Science is Fun Fridays!

 Initial Alignment Mosaic from the James Webb Telescope.

As Webb calibrates itself, it took 1,560 images to determine the state of it's 18 hexagonal mirrors that make up the main mirror.

Focusing on one bright star, HD84406 in Ursa Major, Webb took hundreds of photos to locate the star.  Those first images showed 18 bright points, the same star from the 18 mirrors, so that technicians could identify each reflector and adjust as needed.

Here we can track Webb throughout this process.

"The supreme sensitivity and power of Webb now presents us with an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the chemical composition of interstellar objects and find out so much more about their nature: where they come from, how they were made, and what they can tell us about the conditions present in their home systems," Martin Cordiner of the Webb Target of Opportunity program.

The team will use Webb's spectroscopic capabilities to study two aspects: First, using the Near-Infrared Spectograph, they will analyze the chemical fingerprints of gases released by an object as any ices are vaporized.  Second, with the Mid-Infrared Instrument, they will observe any dust that an object is producing.

NASA