This is potentially bad news:
The medium resolution spectroscopy mode of the MIRI (Mid Infrared Imager) is malfunctioning. There is a motorized ‘grating wheel’ in that mode allowing different diffraction gratings to be selected, and this wheel is exhibiting high resistance to turning, As a result, that whole mode of the MIRI instrument is offline until and if they solve the problem.
MIRI has four modes. The other three are still operating normally.
No updates on this …?
NASA’s JWST blog hasn’t been updated since 20th Sep.
Apparently the problem was discovered before 6th Sep !
In the finely detailed Webb’s First Deep Field image, the researchers zeroed in on what they’ve dubbed “the Sparkler galaxy,” which is nine billion light years away. This galaxy got its name for the compact objects appearing as small yellow-red dots surrounding it, referred to by the researchers as “sparkles.” The team posited that these sparkles could either be young clusters actively forming stars—born three billion years after the Big Bang at the peak of star formation—or old globular clusters. Globular clusters are ancient collections of stars from a galaxy’s infancy and contain clues about its earliest phases of formation and growth.
From their initial analysis of 12 of these compact objects, the researchers determined that five of them are not only globular clusters but among the oldest ones known.
Three and a half weeks and still no updates following the Sept 6 anomaly review board meeting?
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/webb-hubble-capture-detailed-views-of-dart-impact
Webb took one observation of the impact location before the collision took place, then several observations over the next few hours. Images from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam)show a tight, compact core, with plumes of material appearing as wisps streaming away from the center of where the impact took place.
Two massive stars create funky rings:
Brian
Do we know when this was taken ?
That link just says “early on”, and it was taken using the MIRI …
So, is that working now ?
Still no news about that (since 9/20/22)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.
Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation, which were first made famous when imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region. Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.
(Pictures at link above)
It’s a giant 3 fingered claw !
<Michael Palin>
DON’T STAND THERE GAWPING LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THE HAND OF GOD BEFORE!
</Michael Palin>
It’s only a model.
That’s not the hand of god, this is the hand of god…
It’s GODZILLA.
(And I am awarding myself a kudo, because damned if I didn’t identify what the was an image of before reading the post before it.)
I guess we need to accept the fact that JWST has lost a quarter of its instruments. The Mid Infrared Imager (MIRI) function has not been restored. I wonder in what ways this will limit the science being conducted.
Not at all. The problem only affects the MIRI mid-resolution spectroscopy mode. It still has its primary imaging, coronagraphic imaging, and low-resolution spectroscopy modes. There is also a whole other instrument, the NIRISS, for high-precision spectroscopy, and that’s what will be used to analyze (for instance) exoplanet atmospheres.
Do we know this ? I’ve not seen any updates about that since early September !
I’m basing this on the fact that they haven’t announced the restoration of its function. Had function been restored I’m pretty sure they’d be singing the news from the rooftop.
I didn’t know quasars came in colors. The article says,
The blindingly bright quasar, fueled by what Zakamska calls a “monster” black hole at the center of the galactic swirl, is a rare “extremely red” quasar, about 11.5 billion years old and one of the most powerful ever seen from such distance.
without bothering to explain what extremely red means. Are they talking about red-shift?