The Mid-Infrared Instrument (Miri) will gather key data as the $9bn
(£5.5bn) observatory seeks to identify the first starlight in the
Universe. The results of testing conducted at the Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory in the UK have just been signed off, clearing Miri to travel
to America. James Webb regarded as the successor to Hubble is due to
launch in 2018. It will carry a 6.5m primary mirror (more than double
the width of Hubble’s main mirror), and a shield the size of a tennis
court to guard its sensitive vision from the heat and strong light of
our Sun. The observatory has been tasked with tracking down the very
first luminous objects in the cosmos groupings of the first generation
of stars to burst into life. To do so, Webb will use its infrared
detectors to look deeper into space than Hubble, and further back in
time to a period more than 13 billion years ago.
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