NASA’s Space Web Telescope Artist’s Concept. Credit: NASA
The second of four primary science instruments on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, known as the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), has completed its post-launch preparations and is now ready for science.
The final MIRI mode to be ticked off was its coronagraphic imaging capability, which uses two different styles of masks to intentionally block starlight from hitting its sensors when trying to make observations of the star’s orbiting planets. These custom masks allow scientists to directly detect exoplanets and study dust disks around their host stars in a way that has never been done before.
Along with Webb’s three other instruments, MIRI was initially cooled in the shadow of Webb’s tennis court-sized sun shield to about 90 Kelvin (minus 298 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 183 degrees Celsius). To do what the science intended meant getting it down to less than 7 Kelvin – just a few degrees above the lowest temperature matter can reach – by using an electrically powered cryocooler. These extreme operating temperatures allow MIRI to deliver mid-infrared images and spectra with an unprecedented combination of sharpness and sensitivity.
“We are thrilled that MIRI is now a working, state-of-the-art instrument with better-than-expected performance in all its capabilities. Our multinational commissioning team did a fantastic job getting MIRI ready in just a few weeks. We now celebrate all the people, scientists, engineers, managers, national agencies, ESA and NASA who have made this instrument a reality as MIRI begins to explore the infrared universe in ways and to depths never before seen,” said Gillian Wright, European Principal Investigator of MIRI at the UK’s Astronomy Technology Center and George Ricke, MIRI Scientist at the University of Arizona. MIRI was developed as a partnership between NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency), with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading the US effort and a multinational consortium of European astronomy institutes contributing to ESA.
After NIRISS and MIRI commissioning activities are completed, the Webb team will continue to focus on verifying the remaining two modes of its other instruments. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA, will release its first full-color images and spectroscopic data on July 12, 2022.
James Webb Telescope’s coldest instrument reaches operating temperature
Citation: Another Webb Telescope instrument gets ‘go for science’ (2022, June 30) Retrieved July 1, 2022, from
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