NIRSpec has multiple slits that allow it to look at 100 objects at once. NIRSpec does this by looking at its target object through a slit that keeps other light out. This information can reveal the composition and temperature of distant stars and galaxies. NIRSpec is designed to measure the strength of different wavelengths of light coming from a target. What sensors came alive next?Īs the mirror alignment wrapped up on March 11, the Near Infrared Spectrograph – NIRSpec – and the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph – NIRISS – finished cooling and joined the party.
Using the star HD84800 as a reference point, my colleagues on the NIRCam team helped dial in the alignment of the mirror segments until it was virtually perfect, far better than the minimum required for a successful mission. This sensor helps keep the telescope pointing steadily at a target – much like image stabilization in consumer digital cameras. Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor also went into operation at this time. These images showed that the mirror segments were all pointing at a relatively small area of the sky, and the alignment was much better than the worst-case scenarios we had planned for. The NIRCam team was ecstatic when the first light image arrived. Once NIRCam cooled to minus 280 F, it was cold enough to start detecting light reflecting off of Webb’s mirror segments and produce the telescope’s first images. But before it could do that, NIRCam had to help align the 18 individual segments of Webb’s mirror. NIRCam is designed to study the faint infrared light produced by the oldest stars or galaxies in the universe.
The cameras on Webb cooled just as the engineers predicted, and the first instrument the team turned on was the Near Infrared Camera – or NIRCam. NASA Goddard Space Center/Wikimedia Commons 2. The NIRCam on Webb was the first instrument to go online and helped align the 18 mirror segments. This went along without any hitches, starting with the white-knuckle deployment of the sun shield that helps cool the telescope, followed by the alignment of the mirrors and the turning on of sensors. The first task during Webb’s monthlong journey to its final location in orbit was to unfold the telescope. This will allow Webb to operate for much longer than the mission’s initial 10-year goal. One of the first things my colleagues at NASA noticed was that the telescope had more remaining fuel onboard than predicted to make future adjustments to its orbit. The launch went as smoothly as a rocket launch can go. 25, 2021, the team began the long process of moving the telescope into its final orbital position, unfolding the telescope and – as everything cooled – calibrating the cameras and sensors onboard. What’s happened since the telescope launched?Īfter the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on Dec. Marcia Rieke, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and the scientist in charge of one of Webb’s four cameras, explains what she and her colleagues have been doing to get this telescope up and running. But it has taken nearly eight months of travel, setup, testing and calibration to make sure this most valuable of telescopes is ready for prime time. They’ll mark the beginning of the next era in astronomy as Webb – the largest space telescope ever built – begins collecting scientific data that will help answer questions about the earliest moments of the universe and allow astronomers to study exoplanets in greater detail than ever before. NASA is scheduled to release the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.
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