There is good news and bad news about the James Webb Space Telescope.
The bad news is that one of the range’s instruments called the Medium Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, has experienced a bit of an anomaly. But before you get too worried, the good news is that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is still happy and healthy and is able from the heart to continue deciphering the universe invisible to us.
basically, in AprilThe JWST team reports that one of MIRI’s four monitoring modes indicates a decrease in the amount of light recorded by the instrument. However, after an investigation into this issue, NASA said this change did not pose a risk to MIRI’s science capabilities. “There is no danger to the instrument,” NASA said in a statement. blog post On Thursday (24 August).
Related: The James Webb Space Telescope confirms that the Macy’s Galaxy is one of the oldest galaxies ever observed
Although this anomaly may have an effect on the amount of exposure time required when the device switches to the particular mode affected.
The current mode is called medium-resolution spectroscopy (Mrs) to obtain infrared data coming from far regions of the universe associated with wavelengths between 5 and 28.5 microns. that range, According to NASA, is where emissions from particles and dust are usually found, making MRS ideal for finding things like the disks that make up planets. But, as NASA explained in the blog post, the low signal is specifically for MIRI imaging at longer wavelengths.
The team says that one of MIRI’s other modes, called low-resolution spectral imaging that specializes in wavelengths between 5 and 12 microns typically associated with the surfaces of objects (such as planets), works normally. A fourth MIRI mode, called coronary imaging, is currently under investigation. This mode is programmed to directly detect exoplanets and dust disks around their host stars through a mechanism known as the corona, which relies on blocking light from a single source to gather data about surrounding sources.
The James Webb Space Telescope team also confirmed that the observatory is generally in “good health” and that “all of Webb’s other science instruments are unaffected.” These include the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec), the Near Infrared Imaging and Slitting Spectrograph (NIRISS), and the Precision Guidance Sensor (FGS).
“Web maven. Infuriatingly humble beer geek. Bacon fanatic. Typical creator. Music expert.”
More Stories
Japanese “Moon Sniper” brings back images after the third long lunar night
Weather web maps on the exoplanet WASP-43b
New research reveals that dinosaurs were not as intelligent as we thought