We are almost there. In a new update, NASA James Webb Space Telescope management team says it has approved 10 of 17 science instrument modes as it prepares to begin scientific operations.
While the telescope is still in final commissioning activities, the update also reveals that “the research team has begun taking some of the first scientific data in preparation for its release from July 12, 2022.”
The date “will mark the official end of Webb’s commissioning and start of regular scientific activities.”
We are days away from seeing James Webb’s first scientific observations
This marks a historic milestone and a new era in astronomy as Webb finally goes fully operational almost 8 months after its release. The telescope will be used to explore the oldest known star systems in the universe, and looking for signs of extraterrestrial life, Earth 2.0.
One of James Webb’s main instruments with several approved modes for observations is the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec). NIRSpec is “the Webb Telescope’s instrument that observes the spectra of astrophysical & planetary objects at near-infrared wavelengths,” team member of James Webb wrote in the NASA update.
“The NIRSpec grating wheel assembly (GWA) uses a diffraction grating or a prism to separate the wavelengths of incident light into a spectrum. Studying the intensity or brightness of light across wavelengths could provide key diagnostic information about the nature of various objects in the universe – from extrasolar planets around distant stars, to the faint galaxies at the edge of the universe and objects in our solar system. NIRspec will observe all. “
How to watch James Webb’s image reveal the event live
In the roughly 8 months since James Webb’s launch on December 25, 2021, the NASA team has been working hard to move the telescope into its final orbital position at the second Lagrange point, or L2, which is about 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from earth. It has also unfolding the telescope & calibrating the cameras & sensors on board while everything cooled to extremely cold temperatures.
To date, the only images published by James Webb’s team have been taken for calibration purposes. Earlier this year, NASA released the first picture taken by the Space Observatory last year after successfully telescope alignment observation of a star 2,000 light-years away. Now, however, we are only a few days away from seeing the first scientific observations made by the telescope. NASA will be streaming the reveal event live, which you can watch on NASA’s YouTube channel.
If all goes according to plan, a bold new era of astronomical exploration awaits.
