Alignment 101

Focusing on the task ahead for the Webb to become a functioning telescope will take month as aligning the 18 mirrors to peer into the past is most exacting as one can well imagine. 

As the telescope completes its deployment, engineers are working on aligning the mirrors in order to focus correctly on faraway galaxies. To do that on the surface would have been difficult enough, and now they have to align it in the vacuum of space. The 18 hexagonal-shaped mirror segments are 1.32 meters in diameter, flat to flat and the secondary mirror is 0.74 meters in diameter.

The Webb team last week began the month-long process of aligning the telescope’s optics by moving the mirror segments out of their stowed launch positions.

"Aligning the primary mirror segments as though they are a single large mirror means each mirror is aligned to 1/10,000th the thickness of a human hair. What's even more amazing is that the engineers and scientists working on the Webb telescope literally had to invent how to do this," Lee Feinberg, Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager said in a statement.

The James Webb Space Telescope mirrors vs the Hubble mirror. (Graphic: Nasa)

Each of Webb's mirrors has an individual designation. A, B, or C denotes which of the three mirror prescriptions a segment is. The photos show the flight version of every mirror on the telescope! (Photo: Nasa)

Once the Webb is finally tuned, a revolution in science begins.Yours truly can't wait. :)