaxies in the universe.
The cameras on Webb cooled just as the engineers predicted, and the first instrument the team turned on was the Near Infrared Camera - or NIRCam. (Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Center/Wikimedia Commons) 2. The NIRCam on Webb was the first instrument to go online and helped align the 18 mirror segments. Once the sun shield was open, our team began monitoring the temperatures of the four cameras and spectrometers onboard, waiting for them to reach temperatures low enough so that we could start testing each of the 17 different modes in which the instruments can operate. This went along without any hitches, starting with the white-knuckle deployment of the sun shield that helps cool the telescope, followed by the alignment of the mirrors and the turning on of sensors. The first task during Webb's monthlong journey to its final location in orbit was to unfold the telescope. This will allow Webb to operate for much longer than the mission’s initial 10-year goal. One of the first things my colleagues at NASA noticed was that the telescope had more remaining fuel onboard than predicted to make future adjustments to its orbit. The launch went as smoothly as a rocket launch can go. 25, 2021, the team began the long process of moving the telescope into its final orbital position, unfolding the telescope and - as everything cooled - calibrating the cameras and sensors onboard. What's happened since the telescope launched?Īfter the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on Dec.
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