NASA Has More James Webb Space Telescope News

The James Webb Space Telescope launched last month and has already made its way through several milestones. NASA has now confirmed that Webb has successfully extended its secondary mirror. This is the latest milestone in what has been a flawless mission for the telescope so far.

The secondary mirror is 2.4 feet wide and is attached to a tripod opposite the primary mirror. The secondary mirror is responsible for concentrating light collected by the main mirror into an opening in the center of the main mirror.

By shining the light through the opening in the primary mirror, light makes its way to the third mirror inside the telescope, which reflects it to the instruments inside. Officials confirmed the deployment of the secondary mirror occurred over 10 minutes.

Before deploying the secondary mirror fully, the team did conduct small movements to ensure everything was working as designed. The mirror was completely locked in place by 11:30 AM EST on January 5.