Webb

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.…

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory ever sent to space, is gearing up to begin its science mission this summer. In the run-up to that milestone, work is underway to deploy the many instruments aboard the $10 billion (roughly Rs. 76,165 crore) telescope. One of those instruments is NIRSpec, the Near Infrared Spectrograph. It is just about to start delivering data to scientists waiting here desperately to see the cosmos in a different light. The spectrograph is one of the most powerful instruments…