NASA Reaches Milestone in James Webb Space Telescope Mirror Alignment Process, Shares First Unified Star Image
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has been aligned to produce the first unified image of a single star, reaching a critical milestone in its journey to unravel the mysteries of the world far beyond our reach. Most traditional telescopes have a single primary mirror that collects light from distant stars. But Webb has 18 hexagonal mirror segments that had to be aligned into a single large mirror to produce images that could help astronomers study the universe. The process was long and tedious and required great precision.…