NIRCam
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NIRCam is an instrument aboard the to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope, and it has two major tasks, the first is an imager from 0.6 to 5 micron light wavelength and as wavefront sensor to keep the 18-section mirrors functioning as one.[1][2] It is an infrared camera with ten mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector arrays, and each array has an array of 2048 X 2048 pixels.[3][4] The camera has a field of view of 2.2 X 2.2 arc min with an angular resolution of 0.07 arcsec at 2 microns.[5] NIRcam is also equipped with coronagraphs, which helps to collect data on exoplanets near stars, really it helps imaging anything next to a much brighter object, because the coronagraph blocks that light.[6] NIRcam is housed in the Integrated Science Instrument Module
Parts of NIRCam:[7]
- Pick-off mirror
- Coronograph
- First-fold mirror
- Collimator lenses
- Dichroic beam splitter
- Longwave filter wheel
- Longwave camera lens group
- Longwave focal plane
- Shortwave filter wheel assembly
- Shortwave camera lens group
- Shortwave fold mirror
- Pupil imaging lens
- Shortwave focal plane
The builders of NIRCam are the University of Arizona and company Lockheed Martin, in cooperation with the U.S. Space agency, NASA.[8]
See also
- Optical Telescope Element
- James Webb Space Telescope timeline
- Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (defunct NIR Hubble Instrument)
- Wide Field Camera 3 (current NIR Hubble instrument)
References
External links
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