NASA to Discuss Progress as Webb Telescope’s Mirrors Align
NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at noon EDT Wednesday, March 16, to provide an update on the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror alignment. The briefing will air live on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s
website.
Participants will share progress made in aligning Webb’s mirrors, resulting in a fully focused image of a single star. NASA will make imagery demonstrating the completion of this milestone available on the agency’s
website at 11:30 a.m., prior to the briefing.
In recent weeks, the Webb team
successfully captured starlight through each of Webb’s 18 mirror segments. The team then refined and stacked those 18 individual dots of light on top of one another to form an initial alignment image of a single star. Since then, in stages of alignment called “
coarse phasing" and "fine phasing,” engineers have made smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments so they act as a single mirror, producing a sharp and focused image of a single star.
NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at noon EDT Wednesday, March 16, to provide an update on the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror alignment. The
www.nasa.gov