Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb's mirrors.
After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starlight into Webb's signature hexagonal formation, the team refined each mirror segment's image by making minor adjustments, while also changing the alignment of Webb's secondary mirror. The completion of this process, known as Segment Alignment, was a key step prior to overlapping the light from all the mirrors so that they can work in unison.
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Even though the segments are properly aligned, each of the mirror segments are still acting as 18 small telescopes instead of one big one, as is the final intent. NASA says that these segments now need to be lined up to each other with an accuracy smaller than a the wavelength of light.
The next step, phase four of seven, is known as Coarse Phasing, where the NIRCam will be used to capture light spectra from 20 separate pairings of the mirror segments.
