The James Webb Space Telescope Has Been Performing As Well As Astronomers Had Hoped

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Astronomers aim the telescope at bright stars during the alignment process. NASA released earlier photos that showed how each segment would function as a telescope, returning an image of the same star.

The mirror segments can now work together. The results are beyond anything that astronomers could have hoped for.

“As we focused on those bright stars, it was hard not to see the rest of our universe coming into focus behind them. To see the more distant galaxies coming in view,” said Marshall Perrin an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. “And honestly, the team was sometimes giddy just watching this happen.”