On Sunday, Jan. 15, the James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) experienced a communications delay within the instrument, causing its flight software to time out. The instrument is currently unavailable for science observations while NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) work together to determine and correct the root cause of the delay. There …
The James Webb Space Telescope resumed science operations Dec. 20, after Webb's instruments intermittently went into safe mode beginning Dec. 7 due to a software fault triggered in the attitude control system, which controls the pointing of the observatory. During a safe mode, the observatory's nonessential systems are automatically turned off, placing it in a …
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured one of the first medium-deep wide-field images of the cosmos, featuring a region of the sky known as the North Ecliptic Pole. The image, which accompanies a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, is from the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) GTO program. "Medium-deep" …
Editor's Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. An international team of astronomers has used data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to report the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date. The light from these galaxies has taken more than 13.4 …
Editor's Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. On the morning of Saturday, Nov. 5, an international team of planetary scientists woke up with great delight to the first Webb images of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Here, Principal Investigator Conor Nixon and others …
NASA will share a new image or spectrum from the James Webb Space Telescope at least every other week on the mission's blog. This week, check the blog on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 11 a.m. EST for new images highlighting one of Saturn's moons. In the meantime, learn more about what to expect as Webb observations make …
Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was engineered to withstand continual bombardment from these dust-sized particles moving at extreme velocities, to continue to generate groundbreaking science far into the future. "We have experienced 14 measurable micrometeoroid hits on our primary mirror, and are averaging one to …
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Editor's Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process. We spoke with Kristen McQuinn of Rutgers University, one of the lead scientists on Webb Early Release Science (ERS) program 1334, focused on resolved stellar populations. These are large groups of stars – including stars …
The James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) has four observing modes. On Aug. 24, after measuring increased friction in one of the grating wheels used in MIRI's medium resolution spectrometry (MRS) mode, the Webb team paused science observations using this specific mode. Since then, a team of experts has carried out an in-depth investigation that has reviewed instrument …
