Here's how the James Webb Space Telescope is aligning its mirrors in deep space - Space.com

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to fine-tune its mirrors to ultimately peer into the deep and distant universe.

Now, the telescope is close to reaching its way to its deep-space destination and is starting to move those mirror segments into alignment.

"Before launch, the mirrors were all positioned with the pegs held snug in the sockets, providing extra support," Marshall Perrin, deputy telescope scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute that manages Webb, said in a NASA blog post on Thursday (Jan. 13).

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Aligning the mirror segments is a multi-month process that will require several blurry and "ugly" testing images to ensure everything is going to plan, NASA engineers said during a livestreamed press conference Jan.

"I like to think of it as, it's like we have 18 mirrors that are, right now, little prima donnas, all doing their own thing, singing their own tune in whatever key they're in,"  Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist, said during the press conference.

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"To limit the amount of heat put into Webb’s very cold mirrors from the actuator motors, each actuator can only be operated for a short period at a time," Perrin said.

As Webb continues its adjustments, the mirrors and the instruments will continue to cool from natural radiation into space post-launch.