Both diplomats described their first in-person talks since October as “candid”, with the meeting taking place a day after they attended a gathering of G20 foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“I shared again with the state councilor that we are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken told a news conference after the talks, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
He said he did not think China was behaving in a neutral way as it had supported Russia in the United Nations and “amplified Russian propaganda”.
After the meeting, a US official said “neither side held back”.
“We were very open about where our differences are … but the meeting was also constructive because despite the candor, the tone was very professional,” the official said.
Blinken said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had made it clear in a call with President Vladimir Putin on June 13 that he stood by a decision to form a partnership with Russia.
Shortly before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Beijing and Moscow announced a “no limits” partnership, although US officials say they have not seen China evade tough US-led sanctions on Russia or provide it with military equipment.
US officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China offer material support for the war that Moscow calls a “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an unprovoked land grab.
Asked about his refusal to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20, Blinken said: “The problem is this: we see no signs whatsoever that Russia, at this moment in time, is prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy.”
Wang exchanged in-depth views on “the Ukraine issue” during Saturday’s talks, according to a statement released by his ministry, without giving details.
He also told Blinken that the direction of US-China relations was in danger of being further led “astray” due to a problem with the United States’ perception of China.
“Many people believe that the United States is suffering from an increasingly serious bout of ‘Sinophobia’,” Wang was quoted as saying.
Question of tariffs
Wang also said Washington should cancel additional tariffs imposed on China as soon as possible and cease unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies.
US officials had said before the talks that the meeting was aimed at keeping the difficult US-China relationship stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict.
In late June, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi were expected to speak again in the next few weeks.
Daniel Russel, a top US diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama who has close contact with Biden administration officials, said ahead of the talks a key aim for the meeting would be to explore the possibility of an in-person meeting between Biden and Xi, their first as leaders.
The US calls China its main strategic rival and is concerned it might one day attempt to take over the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan.
Despite their rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain major trading partners, and Biden has been considering scrapping tariffs on a range of Chinese goods to curb surging US inflation before November midterm elections.
Astrophotographer Wright Dobbs took this image of five bright planets visible lined up with the moon from St. Cloud, Florida before dawn on June 24, 2022. The planets are (from left): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with the crescent moon between Venus and Jupiter. (Image credit: Wright Dobbs)
The rare sight of five bright planets lining up with the moon wowed skywatchers around the world Friday, with some gearing up for more this weekend to see a planetary sight that won’t happen again until 2040.
Throughout June, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have lined up from left to right, in their orbital order from the sun, before dawn in the southeastern sky. Early Friday (June 24), the moon joined the planet parade in an awesome sight captured by astrophotographer Wright Dobbs, a meteorologist for the U.S. National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida.
“Seeing the night sky is amazing and, knowing the rarity of these alignments, you have to take every opportunity to view and capture it,” Dobbs told Space.com in an email after sharing an image of the fivesome from St. Cloud, Florida on Friday. Dobbs is a veteran night sky photographer and you can see more photos on their Facebook page, (opens in new tab) as well as on Twitter (opens in new tab) and Instagram @wrightdobbs (opens in new tab).
Related: Rare alignment of 5 planets peaks Friday with the crescent moon
The image was shot with a Sony a7ii, and was composed of a three-image panorama with a Sigma 14mm f/1.8 lens. Each image was exposed at ISO 1600, f/6.3, 15 seconds.
“It’s certainly not the darkest place I’ve shot astrophotography from, but I love what the twilight glow added to the display of the planets in the morning sky,” Dobbs said.
Other stunning views flowed in from social media.
LOOK UP: A bit hard to see here but if you look closely from left to right you’ll see Venus, the Moon, Mars and Jupiter! That’s just three of the five planets in alignment right now. Neat stuff 🪐 #planetaryalignment #planetparade @GoodDayAtlanta pic.twitter.com/KeHn2WnJ4oJune 24, 2022
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Five-planetary alignment seen in Daanbantayan’ ✨LOOK: In case you missed the five-planetary alignment earlier today, here’s a glimpse of the rare phenomenon in this photo captured by photographer John Reco Estrera. 📸: John Reco Estrera via Micah Sophia Marcellones pic.twitter.com/eiNqFoQ2LsJune 24, 2022
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See the planets align?
If you take a photograph of the five-world fiesta, let us know! You can send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.
