NASA Creates Microscopic Technology for Webb Space Telescope

NASA Creates Microscopic Technology for Webb Space Telescope

NASA engineers and scientists building the James Webb Space Telescope have created a new telescope technology called “microshutters.” Microshutters are tiny doorways the width of a few hairs that will allow the telescope to view the most distant stars and galaxies humans have ever seen.

The microshutters will enable scientists to mask unwanted light from foreground objects so the telescope can focus on the faint light of the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe. Only the Webb Telescope has this technology. The Webb Telescope will launch in the next decade.

In December 2006, the microshutters passed crucial environmental testing to demonstrate that they can withstand the rigors of launching and placement in deep space. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., designed, tested and built the instrument technology. The microshutters will work in conjunction with the telescope’s Near Infrared Spectrograph that is being built by the European Space Agency.

“To build a telescope that can peer farther than the Hubble Space Telescope can, we needed brand new technology,” said Murzy Jhabvala, chief engineer of Goddard’s Instrument Technology and Systems Division. “We’ve worked on this design for more than six years, opening and closing the tiny shutters tens of thousands of times to perfect the technology.”

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