MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument)
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MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument)
MIRI, or Mid-Infrared Instrument, is an instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI is a camera and a spectrograph that observes mid to long infrared radiation from 5 to 28 microns. It also has coronagraphs, especially for observing exoplanets. Whereas most of the other instruments on Webb can see from the start of near infrared, or even as short as orange visible light, MIRI can see longer wavelength light. MIRI uses silicon arrays doped with arsenic to make observations at these wavelengths. The imager is designed for wide views but the spectrograph has a smaller view. Because it views the longer wavelengths it needs to be cooler than the other instruments (see Infrared astronomy), and it has an additional cooling system. The cooling system for MIRI includes a Pulse Tube precooler and a Joule-Thomson Loop heat exchanger. This allowed MIRI to be cooled down to a temperature of 7 kelvins during operations in space. Overview The spectrograph can observe wavelengths be ...
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JWST MIRI
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This will enable investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's design and development and partnered with two main agencies: the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, ...
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Kelvin
The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907). The Kelvin scale is an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale, meaning it uses absolute zero as its null (zero) point. Historically, the Kelvin scale was developed by shifting the starting point of the much-older Celsius scale down from the melting point of water to absolute zero, and its increments still closely approximate the historic definition of a degree Celsius, but since 2019 the scale has been defined by fixing the Boltzmann constant to be exactly . Hence, one kelvin is equal to a change in the thermodynamic temperature that results in a change of thermal energy by . The temperature in degree Celsius is now defined as the temperature in kelvins minus 273.15, meaning t ...
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Spacecraft Bus (James Webb Space Telescope)
The spacecraft bus is the primary support element of the James Webb Space Telescope, launched on . It hosts a multitude of computing, communication, propulsion, and structural components. The other three elements of the JWST are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE), the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) and the sunshield. Region 3 of ISIM is also inside the spacecraft bus. Region 3 includes the ISIM Command and Data Handling subsystem and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) cryocooler. The spacecraft bus must structurally support the 6.5 ton space telescope, while weighing only . It is made primarily of graphite composite material. It was assembled in the U.S. state of California by 2015, and then it had to be integrated with the rest of the space telescope leading up to its planned 2018 launch. The bus can provide pointing precision of one arcsecond and isolates vibration down to two milliarcseconds. The fine pointing is done by the JWST fine guidance mirror, obviating t ...
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Zinc Sulfide
Zinc sulfide (or zinc sulphide) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula of ZnS. This is the main form of zinc found in nature, where it mainly occurs as the mineral sphalerite. Although this mineral is usually black because of various impurities, the pure material is white, and it is widely used as a pigment. In its dense synthetic form, zinc sulfide can be transparent, and it is used as a window for visible optics and infrared optics. Structure ZnS exists in two main crystalline forms. This dualism is an example of polymorphism. In each form, the coordination geometry at Zn and S is tetrahedral. The more stable cubic form is known also as zinc blende or sphalerite. The hexagonal form is known as the mineral wurtzite, although it also can be produced synthetically.. The transition from the sphalerite form to the wurtzite form occurs at around 1020 °C. A tetragonal form is also known as the very rare mineral called polhemusite, with the formula . Applicatio ...
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Germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, grayish-white and similar in appearance to silicon. It is a metalloid in the carbon group that is chemically similar to its group neighbors silicon and tin. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature. Because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was discovered comparatively late in the discovery of the elements. Germanium ranks near fiftieth in relative abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. In 1886, Clemens Winkler at Freiberg University found the new element, along with silver and sulfur, in the mineral argyrodite. Winkler named the element after his country, Germany. Germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is ...
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Slitless Spectroscopy
Slitless spectroscopy is astronomical spectroscopy done without a small slit to allow only light from a small region to be diffracted. It works best in sparsely populated fields, as it spreads each point source out into its spectrum, and crowded fields will be too confused to be useful. It also faces the problem that for extended sources, nearby emission lines will overlap. The Crossley telescope utilized a slitless spectrograph that was originally employed by Nicholas Mayall. The Henry Draper Catalogue, published 1924, contains stellar classifications for hundreds of thousands of stars, based on spectra taken with the objective prism method at Harvard College Observatory. The work of classification was led initially by Williamina Fleming and later by Annie Jump Cannon, with contributions from many other female astronomers including Florence Cushman. See also *Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (JWST component) * Echelle grating An echel ...