While the show did hit its peak today (June 24), there’s still ample time available to see the planets in alignment, along with the moon.
The moon moved through a planetary “meet and greet” in the predawn sky, passing Saturn on June 18, Jupiter on June 21 and Mars on June 22. The moon will continue its tour with a pass-by of Venus on June 26, and then end its tour with Mercury on June 27.
Related: The brightest planets in June’s night sky: How to see them (and when)
If you’re looking for a telescope or binoculars to see alignments like this event, our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography to prepare to capture the next stargazing sight in a photo.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow uson Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)and on Facebook (opens in new tab).
The event began at the beginning of June and has continued to get brighter and easier to see as the month has progressed, according to Diana Hannikainen, observing editor of Sky & Telescope.
A waning crescent moon will be joining the party between Venus and Mars on Friday, adding another celestial object to the lineup. The moon will represent the Earth’s relative position in the alignment, meaning this is where our planet will appear in the planetary order.
This rare phenomenon has not occurred since December 2004, and this year, the distance between Mercury and Saturn will be smaller, according to Sky & Telescope.
Stargazers will need to have a clear view of the eastern horizon to spot the incredible phenomenon, Hannikainen said. Humans can view the planetary show with the naked eye, but binoculars are recommended for an optimal viewing experience, she added.
The best time to view the five planets is in the one hour before sunrise, she said. The night before you plan to view the alignment, check when the sun will rise in your area.
Some stargazers are especially excited for the celestial event, including Hannikainen. She flew from her home west of Boston to a beachside town along the Atlantic Ocean to secure an optimal view of the alignment.
“I’ll be out there with my binoculars, looking towards the east and southeast and crossing all my fingers and toes that it is going to be clear,” Hannikainen said.
You don’t have to travel to catch a glimpse of the action because it will be visible to people around the globe.
Stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere can see the planets from the eastern to southeastern horizon while those in the Southern Hemisphere should look along the eastern to northeastern horizon. The only requirement is a clear sky in the direction of the alignment.
By the next day, the moon will have continued its orbit around the Earth, moving it out of alignment with the planets, she said.
If you miss the five-planet alignment in sequential order, the next one will happen in 2040, according to Sky & Telescope.
There will be seven more full moons in 2022, according to The Old Farmers’ Almanac:
June 14: Strawberry moon
July 13: Buck moon
August 11: Sturgeon moon
September 10: Harvest moon
October 9: Hunter’s moon
November 8: Beaver moon
December 7: Cold moon
These are the popularized names associated with the monthly full moons, but the significance of each one may vary across Native American tribes.
Lunar and solar eclipses
There will be one more total lunar eclipse and a partial solar eclipse in 2022, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Partial solar eclipses occur when the moon passes in front of the sun but only blocks some of its light. Be sure to wear proper eclipse glasses to safely view solar eclipses, as the sun’s light can be damaging to the eye.
A partial solar eclipse on October 25 will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Europe, northeastern Africa, the Middle East, western Asia, India and western China. Neither of the partial solar eclipses will be visible from North America.
A total lunar eclipse will also be on display for those in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, South America and North America on November 8 between 3:01 a.m. ET and 8:58 a.m. ET — but the moon will be setting for those in eastern regions of North America.
Meteor showers
Check out the remaining 11 showers that will peak in 2022:
Southern delta Aquariids: July 29 to 30
Alpha Capricornids: July 30 to 31
Perseids: August 11 to 12
Orionids: October 20 to 21
Southern Taurids: November 4 to 5
Northern Taurids: November 11 to 12
Leonids: November 17 to 18
Geminids: December 13 to 14
Ursids: December 21 to 22
If you live in an urban area, you may want to drive to a place that isn’t littered with city lights to get the best view.
Find an open area with a wide view of the sky. Make sure you have a chair or blanket so you can look straight up. And give your eyes about 20 to 30 minutes — without looking at your phone or other electronics — to adjust to the darkness so the meteors will be easier to spot.
A grand celestial reunion is due in Earth’s skies throughout June. Sky-watchers will get a rare chance to see all the major planets in our solar system bunched together—with the moon joining the festivities, too, from June 17 to June 27.
This rare alignment includes the five planets easily spotted with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each is bright enough to be seen even in light-polluted city skies, with brilliant Venus being the brightest and Mercury the faintest. Our closest planets will appear to be arranged across the sky in the same order as their distance from the sun.
