Renderings of the hood unfolded (Source: NASA)
At 20:00 Beijing time on January 2, 2022, it has been a full 7 days since the take-off of the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope is about 808,600 kilometers from Earth and has completed the unfolding of the hood as planned.
Judging from the real-time data released by NASA's official website, the effect of the hood is still very obvious after it is unfolded. At the current hot end, the average temperature of the hood is 56.7 °C, while on the cold side, the radiation temperature of the device is -183.8 °C, and the temperature of the main mirror is -88.3 °C.
Real-time dynamics of the James Webb Space Telescope (Source: NASA)
In the next step, the five-layer hood will be upgraded layer by layer to leave space between the layers to achieve better thermal insulation. From day 10, around January 5, the telescope's secondary mirror will unfold, which is also a crucial step, if the deployment is not in place, James Webb will not be able to image!
Hoods being tested (Source: Chris Gunn/NASA)