NASA says the $10 billion observatory checked out 7 of its 17 instrument modes for science operations.
NIRCam will be crucial for accomplishing Webb's flagship goal: detecting the light from the earliest stars and galaxies. It's not just a simple infrared camera, but is fitted with some extra implements called coronographs. The coronographs will enable astronomers to block out the light of a star and look at what's happening around it, which makes it great for discovering orbiting exoplanets. NIRSpec is the main tool for cracking the chemistry of the universe.
Because some of these objects are extremely distant and the light coming from them will be extremely faint, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite its giant mirror, will have to stare at them for hundreds of hours. To make those observations more efficient, NIRSPec will be able to observe 100 such distant galaxies at the same time.
"It basically lets you open little doors and let the light through from one galaxy, but then block off all the light from everything else," said McCaughrean."But you can open 100 doors at once, for example. So that's very sophisticated and that's never been flown in space.
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