James Webb telescope reaches 'perfect' alignment ahead of debut science images

All four science instruments on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have achieved "perfect alignment" in advance of the telescope's official debut this summer, project officials said in a news teleconference on Monday (May 9).

"I'm delighted to report that the telescope alignment has been completed with performance even better than we had anticipated," Michael McElwain, James Webb Space Telescope project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said, according to CBS News. "We basically reached a perfect telescope alignment. There's no adjustment to the telescope optics that would make material improvements to our science performance."

To illustrate the telescope's readiness, NASA shared a teaser image taken by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The new image shows a side-by-side comparison of observations of a nearby galaxy taken by Webb, versus observations of the same galaxy taken previously by NASA's now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope.