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The Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph for the James Webb Space Telescope. I. Instrument Overview and In-flight Performance
Abstract The Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) is the science module of the Canadian-built Fine Guidance Sensor onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NIRISS has four observing modes: (1) broadband imaging featuring seven of the eight NIRCam broadband filters, (2) wide-...
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Published in: | Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2023-09, Vol.135 (1051), p.98001 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract
The Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) is the science module of the Canadian-built Fine Guidance Sensor onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NIRISS has four observing modes: (1) broadband imaging featuring seven of the eight NIRCam broadband filters, (2) wide-field slitless spectroscopy at a resolving power of ∼150 between 0.8 and 2.2
μ
m, (3) single-object cross-dispersed slitless spectroscopy (SOSS) enabling simultaneous wavelength coverage between 0.6 and 2.8
μ
m at
R
∼ 700, a mode optimized for exoplanet spectroscopy of relatively bright (
J
< 6.3) stars and (4) aperture masking interferometry (AMI) between 2.8 and 4.8
μ
m enabling high-contrast (∼10
−3
− 10
−4
) imaging at angular separations between 70 and 400 mas for relatively bright (
M
< 8) sources. This paper presents an overview of the NIRISS instrument, its design, its scientific capabilities, and a summary of in-flight performance. NIRISS shows significantly better response shortward of ∼2.5
μ
m resulting in 10%–40% sensitivity improvement for broadband and low-resolution spectroscopy compared to pre-flight predictions. Two time-series observations performed during instrument commissioning in the SOSS mode yield very stable spectro-photometry performance within ∼10% of the expected noise. The first space-based companion detection of the tight binary star AB Dor AC through AMI was demonstrated. |
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ISSN: | 0004-6280 1538-3873 |
DOI: | 10.1088/1538-3873/acd41b |