Astronomers call these planetary close encounters conjunctions. Having two or three planets huddled together is not all that rare, but the last time we saw a conjunction the five brightest planets was in December 2004.
The more distant Uranus and Neptune will also cluster in the same area, though the two ice giants will be more challenging to spot, requiring the use of binoculars. Scan between Venus and Mars to find green-tinged Uranus, and blue Neptune can be found between Jupiter and Saturn in the sky.
This planetary alignment can be glimpsed by the vast majority of the world’s population, but some will be better positioned than others. For those in the northern latitudes, above cities like New York and London, the planet closest to the sun, Mercury, will be near the horizon and may be washed out by the glare of dawn. In these regions, the other planets will also hug the eastern horizon, making it a bit of a challenge to easily see all the planets.
As the month progresses, however, Mercury will appear higher in the sky, making it easier to spot. For observers even farther north, like those across Scandinavia and in northern Alaska where the sun never sets at this time of the year, the planets won’t be visible at all.
The best views will be centered around the tropics and in the Southern Hemisphere, where the planets will rise higher in the predawn sky. But no matter where you are, the best recommendation is to seek out an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon about one hour to 30 minutes before local sunrise.
The panorama will be particularly impressive because the planets will appear huddled close together. And if you miss this spectacle, you’ll have to wait until 2040 to get another chance.
The moon lights the way
To find the planets, viewers need only look to the bright crescent moon. Starting on June 17, when it will appear near Saturn, our natural satellite will serve as a guidepost, posing with each planet from one day to the next.
Stand-out dates include June 18, when the moon will be closest to Saturn, and June 20, when the moon pairs with Neptune. June 21 sees the moon joining Jupiter, and June 22 has the moon meeting with Mars. The moon pairs with Uranus on June 24, and keen-eyed sky-watchers will also notice that it will appear exactly halfway between Venus and Mars. On June 26 the moon will have an eye-catching close encounter with the brightest planet in the sky, Venus, and then finally round out its visits with Mercury, on June 27.
A celestial traffic jam
While this parade of planets will appear to be huddled together in one small part of the sky, the distant worlds are of course spread out across a vast expanse of space, separated from each other by millions of miles. It’s our vantage point on Earth that makes them seem so closely positioned.
This grand sky show is easy to see with the unaided eyes, but a pair of steadily held binoculars will grant you better views. Train your glass on cream-colored Jupiter and it will reveal its four largest moons. Small telescopes reveal all the worlds as disks, bringing into focus details like the cloud bands on Jupiter and Saturn’s famous rings.
Uranus and Neptune are both significantly fainter than the rest of the planets, so you’ll likely need binoculars just to glimpse them as greenish –blue, fuzzy points of light. But a small telescope will begin to reveal more details of these ice giants at the edge of the solar system—an incredible sight considering Uranus is more than 1.8 billion miles from Earth, while Neptune is nearly 2.8 billion miles away.
Get your views in now, as the planetary party won’t last long. Over the next few months, the planets will wander away from each other, spreading out across the sky. By the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, both Venus and Saturn will have bowed out of the morning sky altogether.
Clear skies!
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June has a few special celestial events to add to your sky-gazing summer bucket list, including a quintet of planets to enjoy.
Throughout most of June, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will stretch across the sky like a string of pearls appearing in the dawn hours before sunrise.
Sky & Telescope Magazine is calling it a “planet parade” because the planets will also be in the correct order from the sun.
Mercury will be the hardest to spot as the last to appear in the lineup just before it’s swallowed by sunlight. However, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn should be easy to see all month.
As a quartet, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have appeared in conjunction over the past few months, but June is the last chance to see the group together before they begin to spread further out in the night sky.
Look for the planets in the sky before sunrise by gazing southeast.
This celestial event requires no special equipment, but the view will be even better if you have access to a telescope or a local observatory. Binoculars could also help improve your experience.
June is the last chance to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn together before they begin to spread further out in the sky.Getty Images
If you want to know which planet is which, know that they are arranged in their natural order from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. A sky-gazing app like Stellarium can also help you identify all the planets.
Early in June, Mercury and Saturn will be the smallest in the sky. As the month progresses, the planets will begin to appear further apart in the sky.
