NASA’s highly effective $10 billion space telescope is firing on all cylinders once more.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) returned to full science operations on Monday (Jan. 30), recovering from a glitch that affected one in all its devices.
The Webb crew performed days of testing and analysis after a “communications delay” on Jan. 15 caused issues with the telescope’s Close to Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument, in accordance with a Tuesday (Jan. 31) statement (opens in new tab) from NASA.
“Observations that had been impacted by the pause in NIRISS operations might be rescheduled,” stated the company in its transient assertion, noting the instrument was recovered efficiently on Friday (Jan. 27).
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NIRISS was supplied by the Canadian House Company (CSA), so personnel from NASA and the CSA labored alongside each other for troubleshooting. The preliminary challenge was a “communications delay throughout the instrument, inflicting its flight software program to outing,” in accordance with a Jan. 24 statement (opens in new tab) from NASA.
NIRISS can usually work in four different modes (opens in new tab), in accordance with NASA. The instrument could also be tasked with working as a digital camera when different JWST devices are busy. Alternatively, NIRISS can have a look at mild signatures of small exoplanet atmospheres, do high-contrast imaging or study distant galaxies.
Previous to the NIRISS glitch, a problem arose on one other Webb instrument in August 2022: a grating wheel inside the observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The wheel is required for only one of MIRI’s 4 observing modes, nonetheless, so the instrument continued observing throughout restoration operations. Work on recovering the affected mode, referred to as the Medium Decision Spectrometer, was accomplished in November.
In December, the JWST crew additionally spent two weeks coping with a glitch that stored placing the telescope into protected mode, making science observations tough. A software program glitch within the observatory’s perspective management system was pinpointed as the problem, affecting the path by which the telescope factors. The observatory bounced again comparatively rapidly from that downside, resuming full science operations on Dec. 20.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e-book about space medication. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
