NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a kaleidoscope of wonders right in our own cosmic backyard.
“An addition to our #UnfoldTheUniverse art social media campaign by Becky Smith. It is titled ‘ A View from The James Webb Telescope’ and is created using acrylic paint on aluminum embellished with glow in the dark UV paint. If you create art inspired by what the James Webb Space Telescope might discover, share it with us! For more information, please visit: go.nasa.gov/unfoldtheuniverse.” (Image credit: Becky Smith)
Humanity gots its last glimpse of the James Webb Space Telescope on 2022. A shimmering jewel, it looked tiny set against the baby-blue curvature of the earth, to say nothing of the vast darkness of space.
“Here it is: humanity’s final look at the James Webb Space Telescope as it heads into deep space to answer our biggest questions. Alone in the vastness of space, Webb will soon begin an approximately two-week process to deploy its antennas, mirrors, and sunshield. This image was captured by the cameras on board the rocket’s upper stage as the telescope separated from it. The Earth hover in the upper right. (Credit: Arianespace, ESA, NASA, CSA, CNES)
As fragile as a paper sailboat, sealed with wax and sailing out into a vast sea, James Webb was launched past the safety of earth’s temperate atmosphere on Christmas Day, 2021.
Against all odds, Webb’s many delicate, intricate parts and precision instruments survived all the rigors of launch. Even more astonishing, the telescope survived a subsequent unfurling of its main mirror…in space.
And a meteor strike or two.
“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. Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the telescope is fully aligned and in focus. 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 sizes and positions of the images shown here 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.” (Credit: NASA/STScI)
Webb cleared every initial hurdle and the news couldn’t have been better: The fantastical journey of the James Webb Space Telescope had begun.
