The US Space and Aviation Agency (NASA) announced the arrival of the first accurate image from the "James Webb" telescope, which now stands at a distance of more than one million kilometers from Earth, indicating that the telescope is operating normally and will soon begin its first missions.

shining star

According to the agency's statement, published on March 16, the telescope team has completed the alignment stage known as "precision staging", in which each optical element in the telescope is subject to examination and testing so that it works according to expectations or above them.

Besides, the team announced that it did not find any critical problems, pollution or measurable obstructions in the optical path of the James Webb Telescope, and thus it is able to successfully collect light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without a problem.

The star, whose image was taken, is located at a distance of two thousand light-years, and it is called (2MASS J17554042 + 6551277), and it is brighter than the sun in its luminosity by about 16 times, and the Hubble Telescope team had previously set it to be the first precise targets of the James Webb Telescope.

While the main purpose of this image was just to focus on this bright star in the center, to assess mirror alignment, James Webb's optics were sensitive enough to show background galaxies and stars.

Last February, the telescope took its first image of one of the stars in the constellation of the Big Dipper, called (HD 84406), but it was unclear, but that was expected because it was the first attempt to align the telescope mirrors to accurately determine their targets and take clear images.

The first image sent by James Webb last February of one of the stars in the constellation of the Big Dipper called "HD 84406" (NASA)

first session

However, with these new results, the working team of the new telescope is on the right track to complete all aspects of the adjustment by next May, after which a period of one to two months will continue to prepare the scientific instruments, and then the telescope will begin its actual work.

The James Webb telescope will be able to start its first mission called "Business Cycle One" (Cycle 1), which is a group of 266 research missions selected from researchers in 41 countries in the world, and the telescope will spend 6,000 working hours on these missions.

About a third of these tasks will be related to the study of galaxies, 23% of them will be concerned with planets revolving around stars other than the sun, followed by 12% dedicated to the study of astrophysics of stars, and 6% of the tasks will be devoted to the study of the solar system.