Climbing another stepping stone towards its completion, the James Webb Space Telescope has fully completed its alignment process, with the ability to have perfect imagery formation as light strikes off its mirrors through four of its instruments. 

With checking processes underway, the $10 billion project is just months away from proper calibration of its instruments that will help in delivering data in a comprehensible way. 

“We’ve now reached the end of the telescope alignment phase – we’ve delivered perfectly focussed images to all of the science instruments,” said European Space Agency’s senior science advisor Prof Mark McCaughrean. 

“Now we’re ready to check the many complicated ways each of them can catch the telescope’s light and do the amazing science we dreamed of more than 20 years ago,” he told BBC News.

On Thursday, US government space agency NASA, which is spearheading the billion-dollar project, shared several images captured by the observatory. 

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“Webb’s mirrors are now directing fully focused light collected from space down into each instrument, and each instrument is successfully capturing images with the light being delivered to them,” NASA said. 

Talking about the images, Scott Acton, Webb wavefront sensing and controls scientist said- “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,” he added. 

The telescope continues to surpass the expectations of its engineering team with its optical capabilities. Its mirrors are now bouncing off light from the space to the instruments, with each tool showing success in capturing images. 

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Although it has completed its alignment phase, some calibration processes are yet to be finished. The telescope‘s regular maintenance checks will continue and be conducted once every two days to observe mirror alignment and conduct corrections when necessary.