The James Webb Space Telescope is setting its eyes towards the Big Dipper.Although the spacecraft is still months far from starting its main clinical observations, one particularly brilliant star called HD 84406 will quickly be the item of JWSTs attention.” Star light, star brilliant … the first star Webb will see is HD 84406, a sun-like star about 260 light years away,” NASA officials tweeted on Friday (Jan. 28) via JWSTs main Twitter account. HD 84406 is situated in the constellation Ursa Major, which suggests “Big Bear” in Latin. The Big Dipper asterism (or star pattern) is in fact part of this constellation, and its the tail of this furry monster. The star has a visual magnitude of about 6.9, which is too dim to see with the naked eye. To see the star, youll require a telescope or high-power binoculars. Heres our guide for the finest telescopes for 2022, and our guide for the best field glasses might help you discover the right set to hunt Webbs star.Related: How the James Webb Space Telescope works in picturesThe star HD 84406 is identified here with a red circle. (Image credit: SkySafari) Now that JWST has actually reached its final destination in space, the objective group is getting the next-generation space telescope prepped for observations. A bright point like HD 84406 supplies a handy target by which the group can align JWSTs honeycomb-shaped mirrors and to start collecting engineering information, according to the tweet.This star will play an important role for this specific function, however it wont be studied by the observatory once it formally starts its science jobs. ” HD 84406 will be too brilliant to study with Webb once the telescope begins to come into focus. But for now, it is the ideal target to start our look for photons, a search that will lead us to the far-off universe,” according to a NASA post released on Thursday (Jan. 27) composed by Jonathan Gardner, Webb deputy senior task researcher from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, and Alexandra Lockwood, job researcher for Webb science communications at Space Telescope Science Institute. In addition to JWST putting itself in its observational perch, this week has actually marked another crucial development for JWST. According to the article, the group has also switched on JWSTs High-Gain Antenna and it can now downlink observations by means of the Deep Space Networks Ka radio band, a channel that “provides a much higher data rate” to download science images and data for astronomers to analyze. Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook..
