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on June 27. On Sunday, local time, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team announced that the calibration of the "eye" nirspec (near infrared spectrometer) on the telescope had been completed and began to obtain the first batch of scientific data

this can be said to be a very important milestone, because NASA has been promoting the launch and deployment of JWST in a streamlined manner due to the impact of many factors such as the COVID-19. Before officially launching JWST, NASA must pass the test of 17 instrument "modes", and calibration nirspec is the 10th mode, more than half of the total

jwst team said: "the recently confirmed nirspec target acquisition capability will prepare nirspec team for our final commissioning activities. We can't wait to see the first scientific observation conducted by nirspec this summer!" In fact, according to the information released by the agency, the team has begun to obtain some scientific data. As expected, NASA may release the first interstellar image captured by JWST on July 12

jwst has four key components, each of which contributes to the 17 modes outlined by the agency. It is worth noting that almost all of these modes depend on some type of infrared light detection, which means that they can study the electromagnetic spectrum invisible to the human eye The JWST team explained: "studying the intensity or brightness of light at different wavelengths can provide key information about various substances in the universe, from extrasolar planets around distant stars to galaxies at the edge of the universe and celestial bodies in our solar system."

the most important instrument on the JWST may be the near infrared camera (NIRCam). NIRCam will be crucial in exploring the universe and imaging. Alison nordt, director of space science and instrumentation at the US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, explained: "if the NIRCam fails, the telescope will not be able to observe."

the second key component is the mid infrared instrument (MIRI), which is composed of a camera and a spectrometer to detect objects illuminated by light in the mid infrared electromagnetic region. In addition, there are near-infrared imager and seamless spectrometer (niriss), which is basically an exoplanet searching machine

the JWST is also equipped with a navigation system, that is, a fine guidance sensor, which can help determine the aiming range and will not let the optical fiber "get lost". Finally, the bright and near infrared spectrometer that NASA has recently completed the test The JWST team explained that the near-infrared spectrometer is an instrument on the Weber telescope, which can observe the spectra of Astrophysical and planetary objects in the near-infrared band. In other words, its job is to examine space phenomena that glow in the near-infrared region, but it can not only image these objects, but also study their chemical composition

in terms of target acquisition, the JWST team said that nirspec has an important mirror, which can place the cosmic target in a suitable position during telescope exploration. This is crucial because such information helps the nirspec spectrometer know where to look for targets

this mirror has two ways to achieve the above functions, namely wide aperture target acquisition (Wata) and micro shutter component based target acquisition (msata). The JWST team said that during the test, Wata performed "very well", and msata also made good progress. Fortunately for us, these two successes have provided us with amazing images of the universe

in addition, for msata and JWST teams, this test method is difficult to use. It requires that the scientific spectral intensity of inirspec be properly estimated within one tenth of the shutter width of the device. This is very accurate. The research team said that from 150 kilometers away, it is about the same size as a bumblebee, only 1.5 cm

now, NASA has successfully completed a number of deployment tasks. Before July 12, which we have been waiting for, there are still 7 modes to be tested. (small)