NASA shares 'good news' about James Webb Space Telescope; major elements ready for science

In a recent update, NASA revealed that seven out of seventeen modes of the James Webb Space Telescope are ready for science. The announcement comes just a few weeks before the world’s most powerful observatory reveals its first image on July 12. Meanwhile, engineers from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are busy checking the rest of the modes in their list.

Tracking Webb's progress

According to NASA, there are a total of four instruments aboard the telescope which have 17 different modes of function when combined. The instruments include the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has five modes along with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) with four modes each.

(Image: NASA)

Of the NIRCam, the engineers have checked off three modes that would help in the study of exoplanets, and NIRISS's aperture masking interferometry mode for direct detection of a faint object that is very close to a bright one. In addition to this, the wide-field slitless spectroscopy, for studying distant galaxies and NIRSpecs bright-object time series, for studying exoplanets have also been readied.

In a blog post by NASA officials, it was revealed that the engineers this week are focusing on MIRI, which has one of Webb’s most complex instrument modes- the Medium Resolution Spectrometer (MRS). Once Webb is fully prepared, this mode would help MIRI to study the composition of astronomical objects. "At the highest redshifts, the MRS will be able to study hydrogen emission from the first galaxies. At lower redshifts, it will probe molecular hydrocarbon features in dusty nearby galaxies and detect....fingerprints of elements such as oxygen, argon, and neon", scientists working on Webb said, as per the blog post. 

"Closer to home, the MRS will produce maps of spectral features due to water ice and simple organic molecules in giant planets in our own solar system and in planet-forming disks around other stars", the blog further read. Recently, the telescope, which is installed at the second Lagrange point, was hit by a small micrometeoroid in its primary mirror. However, NASA assured that Webb is tried and tested for such conditions and that the impacts won't harm the mission.