Instruments that will be used on the James Webb Space Telescope were developed by scientists led by Prof. Tom Ray, from the Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, School of Cosmic Physics.
Listen to Professor Tom Ray’s interview on RTE’s News At One 10 May 2012
After more than 10 years of work by more than 200 engineers, the Mid Infra-Red Instrument (MIRI) has been declared ready for delivery by the European Space Agency and NASA.The instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), due for launch in 2018, is a pioneering camera and spectrometer, so sensitive it could see a candle on one of Jupiter’s moons. It will now be shipped to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where it will be integrated with the other three instruments and the telescope.
MIRI is the first of the four instruments on board the JWST to be completed. The handover ceremony between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London took place on 9th May 2012 and it was the culmination of a long-term collaboration effort from teams across both continents. David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science in Britain attended the ceremony.
Tom Ray, the Irish Co-Principal Investigator for MIRI at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies said: “We are all delighted that the European and US team’s hard work has produced an instrument that has exceeded expectations. No doubt when the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, our instrument will help us see the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang and peer into new solar systems as they form. It is wonderful to be part of the team that has helped achieve this major milestone for the JWST project”
Ireland’s involvement in the project was to produce the special infrared filters required by the instrument that break up the light into its various components. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) is now playing a major role in developing software to analyse the data from MIRI in collaboration with the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The involvement of DIAS in the James Webb Telescope is supported by Enterprise Ireland.
JWST will take up position four times further away from the Earth than the Moon. MIRI will allow astronomers to explore the formation of planets around distant stars and could even pave the way for investigations into the habitability of other planetary systems.
MIRI offers a sensitivity and resolution many times greater than any other mid-IR instrument in existence today or for the foreseeable future. It will be able to penetrate the dust obscuring distant objects, allowing for smaller and fainter objects than have ever been detected to be mapped in unprecedented detail. Its wavelength of 5 to 28 microns brings a unique scientific capability among the other instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI will therefore have a key role in the study of light that has travelled from the early moments of the universe by JWST. These wavelengths bring additional technical challenges due to the extremely low operating temperatures necessary (-266.5ºc). Unlike the other JWST instruments MIRI will be cooled by a dedicated cooler provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JWST) in California.
MIRI will now be transported to the Goddard Space Flight Center in the US in a specially constructed environmental container designed to protect it from moisture and keep its temperature stable. Once there it will start the long process of integration with the other instruments, two years of testing to ensure that they all function together correctly, and then integration and test with the telescope optics. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for 2018.
Images available
Images and video of MIRI are available on request.
http://www.esa.int/science/jwst
MIRI is provided by a nationally-funded consortium of European institutes in a partnership with JPL.
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Last Updated: 23rd May 2018 by mary
May 2012 – First instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is completed and handed over to NASA.
Instruments that will be used on the James Webb Space Telescope were developed by scientists led by Prof. Tom Ray, from the Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, School of Cosmic Physics.
Listen to Professor Tom Ray’s interview on RTE’s News At One 10 May 2012
After more than 10 years of work by more than 200 engineers, the Mid Infra-Red Instrument (MIRI) has been declared ready for delivery by the European Space Agency and NASA.The instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), due for launch in 2018, is a pioneering camera and spectrometer, so sensitive it could see a candle on one of Jupiter’s moons. It will now be shipped to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where it will be integrated with the other three instruments and the telescope.
MIRI is the first of the four instruments on board the JWST to be completed. The handover ceremony between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London took place on 9th May 2012 and it was the culmination of a long-term collaboration effort from teams across both continents. David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science in Britain attended the ceremony.
Tom Ray, the Irish Co-Principal Investigator for MIRI at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies said: “We are all delighted that the European and US team’s hard work has produced an instrument that has exceeded expectations. No doubt when the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, our instrument will help us see the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang and peer into new solar systems as they form. It is wonderful to be part of the team that has helped achieve this major milestone for the JWST project”
Ireland’s involvement in the project was to produce the special infrared filters required by the instrument that break up the light into its various components. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) is now playing a major role in developing software to analyse the data from MIRI in collaboration with the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The involvement of DIAS in the James Webb Telescope is supported by Enterprise Ireland.
JWST will take up position four times further away from the Earth than the Moon. MIRI will allow astronomers to explore the formation of planets around distant stars and could even pave the way for investigations into the habitability of other planetary systems.
