James Webb had targeted a particularly bright star to make his job easier.

These photons were immortalized more than a week ago, on February 2, thanks to the scientific instrument called NIRCam.

The 18 luminous points received correspond to the light reflected by the star in the 18 hexagonal segments which constitute the large main mirror.

It is now a question of aligning them little by little so that they only produce a clear and single image.

The process will take about a month and then it will have to be repeated with the other scientific instruments on board, which have not yet cooled down enough to use.

Stars with increasingly faint light will be used.

"The fact that we found the 18 (light points, editor's note) so close to each other, and in the center of the search region, means that the mirrors are already quite well aligned", rejoiced during a press conference Marshall Perrin, project scientist.

The selfie taken in space by the James Webb telescope, on which we can see the 18 segments of its main mirror, in an image published by NASA - NASA/AFP

The telescope also took a selfie, again thanks to NIRCam: in a black and white image published by NASA, we can clearly distinguish the 18 small mirrors, thanks to the light coming from the stars and reflecting on them.

The reaction of NASA teams to this selfie?

"Oh the cow!" Said Lee Feinberg, in charge of the telescope's optics.

But far from being taken for fun alone, this selfie is used by teams to check alignment with scientific instruments.

“It is still too early to say whether or not there is a size defect” on the telescope, tempered Lee Feinberg.

But he said when he got home on Saturday, his wife "told him it was the first time she (he) had seen (him) smile since December".

James Webb, who took off from French Guiana on December 25, is now 1.5 million km from Earth, having deployed in space during perilous maneuvers that had never been attempted before.

Worth 10 billion dollars, it must in particular explore the formation of the first galaxies, and the atmosphere of exoplanets in search of potentially habitable environments.

The first images of scientific observations, which promise to be spectacular, are expected in the summer.

© 2022 AFP