Mercury will be more illuminated and higher on the horizon by mid-June, making it easier to spot.
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Venus and Saturn will bow out as morning objects for most observers by September. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Toward the end of the month, the five-planet alignment will add a sixth gem to the show. On June 24, Mercury will pup up above the horizon about an hour before sunrise. As a bonus, the crescent moon will appear between Venus and Mars.
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Venus and Saturn will bow out as morning objects for most observers by September.
Bonus: Ancient star cluster on display
Another treat for summer sky-gazing also happens this month. NASA astronomers say June is also an excellent month to view the globular star cluster known as Hercules Cluster M13. This globular star cluster is thought to be nearly 12 billion years old.
As the month progresses, the planets will begin to appear further apart in the sky.Fox Weather
This collection of stars is best viewed with a telescope and will appear high in the eastern sky during the first hours of darkness all month.
No telescope? No problem, find public observing events near through NASA’s Night Sky Network.
The full moon in June is known as the strawberry moon.
The full lunar display falls on June 14 if you want to enjoy some outdoor time or maybe camp by moonlight. A new moon on June 28 will be the best time to head to a dark sky location away from city lights to look for your favorite constellations.
Four-and-a-half months after the James Webb Space Telescope‘s Christmas Day launch, engineers have achieved near-perfect alignment of its complex optical system, setting the stage for final instrument calibrations and the release of the first showcase science images in July, officials said Monday.
“I’m delighted to report that the telescope alignment has been completed with performance even better than we had anticipated,” said Michael McElwain, Webb project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“We basically reached a perfect telescope alignment. There’s no adjustment to the telescope optics that would make material improvements to our science performance.”
Two images of the same star field in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The photo on the left is from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope while the one on the right is from the James Webb Space Telescope. Spitzer, equipped with a single 3-foot-wide primary mirror, was the largest infrared telescope launched prior to Webb. For comparison, Webb’s segmented mirror measures 21.5-feet across.
NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
On April 18, test images were released showing razor-sharp stars and Monday, a fresh image was unveiled showing two views of a star field in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. One image was shot by the much smaller, now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope and the other by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The Spitzer image shows blurred stars with hints of nebulosity. But Webb’s view shows crystal clear, pinpoint stars and clearly defined clouds and filaments stretching across the field of view.
“From a sort of an intellectual standpoint, you can appreciate that the images from Webb are going to be better because we have 18 (mirror) segments, every one of which is larger than the single segment that formed the Spitzer telescope’s mirror,” said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCAM.
“It’s not until you actually see the kind of image that it delivers that you really internalize and go, wow! Just think of what we’re going to learn! Spitzer taught us a lot, but this is like a whole new world. Just unbelievably beautiful.”
Scientists and engineers now plan to spend the next two months carefully checking out and calibrating Webb’s four science instruments, collecting test images and spectra to verify 17 different operating modes before beginning “Cycle 1” science observations this summer.
But first, the team plans to unveil a series of “early release observations,” or EROs, jaw-dropping images of spectacular astronomical targets that will showcase Webb’s scientific capability and, in the process, help justify its $10 billion price tag.
The list of potential targets is a closely held secret, but NASA plans to unveil the selected ERO images and spectra in mid July.
“Their objective is to demonstrate … to the world and to the public that Webb is fully operational and that it produces excellent results,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the beginning of many years of Webb science.”
He said the targets, selected by a committee of experts, will showcase all four science instruments “to highlight all the Webb sciences themes … from the early universe, to galaxies over time, to the lifecycle of stars, and to other worlds.”
An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope with its major components labeled.
NASA
Webb was designed to capture faint light from the first generations of stars and galaxies to form in the wake of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago, light that has been stretched out into the infrared region of the spectrum by the expansion of space itself.
Computer, enhance! Compare the same target — seen by Spitzer & in Webb’s calibration images. Spitzer, NASA’s first infrared Great Observatory, led the way for Webb’s larger primary mirror & improved detectors to see the infrared sky with even more clarity: https://t.co/dIqEpp8hVi pic.twitter.com/g941Ug2rJ8
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) May 9, 2022
To reach its razor-sharp focus, Webb’s secondary mirror and the 18 hexagonal segments of its 21.3-foot-wide primary mirror, each one equipped with ultra-precise tilt actuators, had to be aligned with nanometer precision, an iterative process that effectively merged 18 reflected beams into a single point.