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Spacecraft Bus (James Webb Space Telescope)
The spacecraft bus is the primary support element of the James Webb Space Telescope, launched on . It hosts a multitude of computing, communication, propulsion, and structural components. The other three elements of the JWST are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE), the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) and the sunshield. Region 3 of ISIM is also inside the spacecraft bus. Region 3 includes the ISIM Command and Data Handling subsystem and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) cryocooler. The spacecraft bus must structurally support the 6.5 ton space telescope, while weighing only . It is made primarily of graphite composite material. It was assembled in the U.S. state of California by 2015, and then it had to be integrated with the rest of the space telescope leading up to its planned 2018 launch. The bus can provide pointing precision of one arcsecond and isolates vibration down to two milliarcseconds. The fine pointing is done by the JWST fine guidance mirror, obviating t ...
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Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon composite, or just carbon, are extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastics that contain carbon fibers. CFRPs can be expensive to produce, but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness (rigidity) are required, such as aerospace, superstructures of ships, automotive, civil engineering, sports equipment, and an increasing number of consumer and technical applications. The binding polymer is often a thermoset resin such as epoxy, but other thermoset or thermoplastic polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester, or nylon, are sometimes used. The properties of the final CFRP product can be affected by the type of additives introduced to the binding matrix (resin). The most common additive is silica, but other addit ...
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Carbon-fiber
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon composite, or just carbon, are extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastics that contain carbon fibers. CFRPs can be expensive to produce, but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness (rigidity) are required, such as aerospace, superstructures of ships, automotive, civil engineering, sports equipment, and an increasing number of consumer and technical applications. The binding polymer is often a thermoset resin such as epoxy, but other thermoset or thermoplastic polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester, or nylon, are sometimes used. The properties of the final CFRP product can be affected by the type of additives introduced to the binding matrix (resin). The most common additive is silica, but other additi ...
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Integrated Science Instrument Module
Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is a component of the James Webb Space Telescope, a large international infrared space telescope launched on . ISIM is the heart of the JWST, and holds the main science payload which includes four science instruments and the fine guidance sensor. ISIM is the spacecraft chassis and instruments that take the light from the main mirror and convert that into the science data that is then sent back to Earth. The other two major sections of the JWST are the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) (mirrors and their structure) and the Spacecraft Element (SE), which includes the spacecraft bus and sunshield. ISIM has a mass of 1400 kg (3086 lb), about 23% of the mass of the JWST. The infrared camera instrument integrated with ISIM passed its thermal tests in early 2016. ISIM underwent intense thermal cold testing in late 2015 to early 2016. NIRcam is extremely important to JWST, because it's not only a sensitive infrared camera, but it is also us ...
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Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the gray form, which has a metallic appearance, is important to industry. The primary use of arsenic is in alloys of lead (for example, in car batteries and ammunition). Arsenic is a common n-type dopant in semiconductor electronic devices. It is also a component of the III-V compound semiconductor gallium arsenide. Arsenic and its compounds, especially the trioxide, are used in the production of pesticides, treated wood products, herbicides, and insecticides. These applications are declining with the increasing recognition of the toxicity of arsenic and its compounds. A few species of bacteria are able to use arsenic compounds as respiratory metabolites. Trace quantities of arsenic are an essential dietary element in rats, ham ...
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Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Because of its high chemical affinity for oxygen, it was not until 1823 that Jöns Jakob Berzelius was first able to prepare it and characterize it in pure form. Its oxides form a family of anions known as silicates. Its melting and boiling points of 1414 °C and 3265 °C, respectively, are the second highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being surpassed only by boron. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed in space in cosmic dusts, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide ( ...
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