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NASA Space

NASA's Webb Space Telescope Achieves Near-Perfect Focus (cbsnews.com) 46

Posted by BeauHD from the so-far-so-good dept.
BeerFartMoron shares a report from CBS News: After weeks of microscopic adjustments, NASA unveiled the first fully focused image from the James Webb Space Telescope Wednesday, a razor-sharp engineering photo of a nondescript star in a field of more distant galaxies that shows the observatory's optical system is working in near-flawless fashion. The goal was to demonstrate Webb can now bring starlight to a near-perfect focus, proving the $10 billion telescope doesn't suffer from any subtle optical defects like the aberration that initially hobbled the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxies in the image were a bonus, whetting astronomers' appetites for discoveries to come. "This is one of the most magnificent days in my whole career at NASA, frankly, and for many of us astronomers, one of the most important days that we've had," said NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen. "Today we can announce that the optics will perform to specifications or even better. It's an amazing achievement."
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NASA's Webb Space Telescope Achieves Near-Perfect Focus More

NASA's Webb Space Telescope Achieves Near-Perfect Focus

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  • Why? (Score:4)

    by pele ( 151312 ) on Thursday March 17, 2022 @02:18AM (#62365529) Homepage

    Why do you link to 2nd hand news outlets when jwst.nasa.gov is perfectly accessible and the original source of information?

  • An editor would look for this for you and link it above.
    But ... Slashdot Editors.

    https://live.staticflickr.com/... [staticflickr.com]

    • And of course a *good editor* as opposed to a merely competent editor as opposed to a Slashdot editor would find the best existing image of this star field for comparison

      But I haven't seen that done anywhere in the press.

      Anyone got one ?

      • Re:Link to the original full size, because... Edit (Score:4, Informative)

        by Tx ( 96709 ) on Thursday March 17, 2022 @03:43AM (#62365591) Journal

        Dr. Becky found one and showed it in her video yesterday [youtu.be] to compare with the JWST image. It doesn't look like she linked to it in the description, but she did say where and how she found it in the video. I can't remember if she says it's definitively the best image of that star, but given it's not a particularly interesting or special star, just a random one chosen for calibration purposes, choices are probably limited. The one Dr. Becky found was in an all-sky survey, I believe.

      • And of course a *good editor* as opposed to a merely competent editor as opposed to a Slashdot editor would find the best existing image of this star field for comparison

        No, that's a writer's job, not an editor's. Slashdot is a news aggregator. It posts summaries of other stories. An editor's job is to make sure the submissions make sense, nothing more... and they fail that quite miserably too.

        • There is no writing involved. It simply means finding the best articles on a subject, not the first crappy one that is sent in. I think that falls within an editor's remit.

          • Again, not an editor's job. That's the submitter's job. Editors don't submit stories here. *YOU* do. The button is at the top of the page and you could have made Slashdot a better place by using it.

            No doubt the editors would still have found a way to fuck up your submission though. Hey it's not too late either. Submit the same story again, they don't check for dupes ;-)

  • Nice to see what can be done when countries work together. From NASA: "The James Webb Space Telescope is an international endeavor with widespread global contributions and experts in more than a dozen countries dedicated to the build, launch, and future science of this flagship NASA space observatory."

    This machine will pull the veil of dust clouds away to discover our galaxies hidden secrets. It will look farther into the past than ever before so that we may better guide our future.

  • Pretty incredible.. "the highest resolution infrared imaging ever", "diffraction-limited". Just one more step to go apparently, prepare a full telescope solution for alignment against other sensors. I can't imagine how emotional it must be.. and the urge to try it out on somewhere besides a nondescript star!

  • is neat [youtube.com]!

  • That's not how you find alien life. (Score:5, Funny)

    by quenda ( 644621 ) on Thursday March 17, 2022 @07:23AM (#62365811)

    One thing I've learned over many decades, is that if you wish to discover evidence of alien life, the blurrier the camera, the better.

    • No, you fool! That's for finding Big Foot!

      Unless, as the late Mitch Hedberg said: “I think Bigfoot is blurry, that’s the problem. It’s not the photographer’s fault. Bigfoot is blurry, and that’s extra scary to me. There’s a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside. Run, he’s fuzzy, get out of here.”

    • One thing I've learned over many decades, is that if you wish to discover evidence of alien life, the blurrier the camera, the better.

      Just wait. There will be a Lightroom filter for that.

  • That is some impressive lens flare. Did J.J. Abrams have a hand in designing this telescope? 8^)

    • It is a starburst effect. Isn't lens flare that trail of glowing dots that go off in a diagonal direction?

      If you ignore the starburst the other stars and galaxies in the photo are clear and in focus.

    • Does this effect exist in all JWST images to some degree due to the optics, or is it just that the target star is bright compared to the rest of the image?

    • Not really lens flare, it's s star burst effect. But like lens flare, these sometimes get added artificially to some photos or videos for strange reasons. Movie directors like them. But this effect does show up on high quality optical equipment naturally without JJ Abrams being involved.

      Mostly it's an effect of the imaging system, as the stars themselves are points of light. Different telescopes can look different, depending upon what structure holds up the secondary lens

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.. [wikipedia.org]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      Yes I realize this isn't technically lens flare and that it is a natural part of image (unlike some JJ Abram's actual flare that is added in post). It's just that this was the first thing I thought when I saw the picture and was in a sarcastic mood. 8^)

  • Why don't they just say 'it's slightly off-focus'?

    • Why don't they just say 'it's slightly off-focus'?

      Because it's not. This is what they actually said: "And we now have achieved what's called diffraction-limited alignment of the telescope, the images are focused together as finely as the laws of physics allow. This is as sharp an image as you can get from a telescope of this size."

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