Celebrities & #NIRCam Fun Facts, Stories & Updates

Imagining having such NIRCam in my ARTstudio.app

NIRCam

NIRCam is an instrument aboard the to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope. It has two major tasks, as an imager from 0.6 to 5 micron light wavelength, and as a wavefront sensor to keep the 18-section mirrors functioning as one. In other words, it is a camera and is also used to provide information to align the 18 segments of the primary mirror. It is an infrared camera with ten mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector arrays, and each array has an array of 2048x2048 pixels. The camera has a field of view of 2.2x2.2 arc minutes with an angular resolution of 0.07 arcsec at 2 microns. NIRcam is also equipped with coronagraphs, which helps to collect data on exoplanets near stars. It helps with imaging anything next to a much brighter object, because the coronagraph blocks that light.
NIRcam is housed in the Integrated Science Instrument Module, to which it is attached physically by struts. It is designed to operate at 37 Kelvin, so it can detect infrared light at this wavelength. It is connected to the ISIM by struts and thermal straps connect to heat radiators, which helps maintain its temperature. The Focal Plane Electronics operated at 290 kelvin.

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