An exoplanet hunter and a first light detector in NASA’s next-generation space telescope are set to do science, six months after the observatory was launched into space.
The $ 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is completing the launch by testing its four cutting-edge instruments and different modes, which will allow Webb to study both distant galaxies and objects closer to the Milky Way or the Milky Way. solar system.
Now one of these instruments is ready for operations, as Webb officials prepare to release the first operational images of the observatory on July 12th. (The objects that will show these first images are exactly a secret).
Called the Crackless Spectrograph and Near Infrared Imaging (NIRISS) instrument, the device, a Canadian contribution, “is working much better than we had anticipated,” said lead researcher René Doyon, an exoplanet researcher and expert. in astronomical instrumentation at the University of Montreal, to a NASA statement (opens in a new tab).
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NIRISS will work in conjunction with Canada’s Fine Guide Sensor (FGS), which allows the telescope to accurately aim at targets from their location in deep space. Doyon, also a senior researcher at FGS, said he is eager to see the new science.
“I’m pinching myself thinking we’re a few days away from the start of scientific operations, and in particular that NIRISS is probing its first exoplanet atmospheres,” Doyon added to Monday’s NASA blog post ( June 27).
Both FGS and NIRISS were built by Honeywell and funded by the Canadian Space Agency. As a result of these contributions, Canadian researchers have a guaranteed share of science at Webb, which will face a process of competitive proposals pronounced over 20 years of the observatory’s projected operations.
The last NIRISS mode that was fully prepared for science was “single-object slotless spectroscopy.” This mode allows the instrument to separate incoming light from a distant object, measuring the amount of light at specific wavelengths.
Because the elements have a distinctive light (spectrum) signature, this mode of observation in NIRISS will allow researchers to infer which elements are present in the composition of an exoplanet. On giant planets, for example, Webb can see trace elements of oxygen or other elements common to the solar system.
These observations work by observing a planet as it passes between its star and the telescope, or transits. By comparing the star’s observations during and not during transit, scientists can mark chemical differences in a planet’s atmosphere.
Webb was launched into space on December 25, 2021. You can follow the instrument mode “dialing” list on NASA’s “Where is Webb” website (opens in a new tab). The full list of Webb’s first cycle of observations is available on this website (opens in a new tab) from the Baltimore Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages Webb’s operations.
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