NIRCam Performance on JWST In Flight

Marcia J. Rieke (1); Douglas M. Kelly (1); Karl Misselt (1); John; Stansberry (2); Martha Boyer (2); Thomas Beatty (3); Eiichi Egami (1),; Michael Florian (1); Thomas P. Greene (4); Kevin Hainline (1; Jarron; Leisenring (1); Thomas Roellig (4); Everett Schlawin (1); Fengwu Sun (1); Lee; Tinnin (1); Christina C. Williams (5); Christopher N. A. Willmer (1); Debra; Wilson (1); Charles R. Clark (6); Scott Rohrbach (6); Brian Brooks (2),; Alicia Canipe (2); Matteo Correnti (7); Audrey DiFelice (2); Mario Gennaro; (2); Julian Girard (2); George Hartig (2); Bryan Hilbert (2); Anton M.; Koekemoer (2); Nikolay K. Nikolov (2); Norbert Pirzkal (2); Armin Rest (2),; Massimo Robberto (2); Ben Sunnquist (2); Randal Telfer (2); Chi Rai Wu (2),; Malcolm Ferry (8); Dan Lewis (8); Stefi Baum (9); Charles Beichman (10),; Ren\'e Doyon (11); Alan Dressler (12); Daniel J. Eisenstein (13); Laura; Ferrarese (14); Klaus Hodapp (15); Scott Horner; Daniel T. Jaffe (16); Doug; Johnstone (14); John Krist (17); Peter Martin (18); Donald W. McCarthy (1),; Michael Meyer (19); George H. Rieke (1); John Trauger (17); Erick T. Young; (20) (1) Steward Observatory; (2) Space Telescope Science Institute; (3); University of Wisconsin; (4) NASA Ames Research Center; (5) National; Optical-Infrared Research Laboratory; (6) Goddard Space Flight Center; (7); INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma; (8) Lockheed Martin Advanced; Technology Center; (9) University of Manitoba; (10) NASA Exoplanet Science; Institute/IPAC; (11) Universit\'e de Montr\'eal; (12) The Observatories; The; Carnegie Institution for Science; (13) Center for Astrophysics; Harvard and; Smithsonian; (14) National Research Council Canada; Herzberg Astronomy and; Astrophysics; (15) University of Hawaii; (16) The University of Texas at; Austin; (17) Jet Propulsion Laboratory; (18) Canadian Institute for; Theoretical Astrophysics; (19) University of Michigan; (20) USRA)

arXiv:2212.12069·astro-ph.IM·April 5, 2023

NIRCam Performance on JWST In Flight

Marcia J. Rieke (1), Douglas M. Kelly (1), Karl Misselt (1), John, Stansberry (2), Martha Boyer (2), Thomas Beatty (3), Eiichi Egami (1),, Michael Florian (1), Thomas P. Greene (4), Kevin Hainline (1, Jarron, Leisenring (1), Thomas Roellig (4), Everett Schlawin (1)

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TL;DR

NIRCam on JWST has performed exceptionally well during in-flight commissioning, exceeding expectations and providing crucial imagery for telescope alignment, demonstrating its high operational readiness and scientific potential.

Contribution

This paper reports on the in-flight performance of NIRCam, highlighting its successful commissioning and operational status on JWST, which was not previously documented in detail.

Findings

01

NIRCam exceeds pre-launch performance expectations.

02

NIRCam provides essential imagery for mirror alignment.

03

The instrument shows high reliability and operational readiness.

Abstract

The Near Infrared Camera for the James Webb Space Telescope is delivering the imagery that astronomers have hoped for ever since JWST was proposed back in the 1990s. In the Commissioning Period that extended from right after launch to early July 2022 NIRCam has been subjected to a number of performance tests and operational checks. The camera is exceeding pre-launch expectations in virtually all areas with very few surprises discovered in flight. NIRCam also delivered the imagery needed by the Wavefront Sensing Team for use in aligning the telescope mirror segments (\citealt{Acton_etal2022}, \citealt{McElwain_etal2022}).

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Taxonomy

TopicsAdaptive optics and wavefront sensing · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research · Optical Systems and Laser Technology