To detect the stretched-out infrared light from the first stars and galaxies, Webb has to operate within a few degrees of absolute zero, a feat made possible by a fragile five-layer sunshade that deployed flawlessly shortly after launch.
Since then, the mirrors and instruments have cooled down to around 390 degrees below zero Fahrenheit while MIRI, equipped with a high-tech “cryo-cooler” to improve its ability to observe longer wavelengths, has reached minus 449 degrees, just 6 degrees above absolute zero.
“Overall, the observatory performance has been phenomenal,” McElwain said. “We’re really in the homestretch. At this point, we’re characterizing and calibrating both the observatory and the science instruments.
“From my perspective, there’s always risks going forward, but I have great confidence that we’ll get to the finish line here, and we’ll have a terrific science mission with tremendous scientific discovery in the next few months. So I’m just super excited to be at this point.”
William Harwood
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”
Four-and-a-half months after the James Webb Space Telescope‘s Christmas Day launch, engineers have achieved near-perfect alignment of its complex optical system, setting the stage for final instrument calibrations and the release of the first showcase science images in July, officials said Monday.
“I’m delighted to report that the telescope alignment has been completed with performance even better than we had anticipated,” said Michael McElwain, Webb project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“We basically reached a perfect telescope alignment. There’s no adjustment to the telescope optics that would make material improvements to our science performance.”
Two images of the same star field in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The photo on the left is from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope while the one on the right is from the James Webb Space Telescope. Spitzer, equipped with a single 3-foot-wide primary mirror, was the largest infrared telescope launched prior to Webb. For comparison, Webb’s segmented mirror measures 21.5-feet across.
NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
On April 18, test images were released showing razor-sharp stars and Monday, a fresh image was unveiled showing two views of a star field in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. One image was shot by the much smaller, now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope and the other by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The Spitzer image shows blurred stars with hints of nebulosity. But Webb’s view shows crystal clear, pinpoint stars and clearly defined clouds and filaments stretching across the field of view.
“From a sort of an intellectual standpoint, you can appreciate that the images from Webb are going to be better because we have 18 (mirror) segments, every one of which is larger than the single segment that formed the Spitzer telescope’s mirror,” said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCAM.
“It’s not until you actually see the kind of image that it delivers that you really internalize and go, wow! Just think of what we’re going to learn! Spitzer taught us a lot, but this is like a whole new world. Just unbelievably beautiful.”
Scientists and engineers now plan to spend the next two months carefully checking out and calibrating Webb’s four science instruments, collecting test images and spectra to verify 17 different operating modes before beginning “Cycle 1” science observations this summer.
But first, the team plans to unveil a series of “early release observations,” or EROs, jaw-dropping images of spectacular astronomical targets that will showcase Webb’s scientific capability and, in the process, help justify its $10 billion price tag.
The list of potential targets is a closely held secret, but NASA plans to unveil the selected ERO images and spectra in mid July.
“Their objective is to demonstrate … to the world and to the public that Webb is fully operational and that it produces excellent results,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the beginning of many years of Webb science.”
He said the targets, selected by a committee of experts, will showcase all four science instruments “to highlight all the Webb sciences themes … from the early universe, to galaxies over time, to the lifecycle of stars, and to other worlds.”
An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope with its major components labeled.
NASA
Webb was designed to capture faint light from the first generations of stars and galaxies to form in the wake of the big bang 13.8 billion years ago, light that has been stretched out into the infrared region of the spectrum by the expansion of space itself.
Computer, enhance! Compare the same target — seen by Spitzer & in Webb’s calibration images. Spitzer, NASA’s first infrared Great Observatory, led the way for Webb’s larger primary mirror & improved detectors to see the infrared sky with even more clarity: https://t.co/dIqEpp8hVi pic.twitter.com/g941Ug2rJ8
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) May 9, 2022
To reach its razor-sharp focus, Webb’s secondary mirror and the 18 hexagonal segments of its 21.3-foot-wide primary mirror, each one equipped with ultra-precise tilt actuators, had to be aligned with nanometer precision, an iterative process that effectively merged 18 reflected beams into a single point.
To detect the stretched-out infrared light from the first stars and galaxies, Webb has to operate within a few degrees of absolute zero, a feat made possible by a fragile five-layer sunshade that deployed flawlessly shortly after launch.
