Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor provides a preview

Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) – developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and designed to find and lock onto cosmic targets – recently captured a view of stars and galaxies that provides a tantalizing glimpse at what the telescope's science instruments will reveal in the coming weeks, months, and years.

Longueuil, Quebec, July 6, 2022 — Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) – developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and designed to find and lock onto cosmic targets – recently captured a view of stars and galaxies that provides a tantalizing glimpse at what the telescope's science instruments will reveal in the coming weeks, months, and years.

FGS has always been capable of capturing imagery, but its primary purpose is to enable accurate science measurements and imaging with precision pointing. When it does capture imagery, the imagery is typically not kept: Given the limited communications bandwidth between L2 and Earth, Webb only sends data from up to two science instruments at a time. But during a week-long stability test in May, it occurred to the team that they could keep the imagery that was being captured because there was available data transfer bandwidth.

Read more on our James Webb Space Telescope news page.

Media interested in speaking with a CSA expert or are looking for more information on Canada's contribution to the Webb Telescope, may contact the CSA's Media Relations Office.

Additional links

• Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor provides a preview - James Webb Space Telescope news
• Information kit - James Webb Space Telescope
• James Webb Space Telescope: What's New?

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Canadian Space Agency
Media Relations Office
Telephone: 450-926-4370
Website: www.asc-csa.gc.ca
Email: asc.medias-media.csa@asc-csa.gc.ca
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