NASA says James Webb space telescope fully aligns in critical step

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - NASA has announced that its James Webb space telescope has fully aligned, and is now capable of capturing "crisp, well-focused images" from around the universe.

The space agency said on Thursday that the Webb space observatory's massive mirrors are properly feeding light to instruments that are fully capturing images from space.

“With the completion of telescope alignment and half a lifetime’s worth of effort, my role on the James Webb Space Telescope mission has come to an end,” Scott Acton, a scientist working on Webb's wavefront sensing and controls, said in a statement.

“These images have profoundly changed the way I see the universe. We are surrounded by a symphony of creation; there are galaxies everywhere! It is my hope that everyone in the world can see them.”

The announcement marks the latest advancement for what is hailed as the world's most advanced space observatory. But even though the alignment of its mirrors is complete, some calibration is still required for Webb's instruments, NASA said.

Webb is now "ready to move forward into its next and final series of preparations, known as science instrument commissioning," it said.

The process is expected to take roughly two months before full scientific operations can commence.

NASA released a mosaic of images on Twitter from Webb that depict a part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which the agency said is "a small, irregular satellite galaxy of the Milky Way."