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Brilliant tech inside James Webb Space Telescope

When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launches in December it will be carrying some remarkable British technologies. Prof Gillian Wright is the director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh and the European principal investigator on JWST's MIRI instrument. She showed our science correspondent Jonathan Amos a spare "slicing mirror" from MIRI. The exquisitely engineered mirror enables an image to be obtained of an object in space at the same time as acquiring its spectra. The latter will reveal details of the physical properties of that object. If it's a star, this could be its composition or perhaps its temperature.

Read more: 'Perfect' James Webb telescope on track for launch

Read more: Hubble successor faces 'two weeks of terror'

11 November 2021

British space programme

European Space Agency

James Webb Space Telescope

Hubble Telescope

Space exploration

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Science & Environment

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Science & Environment

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Science & Environment