Many Segments are now One Mirror

Many Segments are now One Mirror

Today NASA released the first image from Webb with all 18 segments focused and functioning together as a single 6.5-meter ...
This artist's illustration shows the wayward interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua (pronounced oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah) racing toward the outskirts of our solar system. The object, heated by the Sun (lower right), is venting gaseous material from its surface, as a comet would. Researchers suggest this outgassing is one possible cause for 'Oumuamua's slight acceleration, as detected by several telescopes. The irregularly shaped object is only a half-mile across. It is now farther from the Sun than Jupiter and traveling away at about 70,000 miles per hour. The orbits of the major planets are included for scale. The box-shaped constellation Corvus is in the background near image center, and the bright blue star Spica is at upper left of center, in the constellation Virgo. The stars at bottom left belong to the constellation Hydra.

STScI: Studying the Next Interstellar Interloper with Webb

Scientists have had only limited ability to study these objects once discovered, but all of that is about to change ...
Illustration of light reflecting off of Webb's mirror

Light in the Strangest of Places (if you look at it right)

This week the Webb telescope team kept the excitement going with two main developments. Light from a star made its ...
Final Box Checked!!

Day 30: Last Deployment Box Checked Off!

Today Webb concluded a month of incredible achievements, and we checked off the last box on our deployment “To Do ...
Day 25: Slow and Steady Wins in Space

Day 25: Slow and Steady Wins in Space

What do the Webb Space Telescope mirror segments and a tortoise have in common? They both take it slow and ...
STScI: Capturing All That Glitters in Galaxies with NASA’s Webb

STScI: Capturing All That Glitters in Galaxies with NASA’s Webb

An international research team will survey the stars, star clusters, and dust that lie within 19 nearby galaxies ...
Webb's golden mirrors are inspected

Day 19: Moving Mirrors

Now that the telescope is fully deployed, engineers started to unlock and move the mirror segments this week in preparation ...
Celebrations at STScI

Day 14: Webb’s Deployment is Complete!!

From the spectacular Ariane 5 rocket launch on Christmas day to the deployment of the solar panels, sunshield, and secondary ...
Port wing of the Webb Telescope deployed

Day 13: Mirror, Mirror – First Wing Unfolds

Today the port side of Webb’s mirror was successfully unfolded. After a motor moved the wing into position, it took ...
webb secondary mirror fully deployed

Day 11: We have a telescope!

Today’s excitement came directly from the NASA livestream of the Mission Operations Center at Space Telescope Science Institute during the ...
Day 10: Sunshield Deployment Complete!

Day 10: Sunshield Deployment Complete!

From an engineering perspective, Webb’s sunshield was one of the most difficult challenges to overcome in building the telescope. Unlike ...
Webb with a completely deployed sunshield

Day 9: A Pause, and then Sunshield Tensioning Begins

The year 2021 ended for the Webb Telescope in a nominal way. “Nominal” is spacecraft lingo for “everything is going ...