Since then, the mirrors and instruments have cooled down to around 390 degrees below zero Fahrenheit while MIRI, equipped with a high-tech “cryo-cooler” to improve its ability to observe longer wavelengths, has reached minus 449 degrees, just 6 degrees above absolute zero.
“Overall, the observatory performance has been phenomenal,” McElwain said. “We’re really in the homestretch. At this point, we’re characterizing and calibrating both the observatory and the science instruments.
“From my perspective, there’s always risks going forward, but I have great confidence that we’ll get to the finish line here, and we’ll have a terrific science mission with tremendous scientific discovery in the next few months. So I’m just super excited to be at this point.”
William Harwood
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”
NASA says that the nascent James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) “optical performance…continues to be better than the…most optimistic predictions” after completing the alignment of its record-breaking mirror.
Between 7 and 14 years behind schedule and over budget by a factor of 2 to 10, an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket sent the Webb Telescope on its way to deep space on December 25th, 2021. Weighing 6.2 tons (~13,600 lb), JWST was almost half as heavy at liftoff as NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope despite packing an unprecedented origami-like mirror with more than six times Hubble’s total collecting area. The combination of extreme mass reduction and extraordinary complexity required to launch such a large mirror so far from Earth with a rocket like Ariane 5 helps to partially explain why the Webb Telescope took so long (~18 years) and cost so much (~$9.7 billion) to design, develop, and build.
Nonetheless, launch it finally did. Ariane 5 did most of the work, sending the telescope on a trajectory that – with some help from its onboard thrusters – would guide it to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point located some 1.5 million kilometers (~950,000 miles) from Earth. In perhaps the largest relief in the history of space-based observatories, the Webb Telescope’s immensely complex deployment process was then completed without a single major issue. 30 days after liftoff, the telescope – fully deployed – reached its operational orbit.
For the past four months, in comparison, almost all JWST work has focused on the less visible and far smaller processes of alignment and calibration. Each of JWST’s 18 main mirror segments has slowly but surely inched micrometer by micrometer into position while large swaths of the telescope slowly cooled to ambient temperatures – essential for maximum performance. Simultaneously, all of Webb’s primary instruments have achieved first light and entered the early phases of calibration and commissioning. Only after the instruments are painstakingly calibrated, the mirror is perfectly aligned, and crucial hardware is chilled to temperatures as low as -449°F (-267°C) can Webb begin to observe the universe and revolutionize large subsets of space science.
An inward view of the fruits of alignment. (NASA)
The first and most important step – mirror alignment – is now complete. The alignment process began in February 2022, six weeks after liftoff. First, images were captured with the unaligned mirror to help determine exactly what condition it was in. One by one, each of Webb’s 18 mirror segments were individually moved to determine which image each mirror was responsible for, which then allowed ground controllers to properly focus each mirror’s view of a target star. In a process known as “coarse phasing,” once those 18 points of light well-resolved and linked to a specific mirror segment, the segments were gradually steered on top of each other to produce a single image.
“Coarse” heavily undersells the almost unfathomable precision required to complete the step. To reach its full potential, each of the Webb Telescope’s mirror segments must be aligned to within 50 nanometers of each other. According to NASA, “if the Webb primary mirror were the size of the United States, each segment would be the size of Texas, and the team would need to line the height of those Texas-sized segments up with each other to an accuracy of about 1.5 inches.”
The product of coarse phasing – beautiful but not yet scientifically useful. (NASA)
Fine phasing followed, involving an even more esoteric set of processes designed to focus the mirror as perfectly as possible. The resulting image was then tweaked to properly align it over the field of view of each of the Webb Telescope’s four main scientific instruments. Finally, some steps of the seven-step alignment process were redone or refined to fully optimize the mirror to the liking of its Earthbound creators and prospective users.
Ultimately, Webb Telescope alignment was extraordinarily successful, producing an image sharper and cleaner than even the “most optimistic predictions” made by its engineers. NASA says that the image is so detailed that it has effectively reached the physical resolution limit for a mirror the size of the Webb Telescope’s, meaning that it would have to violate the known laws of physics to resolve any more detail.
