The Webb Telescope is coming together, piece by piece, as teams around the country work to build this state-of-the-art observatory. Join our host, Mary Estacion, of the Space Telescope Science Institute, as she takes you behind the scenes to watch the construction and testing, and hear from the people who make it work.

Podcast Archive

Show 14: The MIRI Has Two Faces February 13, 2012

The James Webb Space Telescope has multiple science instruments, but only one of them, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. MIRI's design, which allows it to both take both images and obtain the scientific data known as spectra, makes it the equivalent of two instruments in one. These dual techniques allow the Webb telescope to study distant objects in greater detail than ever before. Mary Estacion pays a visit to MIRI, being assembled at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, England.