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James Webb telescope teams up with Chandra X-Ray Observatory for astronautical collab

Chandra X-ray observatory

If the James Webb Space Telescope had a resume, the very first quality of it would read “Works well with others.” Webb already stunned the world when its first pictures were released earlier in 2022. Then the world’s minds were blown again when images from Webb were combined with images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Now, JWST has made another friend: the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

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How to track James Webb Space Telescope, mission timeline

Currently, more than 35,000 miles away, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is cruising through space on the way to its 1 million mile parking spot above the Earth. It will take the space telescope almost a month to complete orbital insertion. Here’s how you can track its way there.

FINAL UPDATE (1/31): James Webb is now fully deployed and orbiting in L2. The space telescope will spend the next few months commissioning and testing before taking its first photograph. Last week, NASA announced that Webb will point at HD 84406, a sun-like star 241 light-years away, to focus and align its mirrors in preparation for the moment we’ve been waiting for. Don’t hold your breath though, the mirror alignment process is very slow and tedious. We don’t expect James Webbs to take its first shot of the cosmos until around May 2022.

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