Photons Received: Webb Sees Its First Star – 18 Times @NASAWebbTelescope

Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

The James Webb Space Telescope is nearing completion of the first phase of the months-long process of aligning the observatory’s primary mirror using the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument.

The team's challenge was twofold: confirm that NIRCam was ready to collect light from celestial objects, and then identify starlight from the same star in each of the 18 primary mirror segments. The result is an image mosaic of 18 randomly organized dots of starlight, the product of Webb's unaligned mirror segments all reflecting light from the same star back at Webb's secondary mirror and into NIRCam's detectors.

What looks like a simple image of blurry starlight now becomes the foundation to align and focus the telescope in order for Webb to deliver unprecedented views of the universe this summer. Over the next month or so, the team will gradually adjust the mirror segments until the 18 images become a single star.

Music credit: Universal Production Music -Transitions Instrumental by Cotton Niblett

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Producer
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Lead Animator
Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Writer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Editor
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Motion Graphics

Download this video: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14100

Photons Received: Webb Sees Its First Star – 18 Times

$Tiny Mic: Whats your favorite Webb image? (Dr. Jane Rigby) We’re celebrating Webb’s third launchaversary this month by asking you to pick your favorite image. We thought it was only fair to go first. Here Dr. Jane Rigby, our Webb Senior Project Scientist, talks about her favorite Webb image. 0:00 White text reads “We asked Dr. Jane Rigby…” on a background of Webb’s image of Westerlund 1, a dense cluster of bright stars, each with six large and two small diffraction spikes. 0:01 White text that reads “What’s your favorite Webb image?” fades on. 0:05 Jane stands in her office, in front of a standing desk, and talks into a tiny mic. 0:26 Animation of the Webb telescope mirrors, seen from the side. The primary mirror segments are slightly adjusting angles, with white beams of light that slowly converge on the secondary mirror, which is above them from this angle. 0:29 Fade into Webb’s primary mirror “selfie” image, with each hexagonal mirror appearing flat white against a black background. Three black struts create a tripod that meets in the middle of the mirror. 0:31 Back to Jane talking in her office. 0:35 Animation of Webb in space. The camera flies past Webb, and as it does, dozens of stars are shown reflected in the primary mirror. 0:43 Back to Jane. 1:02 Tight shot of Jane’s computer, with her hand gesturing toward the screen. The screen has an image of stars and galaxies, against the black background of space. 1:12 Back to the wider shot of Jane. 1:23 Fade to Webb’s alignment image, a bright red and orange star with long diffraction spikes against a black background of space.$

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