James Webb Space Telescope

Webb NIRISS Instrument has Gone Offline

The JWST is having a problem. One of its instruments, the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS,) has gone offline. The NIRISS performs spectroscopy on exoplanet atmospheres, among other things.

It’s been offline since Sunday. January 15th due to a communications error.

The internal communications error led to the software timing out. There’s no indication that the instrument is damaged in any way, and the rest of the spacecraft is operating normally.

NIRISS complements the other instruments on the JWST by providing “unique observational capabilities between 0.6 and 5 ?m,” according to the Space Telescope Science Institute. It’s used to investigate exoplanet atmospheres, to detect first light, aka the Era of Recombination, and to detect exoplanets. It can also capture wide-field instruments to study populations of objects and has multiple filters that increase its versatility. It can also resolve the light from objects that are very close together.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) built the NIRISS as part of its contribution to the JWST mission. It also built the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS), which is physically combined with the NIRISS but is a separate instrument.

It’s unclear when the instrument will be back online, but it’s bad news for observers. Observing time on the JWST is in high demand, and it’s not clear how this delay will affect observations.

This isn’t the first mishap the JWST has had to deal with. It went into safe mode for about three weeks in December due to a software fault in its attitude control system. The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) was also briefly non-operational.

Those issues were dealt with and resolved. Hopefully, this one will be, too.

Evan Gough

Recent Posts

Planetary Geophysics: What is it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth?

Universe Today has examined the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar…

10 hours ago

This New Map of 1.3 Million Quasars Is A Powerful Tool

Quasars are the brightest objects in the Universe. The most powerful ones are thousands of…

15 hours ago

Webb Finds Hints of a Third Planet at PDS 70

The exoplanet census now stands at 5,599 confirmed discoveries in 4,163 star systems, with another…

16 hours ago

Improving a 1960s Plan to Explore the Giant Planets

In the 1960s, NASA engineers developed a series of small lifting-body aircraft that could be…

16 hours ago

Finally, an Explanation for the “String of Pearls” in Supernova 1987A

Not long after the explosion of Supernova 1987a, astronomers were abuzz with predictions about how…

18 hours ago

NASA is Working on Zero-Boil Off Tanks for Space Exploration

No matter what mode of transportation you take for a long trip, at some point,…

19 hours ago