The James Webb Space Telescope has completed another critical milestone confirming the final adjustment of the four major scientific instruments it carries on board. The binoculars have a perfect view and astronomers predict that it will usher in a golden age in our understanding of the universe and provide previously unseen images of a universe billions of light-years away.

Optics performance indicates the level of a telescope, and James Webb’s performance has exceeded the best expectations of engineering teams from the beginning. The complete opposite of his predecessor Hubble, who was about to turn into a historical fiasco with the problem of origin in the polishing of the main mirror. Fortunately, the space shuttle and space maintenance program was able to keep it in top shape and provided us with beautiful images of the Cosmos.

James Webb: Perfect Visions

According to NASA, they verified this by completing tests to adjust all instruments sharpness of images It is “As good as physically possible given the size of the telescope”. From now on, the only changes will be very small periodic adjustments of the main mirror segments.

For the final alignment test, the telescope was aimed at a portion of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that revealed a deep, dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars recorded by all the observatory’s sensors. Although space telescope images sometimes restore colors as perceived by the human eye, other times they are selected to highlight specific features. Engineers chose a scarlet palette to emphasize the contrast.

Of the tests performed so far, four main devices (NIRCam, NIRISS, MIRI and NIRSpec) they work perfectly and it’s crucial as a comprehensive set of detectors with their own lenses, masks, filters and equipment, which are the key to James Webb. The specialized features of these tools will be configured and operated in various combinations for the official launch, which is expected in a few months.

Part of this process will be to direct the telescope to different areas of the sky, where the total amount of sunlight falling on the observatory will change to confirm that its temperature remains stable as it changes target. The mirrors will also be checked regularly to ensure that they are properly aligned. NASA will publish a selection of “stunning” photos in June with full resolution and accompanying scientific data. The agency has not revealed which celestial goals will be in this selection, which will allow us to anticipate what awaits us.

You already know that the telescope was built and will be operated jointly by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency as part of a project that began thirty years ago, shortly after the launch of Hubble. Its additional costs have skyrocketed and investment will climb to nearly $ 10,000 million. We’ll see in a short time if it’s worth it.

Astronomy lovers are eagerly awaiting this giant goals: to study the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe after the Big Bang; discover how galaxies evolved in the early days; how stars and planetary systems are born in dusty clouds, and the search for chemical fingerprints of life on satellites like Enceladus and the composition of exoplanet atmospheres that could reveal the biological signatures of extraterrestrial life.

and you will have to in just ten years, less than a third of Hubble’s life. Then it stays run out of fuel and you will not be able to stay in your current position. There is no time to waste time.