KENDREW: MIRI is one of the 4 instruments on board the James Webb Space
Telescope. It's the one instrumnet onboard the telescope
that will be observing at Mid-Infrared wavelengths, the other instruments
focus on the near infrared parts of the spectrum
GLASSE: NIRCam and the FGS, they work at wavelengths from
about 1 to 4 or 5 microns. Now MIRI is unique
on the James Webb because it operates at even longer wavelengths than that
So we start at 5 microns and we keep going out to
25-30 microns. KENDREW: MIRI is actually quite a complex instrument
It has several different observing modes onboard.
in the instruments. So we have a camera,
that takes images in lots of different filters across the Mid-Infrared wavelength.
range. We also have spectroscopic modes
so we have low-resolution spectroscopy and we also have a medium
resolution integral field spectrograph. GLASSE: When you look inside our own galaxy,
you can see dusty regions and there are things going on inside those clouds
inside the dust that you can't see because dust is essentially opaque.
If you move out to longer wavelengths, out into the infrared, the opacity
the amount of light that is absorbed by that dust, drops
and so we can see not just the surface but, into the heart
of the dusty regions. So that means we can see to the center of our own galaxy more easily
we can see inside dusty regions where stars are being formed
and see what's really going on when a start is formed in space. KENDREW: We are really going
to be able to address a huge range of science questions
MIRI is going to be able to probe even further back into the history
of the universe. It's going to be able to really study the atmosphere
of planets around other stars an really be able to search for
the signatures of molecules in those atmospheres, those are some
a few of the highest profile science goals
(beep beep)