• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Cookie policy (EU)
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Video
  • Write for us
Today Headline
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • POLITICS
    • News for today
    • Borisov news
  • FINANCE
    • Business
    • Insurance
  • Video
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • ENTERPRISE
  • LIFESTYLE
    • TRAVEL
    • HEALTH
    • ENTERTAINMENT
  • AUTOMOTIVE
  • SPORTS
  • Travel and Tourism
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • POLITICS
    • News for today
    • Borisov news
  • FINANCE
    • Business
    • Insurance
  • Video
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • ENTERPRISE
  • LIFESTYLE
    • TRAVEL
    • HEALTH
    • ENTERTAINMENT
  • AUTOMOTIVE
  • SPORTS
  • Travel and Tourism
No Result
View All Result
TodayHeadline
No Result
View All Result

James Webb Space Telescope begins final check-outs before science observations – Space.com

May 6, 2022
in Tech
0
James Webb Space Telescope begins final check-outs before science observations – Space.com
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

NASA’s next-generation observatory is entering the last stages of preparation before showing scientists an all-new view of the universe. 

Engineers are preparing to make final tweaks to the instruments on board the James Webb Space Telescope as the observatory readies for operations this summer. NASA said the telescope has “calibrations and characterizations of the instruments using a rich variety of astronomical sources” coming up shortly to make sure everything is working before Webb is set loose to examine the early universe.

“We will measure the instruments’ throughput — how much of the light that enters the telescope reaches the detectors and is recorded,” Scott Friedman, lead commissioning scientist for Webb at Baltimore’s Space Science Telescope Institute, said in NASA statement Thursday (May 5).

Live updates: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope mission
Related: How the James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures

While no telescope can accurately collect every photon that comes through to it, engineers will still want to know the throughput at several light wavelengths to assess Webb’s performance at gathering infrared light, Friedman said.

Friedman emphasized the commissioning is “almost there,” as the telescope is in the last two month of the process, which began after Webb’s launch on Dec. 25, 2021. Once the instruments are assessed properly, he said, “we will be ready to begin the great science programs that astronomers and the public alike have been eagerly awaiting.”

The team has been releasing a few commissioning images along the way, and a notable commissioning target is coming into focus soon: the Large Magellanic Cloud. While Friedman did not say if this galactic neighbor to the Milky Way will be included in early release images, he noted that examining the galaxy will be helpful to calibrate any distortion.

The Webb telescope will also be assessed even further for its sharpness of stellar images, through all of the instruments’ optics. Each instrument is working fine with the optics tested so far, Friedman noted, but additional filters and a tool called “diffraction grating” (which spreads light into constituent colors) will also be assessed.

The team will also certify the observatory’s target acquisition to make sure the telescope can point with precision down to a hundredth of an arcsecond, which will be useful for exoplanet observations.

“The star has to be placed behind a mask so its light is blocked, allowing the nearby exoplanet to shine through,” Friedman said. “In time series observations, we measure how an exoplanet’s atmosphere absorbs the stellar light during the hours it takes to pass in front of its star, allowing us to measure the properties and constituents of the planet’s atmosphere.”

A last final testing activity will be observing moving targets such as planets, satellites, rings, asteroids and comets. “Observing these requires that the observatory change its pointing direction relative to the background guide stars during the observation,” Friedman said. “We will test this capability by observing asteroids of different apparent speeds using each instrument.”

NASA plans to update the public on Webb’s progress on Monday (May 9) and a livestream of the discussion will be available online.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

Previous Post

May’s full Flower Moon will be a super blood moon total lunar eclipse – MLive.com

Next Post

Before There Were Birds or Bees, This Is How Trilobites Made Babies – The New York Times

Related Posts

Call Centres
Tech

Interesting Things To Know About Call Centres

Call centres are things that...

Read more
InSight landers final selfie on Mars shows why its mission is ending – CNN
Tech

InSight landers final selfie on Mars shows why its mission is ending – CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/world/nasa-mars-insight-lander-final-selfie-scn/index.html

Read more
Sharkcano view from space shows an undersea volcano erupting – Space.com
Tech

Sharkcano view from space shows an undersea volcano erupting – Space.com

https://www.space.com/sharkcano-undersea-volcano-satellite-image

Read more
Joe Biden Wants to Put a Japanese Astronaut on the Moon – Gizmodo
Tech

Joe Biden Wants to Put a Japanese Astronaut on the Moon – Gizmodo

https://gizmodo.com/joe-biden-artemis-nasa-japan-moon-space-exploration-gat-1848977108

Read more
Boeings Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth, wrapping up critical test mission – The Verge
Tech

Boeings Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth, wrapping up critical test mission – The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/25/23138395/boeing-cst-100-starliner-nasa-undocking-landing-oft-2

Read more
Load More
Next Post
Before There Were Birds or Bees, This Is How Trilobites Made Babies – The New York Times

Before There Were Birds or Bees, This Is How Trilobites Made Babies - The New York Times

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Sex/Life fans notice a HUGE editing fail in Adam Demos’ nude shower scene –

Sex/Life fans notice a HUGE editing fail in Adam Demos’ nude shower scene –

Can you get rid of a hacker on your phone?

Trisha Paytas Destroyed The Internet By Posting Her Toilet Paper Asshole

Trisha Paytas Destroyed The Internet By Posting Her Toilet Paper Asshole

Horror as goat gives birth to ‘humanoid kid’ with baby-like face

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Newly developed algorithms raise the bar for autonomous underwater imaging

Newly developed algorithms raise the bar for autonomous underwater imaging

New research questions previous link between diabetes drugs and bone fractures

New research questions previous link between diabetes drugs and bone fractures

About Us

Todayheadline the independent news and topics discovery
A home-grown and independent news and topic aggregation . displays breaking news linking to news websites all around the world.

Follow Us

Latest News

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Ranking NFL 2022 ‘Triplets,’ Part I: Bears, Falcons among least inspiring; Saints, Dolphins just below average

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Partygate: Boris Johnson faces further grilling by Labour grandees

Newly developed algorithms raise the bar for autonomous underwater imaging

Newly developed algorithms raise the bar for autonomous underwater imaging

  • Real Estate
  • Education
  • Parenting
  • Cooking
  • Travel and Tourism
  • Home & Garden
  • Pets
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • About

© 2021 All rights are reserved Todayheadline

No Result
View All Result
  • Real Estate
  • Education
  • Parenting
  • Cooking
  • Travel and Tourism
  • Home & Garden
  • Pets
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • About

© 2021 All rights are reserved Todayheadline

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Posting....