MIRI offers a sensitivity and resolution many times greater than any other mid-IR instrument in existence today or for the foreseeable future. It will be able to penetrate the dust obscuring distant objects, allowing for smaller and fainter objects than have ever been detected to be mapped in unprecedented detail. Its wavelength of 5 to 28 microns brings a unique scientific capability among the other instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI will therefore have a key role in the study of light that has travelled from the early moments of the universe by JWST. These wavelengths bring additional technical challenges due to the extremely low operating temperatures necessary (-266.5ºc). Unlike the other JWST instruments MIRI will be cooled by a dedicated cooler provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JWST) in California.
MIRI will now be transported to the Goddard Space Flight Center in the US in a specially constructed environmental container designed to protect it from moisture and keep its temperature stable. Once there it will start the long process of integration with the other instruments, two years of testing to ensure that they all function together correctly, and then integration and test with the telescope optics. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for 2018.
Images available
Images and video of MIRI are available on request.
http://www.esa.int/science/jwst
MIRI is provided by a nationally-funded consortium of European institutes in a partnership with JPL.
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...obituaries of prominent individuals The manuscript has been preserved in the @Library_RIA since 1883. (3/3) @HistFest #DIASdiscovers #connacht #books
The Annals of Connacht is a vellum manuscript that was written in the mid-16th century. The contents were derived from older annals compiled for the O’Conors of the Connacht and contain an annual record of significant events over 320 years, and... (2/3)
Date: 19 October 1944 Paper: The Irish Press Synopsis: DIAS has been publishing books since it's founding. One such early publication is the edited manuscript of the Annals of Connacht (Annála Connacht) which was edited for the first time by Martin Freeman of DIAS. (1/3)
This work was to help towards the preservation of the Irish Language, to maintain it's continuity with the past, and was to become a resource for teachers to check pronunciation #DIASdiscovers #Irish #Irishlanguage #CelticStudies #Gaelic
The researchers used the International Phonetic Alphabet, slightly modified to represent vowels and consonants of living speech. At that time there were concerns over the deterioration of the Irish language due to the "overpowering influence of English"
Date: 02 June 1943 Paper: The Irish Press Synopsis: In 1943, a phonetic investigation led by Brian Ó Cuív, Risteárd B. Breathnach and Tomás de Bhaldraithe of DIAS would begin the first systematic scientific recording of the varied sounds of modern Gaelic speech.
Happy Birthday! twitter.com/thecelticist/s…
The papers were 1) Affine Field Theory: conservation identitites and relation to Weyl and Eddington 2)The Union of the three fundamental fields (Gravitation, Menson, Electromagnetism) Which went on to secure worldwide acclaim. #DIASdiscovers
Date: 01 December 1943 Paper: The Irish Press Headline: Two Papers by Dr. Schroedinger Synopsis: 1943 was a busy year for Schroedinger. Not only did he deliver the "What is Life?" Lectures in @tcddublin in February in November he delivered two papers in the @RIAdawson (1/2)
Available to buy on the DIAS bookshop: books.dias.ie/index.php?main… (5/5) #DIASdiscovers #celtic #studies #twopatricks
"In the lives of St. Patrick, the two saints are invariably fused into one", said Prof. O'Rahilly in his lecture. The lecture was a condensation from O’Rahilly’s book “The two Patricks: a lecture on the history of Christianity in fifth-century Ireland”. (4/5)
He was known by his first name Patricius, which in later times would lead to confusion as he was succeeded by another apostle of the same name (Saint Patrick or Patricius in Latin). (3/5)
He spoke on "Palladius and Patrick". Palladius was the first bishop of the Christians of Ireland. (2/5)
Date: 21st March 1942 Paper: The Irish Press Headline: Palladius and Patrick | School Of Celtic Studies Lecture Synopsis: The first public lecture under the auspices of the School of Celtic Studies was delivered in Trinity College by Professor T. F. O'Rahilly in 1942. (1/5)
As part of our ongoing participation in the @HistFest we decided to take a look into the Irish Newspaper Archives and see where DIAS made it into print over the last 80 years. There were so many articles, the hardest part was selecting what we would post. We hope you enjoy!
@AReillyFailte @CultureNight @VisitDublin Thanks Antoinette! Glad you enjoyed 😊