micrometers, along with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This instrument is cryo-cooled down to about 7 kelvin. The other instrument is the near-IR spectrograph and this operates at 1-5 micrometers and uses a unique micro shutter cell technology which allows just one portion of the sky to be scanned individually. This also means that it can obtain simultaneous spectra of more than 100 objects in a 9 square arc minutes field of view. This instrument is currently undergoing testing at the NASA Goddard clean room. Other instruments, such as the guider and filter, are provided by the Canadian Space Agency and the near-IR camera is provided by the University of Arizona. Overall, seventeen countries are involved in this massive project. The James Webb Space Telescope in essence takes a plethora of existing technologies and focuses its attention on the non-visible part of the spectrum. It’s a bit like suddenly having night vision with your car and seeing far beyond the headlamps. What’s really exciting is just how much of this technology will trickle down to us amateur astronomers, so that we can continue to contribute scientifically and provide more insight into what’s happening in the night sky. Next month we will be exploring some future imaging technologies. DW
Look Up! November 2010
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