Summary Draft 2 (Space Telescope)

From the webpage “Why stars look spiky in images from the James Webb Space Telescope” from The Verge (2022) tells us the reason why the stars look spiky. The features from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) contribute to why the star looks spiky in images from JWST. The mirror on the space telescope, the near-infrared cameras (NIRCam), near-infrared spectrographs (NIRSpec), mid-infrared instrument (MIRI), fine guidance sensors and sunshields from James Webb Space Telescope (n.d). The shape of the primary will affect how the light is reflected onto the secondary mirror. Hence, a hexagonal mirror results in an image with six diffraction spikes. The near-infrared camera (NIRCam) is JWST’s primary imager capable of covering a “wavelength range 0.6 to 5 microns” from NASA (n.d). NIRCam can detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the process of formation. The near-infrared spectrographs (NIRSpec) is an instrument that analysis the wavelength that is captured by the NIRCam from NASA (n.d). The mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) has both a camera and a spectrograph. MIRI “covers the wavelength of range from 5 to 28 microns”. MIRI can detect the redshifted light of distant galaxies, newly formed stars and faintly visible comets from NASA (n.d). JWST has a 5-layer, tennis court-size sunshield that acts like a parasol providing shade from NASA (n.d). With the function of the NIRCam, JWST is not a replacement but a successor to Hubble Space Telescope.

Edited on 29/9