JWST

Assembly has been completed on the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) that will be the primary imager on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and will also act as the telescope’s wavefront sensor to allow for control of its primary mirror. NIRCam covers the infrared wavelength range of 0.6 (the edge of visible) to 5 microns (near infrared) and its focal plane assemblies (FPA) consist of 40 million pixels and are designed to operate at 35 degrees Kelvin (-396°F/-238°C).  Read More

Pushing the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to the very limit of its technical ability, an international collaboration of astronomers believe they have discovered the oldest and furthest ancient galaxy ever seen. Light from the new object is thought to have taken some 13.2 billion years to reach the telescope, with the age of the Universe itself said to be 13.7 billion years. It's also said to be older than the current record holder, which set the bar by forming 600 million years after the Big Bang.  Read More

NASA's recently upgraded Hubble Space Telescope has made the deepest near-infrared image of the universe ever taken. Taken using a newly installed camera, the image shows deep space objects such as galaxies that formed only 600 million years after the Big Bang, making them the oldest galaxies ever seen. The image was taken with the Hubble’s new Wide Field Camera 3, which astronauts installed in May.  Read More

February 18, 2008 The Hubble telescope’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer has detected an infant galaxy from the “dark ages” of the universe. Named A1689-zD1, the galaxy originated just 700 million years after the Big Bang, and is believed to be one of the galaxies responsible for reheating the cold clouds of hydrogen that formed as a result of the rapid expansion of the universe.  Read More