{"id":171732,"date":"2025-12-07T08:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/171732\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T08:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T08:15:13","slug":"two-students-fixed-nasas-powerful-space-telescope-without-leaving-earth-and-they-have-the-tattoos-to-prove-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/171732\/","title":{"rendered":"Two students fixed NASA&#8217;s powerful space telescope without leaving Earth. And they have the tattoos to prove it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The James Webb Space Telescope, the world\u2019s most powerful space observatory, is now delivering sharper images than ever, thanks to a software breakthrough by two PhD students from Australia.<\/p>\n<p>After the James Webb Space Telescope&#8217;s launch in December 2021,\u00a0 astronomers discovered that its Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) \u2013 a mode designed for ultra-high-resolution imaging of stars and exoplanets \u2013 was underperforming.<\/p>\n<p>Subtle electronic distortions in the infrared detector were introducing blur, especially in observations of faint targets.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"627\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Max-Charles-Louis-Desdoigts.jpg\" alt=\"PhD students Louis (left) and Max (right) got tattoos of the James Webb Space Telescope's iconic hexagonal mirror to celebrate their solution to fixing the telescope's issues. Credit: University of Sydney\" class=\"wp-image-179372\"\/>PhD students Louis (left) and Max (right) got tattoos of the James Webb Space Telescope&#8217;s iconic hexagonal mirror to celebrate their solution to fixing the telescope&#8217;s issues. Credit: University of Sydney<\/p>\n<p>When the Hubble Space Telescope faced a similar problem, it could only be corrected by NASA astronauts during costly Space Shuttle missions and spacewalks, but Webb is positioned too far from Earth for crewed missions to reach it.<\/p>\n<p>However, students Max Charles and Louis Desdoigts from the University of Sydney, Australia found a way to fix the Webb Telescope&#8217;s issues from Earth.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"904\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/webb-telescope.jpg\" alt=\"Top from left: unprocessed images of NGC 1068, moon Io and star WR 137. Bottom: \u2018deblurred\u2019 images after using algorithms developed by Louis Desdoigts and Max Charles. Credit: University of Sydney, max charles, Dr Louis Desdoigts\" class=\"wp-image-179376\"\/>Top from left: unprocessed images of NGC 1068, moon Io and star WR 137. Bottom: \u2018deblurred\u2019 images after using algorithms developed by Louis Desdoigts and Max Charles. Credit: University of Sydney, max charles, Dr Louis Desdoigts<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Instead of sending astronauts to bolt on new parts, they managed to fix things with code,&#8221; explains their tutor Peter Tuthill, who also created the AMI hardware.<\/p>\n<p>The solution, called AMIGO (Aperture Masking Interferometry Generative Observations), uses advanced simulations and neural networks to model how the James Webb Space Telescope&#8217;s optics and electronics behave in space.<\/p>\n<p>The algorithms then \u2018deblur\u2019 the data, restoring the telescope\u2019s full potential.<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate their success in fixing the problems with the James Webb Space Telescope, Charles and Desdoigts decided to get matching tatoos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Max-Charles-webb-tattoo.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-179374\"\/>Student Max Charles pictured with his James Webb Space Telescope tattoo. Credit: University of Sydney<\/p>\n<p>Now, with AMIGO, Webb has achieved its sharpest detections yet of faint objects, including the direct imaging of a dim exoplanet and a nearby brown dwarf.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s incredibly rewarding to see a software solution extend the telescope\u2019s scientific reach,&#8221; says Desdoigts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And to know it was possible without ever leaving the lab.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The James Webb Space Telescope, the world\u2019s most powerful space observatory, is now delivering sharper images than ever,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-171732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}