Comparison of an image of the Large Magellanic Cloud from a medium infrared instrument from the Webb Space Telescope and a previous image of the same view using the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Matrix Camera. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech (left), NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI (right)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is aligned between its four scientific instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. We will now take a closer look at the same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Medium Infrared Instrument or MIRI.
The MIRI test image (at 7.7 microns) shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This small satellite galaxy on the Milky Way, located about 160,000 light-years away, provided a dense star field for testing Web performance.
Here, a close-up image of MIRI is compared to a previous image of the same target made with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope infrared camera (at 8.0 microns). The retired Spitzer Space Telescope was one of NASA’s major observatories and the first to provide high-resolution images to the near and middle infrared universes. Webb, with its significantly larger main mirror and improved detectors, will allow us to see the infrared sky with improved clarity, allowing even more discoveries.
Comparison of Webb MIRI image of the Large Magellanic Cloud and past image of the same view using Spitzer IRAC. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech (top), NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI (bottom)
For example, the MIRI image of Webb shows interstellar gas with unprecedented detail. Here you can see emissions from “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” or carbon and hydrogen molecules that play an important role in heat balance and interstellar gas chemistry. When the Web is ready to begin scientific observations, studies such as MIRI will help astronomers gain new insights into the birth of stars and protoplanetary systems.
Meanwhile, the Webb team began the process of setting up and testing Webb’s tools to begin scientific observations this summer.
Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI
The James Webb Space Telescope is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). MIRI is part of Europe’s contribution to the Webb mission. This is a partnership between Europe and the United States; the main partners are ESA, a consortium of nationally funded European institutes, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
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