In parallel, Webb's instruments can reveal statistical features of the universe we've never seen before.
From its construction, the path to the launchpad, and the journey to its orbit around Lagrange point 2 , the James Webb Space Telescope is crossing every milestone on the way to its first science missions this summer.
But in March, it began to extend its telescope alignment to the guider — called the Fine Guidance Sensor — in addition to three other scientific instruments, according toThis process will continue for six weeks, and is called multi-instrument multi-field alignment. But, incredibly, it reveals a secret power of Webb: All of the instruments can be trained in the same direction, in what's called parallel science exposures.
Here's how Webb can map incredibly vast regions of deep space with four instruments, all working at once — and how that could change what we know about the ancient universe.Ground-based telescopes sometimes require that the instrument be physically removed from the telescope, when scientists want to swap cameras. A new one is installed in the telescope during the day, when there's nothing for the telescope to see beyond the blinding illumination of sunlight.