[meteorite-list] Two Cameras Offer View of Webb Telescope in Clean Room

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-194  

Two Cameras Offer View of Webb Telescope in Clean Room
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 02, 2012

Members of the public can track the progress of the upcoming James Webb
Space Telescope inside a NASA clean room, where the recently delivered
Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) will be integrated into the science
instrument payload. Two cameras show the giant clean room at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Online screen shots from
the two clean-room cameras, affectionally dubbed "Webb-cams," are
updated every minute.

Developed by a consortium of 10 European institutions and NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and delivered by the European
Space Agency, MIRI is the first Webb telescope instrument to be completed.

The clean room is generally occupied Monday through Friday from 5 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. PDT (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT).

The Webb-cams can be seen online at: http://jwst.nasa.gov/webcam.html . _
_
Of the James Webb Space Telescope's four science instruments, only MIRI
can see light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic
spectrum. This unique capability will allow the Webb telescope to study
physical processes occurring in the cosmos that the other Webb
instruments cannot see.

MIRI's sensitive detectors will allow it to make unique observations of
many things, including the light of distant galaxies, newly forming
stars within our own Milky Way, and the formation of planets around
stars other than our own, as well as planets, comets and the outermost
debris disk in our own solar system.

The Webb Telescope project, managed at Goddard, is the world's
next-generation space observatory and successor to NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about MIRI and its arrival at NASA Goddard, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-174 .

For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov .

Written by Rob Gutro
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact:
Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Whitney.b.clavin at jpl.nasa.gov

2012-194