ESA Science & Technology - First JWST instrument finishes testing

The MIRI instrument during alignment tests. Credit: STFC/RAL Space

The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) will be used by astronomers to study faint comets circling the Sun, newly born faraway planets, regions of obscured star formation, and galaxies near the edge of the universe. It must work at extremely low temperatures, of just 7 K above absolute zero or -266 °C.

The test chamber at RAL Space. Credit: STFC/RAL Space

"It is inspiring to see MIRI working extremely well at its operating temperature after so many years in development. The test campaign has been a resounding success and the whole MIRI team can be very proud of this magnificent achievement," says Gillian Wright, the European Principal Investigator and lead of the MIRI European Science Team.

The tests ensured that all parts of the instrument function together properly. Targets inside the test chamber were used to simulate scientific observations and obtain critical performance data. Astronomers will use these during the coming years to develop software needed to calibrate the instrument after launch.

Preliminary results show that MIRI is working extremely well, and confirm that it should be able to perform all the cutting-edge science it was designed to accomplish. Peter Jakobsen, ESA JWST Project Scientist, congratulates the members of the MIRI consortium for having passed this significant milestone. "Future users of JWST and MIRI are looking forward to learning more about the detailed performance of the instrument once the test results are analysed further in the coming months. The experience gained by the MIRI test team throughout this campaign has sown the seeds for a rich scientific harvest from the JWST mission," he says. ESA has been collaborating with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency since 1996 on the design and construction of the Webb telescope. MIRI is the first of JWST's four instruments to complete its calibration testing.

"The successful completion of this difficult test programme – involving more than 2000 individual tests – marks a major milestone for the JWST mission. MIRI will now be delivered to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to join the integration and testing of the observatory's science instrument payload, which began this year," said Matthew Greenhouse, the Integrated Science Instrument Module Project Scientist for JWST at Goddard.

"The MIRI tests have demonstrated the excellent technical progress being made on the project and we're now looking forward to completing the equivalent tests on another of JWST's scientific instruments, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) being developed by ESA. These European eyes will play a crucial role in the success of this remarkable international mission to uncover mysteries across the Universe," said Mark McCaughrean, head of ESA's Research & Scientific Support Department.

Notes to editors

ESA's participation in the JWST mission was formally approved by the ESA Science Programme Committee in 2003. The four major European contributions to the mission are formalised in the Memorandum of Understanding on JWST signed by NASA and ESA in 2007:

Provision of the NIRSpec instrument;
Provision of the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument through special funding from the ESA member states;
Provision of the Ariane 5 ECA launcher;
Manpower support to JWST operations.

Contact

Torsten Boeker
JWST Deputy Project Scientist
Email: tboekerrssd.esa.int
Phone: +31 71 565 8272