Recently, NASA’s new space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, sent us its first images. There were some differences in the frames transmitted by this telescope, which will help us understand the secrets of the universe. One of these was the existence of stars with 8 rays of light.

Normally the stars gigantic, round celestial bodies we know it is. Agree James Webb Space TelescopeWhy do the stars in images of . Let’s explain the reasons for this situation.

The reason for this isn’t the first thing that comes to mind!

Camera users, lens flare or lens flare familiar with the situation. So what is lens flare? Holding the camera against a strong light source will refract the light as it passes through the lens. Sometimes it gives a nice picture, sometimes it is seen as an undesirable phenomenon. The first thing that comes to mind for many people is some kind of lens flare, but that’s not the answer.

This is the name of the rays of light we have seen diffraction peaks goes like. in Turkish equivalent diffraction tips The reason for the emergence of these structures, which we can say, is the series of mirrors and mirror systems used in the space telescope.

In fact, we have created these refractive patterns before. Also images from Hubble we have seen. In the images there, the refractions looked more like a plus shape. The reason for this is the use of mirrors of different shapes in the two telescopes.

The shape of the mirrors determines the refractions.

When light hits a mirror surface, it tends to scatter. these distributions in the form of waves It is possible. The stone thrown into the sea with the light falling on the mirror from one point and spreading it spreads waves around it in similar ways: stronger and more frequent in the center, smaller and more spaced the further away it moves. There are two things these scattered light waves can do: join together to create larger waves, or collide and fade.

The above diffractions are like the honeycombs of the telescope, bees. hexagonal It is caused by refractions formed at the edges of the mirrors. That’s the case for at least some of them, because there’s something else that’s causing these fractures.

There is also a secondary mirror behind the telescope’s primary mirror array. There are support arms connecting these two mirror assemblies. These arms are also a reflection. Refraction also occurs due to reflection. Even with only 3 support legs 6 malfunctions enough for

The number of cracks could have been even higher.

NASA as much as possible be clear and clean want. For this reason, there are several methods that they employ to reduce the pimples. One of these is adjusting the position of the support beams. While NASA engineers perform this operation, 150-150-60 degrees set an angle pattern. So some of the diffractions from the rods and some of the diffractions from the mirror shape overlapped.

For the round mirror structure in the Hubble telescope plus shaped there was a lineup.

Therefore, in images from that telescope, the stars were in the shape of a plus. If there were a system with one or two support legs, we would see a linear distribution.

It is also important what the photo was taken with.

The James Webb Space Telescope itself also contains many different instruments. Which instrument is used to shoot also affects the images. for example NIRCam The instrument, called infrared, displays light in the near infrared spectrum. MIRIA The instrument, on the other hand, detects light in the mid-infrared spectrum. In this case, two instruments, although looking at the same image, can produce different images. For example, in the image above, starlights have more diffraction in the left frame created with NIRCam.

Of course, the diffraction in the light of stars with stronger light is also stronger. In the future maybe the James Webb Space Telescope, octagon with pine lighting It’s going to be iconic, who knows?