James Webb's important instrument had a software glitch and stopped operating

(NASA-GSFC, Adriana M. Gutierrez (CI Lab) https://bit.ly/3XIfF8V)

The NIRISS instrument of the James Webb Space Observatory (JWST) has stopped all scientific observations due to a malfunction in the software that controls the camera.

Now NASA engineers are trying to find the cause of the failure.

The NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) is one of the four main scientific instruments of James Webb.

The instrument includes a camera and a slitless spectrograph operating in the near and mid-infrared wavelength ranges (0.8-5 micrometers).

The device is capable of operating in four modes:

• interferometry
• wide-field
• single-object spectroscopy
• imaging

The main task of the NIRISS is to detect and determine the properties of exoplanets.

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PROBLEMS
On January 15, the NIRISS software crashed due to a timeout waiting for a response from the camera, which led to the termination of scientific observations.

Engineers do not see a serious danger to other instruments and are trying to determine the cause of the failure, all failed observations will be rescheduled for another time.

This is not the first failure in the work of the observatory.

Previously, the MIRI instrument could not make observations in one of the spectroscopy modes for two months.

This was due to anomalies in operation associated with the wheel bearing with diffraction gratings.

Sources:

• Space.com: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-niriss-glitch
• NASA: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2023/01/24/near-infrared-imager-and-slitless-spectrograph-operations-update/

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