Thank you to @gbrammer for pointing out that the Spitzer SAGE survey took IRAC images of this region! I completely missed this. Check out the evolution of Infrared Space Telescopes! pic.twitter.com/BjrbAgk4ND
— Andras Gaspar 🌻🇺🇦 (@AndrasGaspar) April 29, 2022
JWST’s first images with a fully aligned mirror. (NASA)
With mirror alignment complete, JWST has just one main hurdle left before science operations can begin: instrument commissioning. Commissioning is a catch-all phrase that covers a wide range of calibration, analysis, experiments, and optimization required to verify that JWST’s four main instruments are behaving as expected and accomplishing the work they were designed to do as accurately and reliably as possible.
At some point, the use of extraordinarily complex scientific instruments becomes more akin to an art form, and some degree of trust must be built up between scientists and their hopeful tools of the trade before they can confidently set chisel to marble and begin delving into the universe at unprecedented breadth and detail. If commissioning proceeds as smoothly as deployment and alignment, the JWST team could be ready to capture and share the telescope’s first actionable observations of the cosmos as early as July 2022.
NASA’s Webb Telescope mirror crushes “most optimistic predictions” after final alignment
NASA’s Webb In Full Focus, Ready for Instrument Commissioning
The alignment of
Webb Space Telescope Image Sharpness Test. Credit: NASA/STScI
The alignment of the telescope across all of Webb’s instruments can be seen in a series of images that captures the observatory’s full field of view.
“These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Webb Telescope Completes Alignment Phase. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The optical performance of the telescope continues to be better than the engineering team’s most optimistic predictions. 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. The image quality delivered to all instruments is “diffraction-limited,” meaning that the fineness of detail that can be seen is as good as physically possible given the size of the telescope. From this point forward the only changes to the mirrors will be very small, periodic adjustments to the primary mirror segments.
“With the completion of telescope alignment and half a lifetime’s worth of effort, my role on the James Webb Space Telescope mission has come to an end,” said Scott Acton, Webb wavefront sensing and controls scientist, Ball Aerospace. “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.”
Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the telescope is fully aligned and in focus. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The sizes and positions of the images shown here depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph. Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process. Credit: NASA/STScI
Now, the Webb team will turn its attention to science instrument commissioning. Each instrument is a highly sophisticated set of detectors equipped with unique lenses, masks, filters, and customized equipment that helps it perform the science it was designed to achieve. The specialized characteristics of these instruments will be configured and operated in various combinations during the instrument commissioning phase to fully confirm their readiness for science. With the formal conclusion of telescope alignment, key personnel involved with the commissioning of each instrument have arrived at the Mission Operations Center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and some personnel involved with telescope alignment have concluded their duties.
Though telescope alignment is complete, some telescope calibration activities remain: As part of scientific instrument commissioning, the telescope will be commanded to point to different areas in the sky where the total amount of solar radiation hitting the observatory will vary to confirm thermal stability when changing targets. Furthermore, ongoing maintenance observations every two days will monitor the mirror alignment and, when needed, apply corrections to keep the mirrors in their aligned locations.
From now until early July, the five nearest planets to Earth will slowly join a celestial conga line across the pre-dawn sky.
These rare, but not once-in-a-lifetime conjunctions offer an excellent opportunity to learn what planets look like, find them with a telescope or binoculars, and introduce some children to stargazing.
In what was the fourth such conjunction this century, it all kicked off in late March, when Venus, Mars, and Saturn began to cluster in the southeast.
This Sunday, April 17th, Jupiter will move into position closest to the eastern horizon, and almost on top of Venus. A bit south and above will be Mars looking very red, and then Saturn further up and further south.
For most people in North America, the ideal time will be to go out and look southeast about 45 minutes before the sun begins to rise. On April 23rd, the Moon will appear in conjunction with the other spheres, appearing to the right and above Saturn, before moving off again by April 29th.
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In mid-June, due to its rapid orbiting around the Sun, Mercury will fall into position. Seeing all five of these together will depend on where one lives. With a long unobstructed view of the eastern horizon, Mercury will be visible as early as June 10th, but for those in hilly, urban, or mountainous areas, it will be better to wait until the beginning of July.
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A thin crescent moon, due on June 17th, will make Mercury easy to find by looking just below and to the right. Uranus and Neptune will also both be in the sky, but will require the use of binoculars or a telescope.
To know for sure you’re looking at a planet and not a star, look for constant light, which can be confirmed by any pair of binoculars and not just those used for stargazing. Stars twinkle, planets don’t.
