Performance of NIRCam on JWST in Flight
Marcia Rieke, Douglas Kelly, K. A. Misselt, John Stansberry, Martha L. Boyer, Thomas G. Beatty, Eiichi Egami, Michael Florian, Thomas P. Greene, Kevin Hainline, Jarron Leisenring, Thomas L. Roellig, Everett Schlawin, Fengwu Sun, Lee Tinnin, Christina C. Williams, Christopher N. A. Willmer, Debra Wilson, Charles R. Clark, Scott Rohrbach, Brian Brooks, Alicia Canipe, Matteo Correnti, Audrey DiFelice, Mario Gennaro, J. H. Girard, G. Hartig, B. Hilbert, Anton M. Koekemoer, Nikolay Nikolov, Nor Pirzkal, A. Rest, Massimo Robberto, Ben Sunnquist, Randal Telfer, Chi Rai Wu, Malcolm Ferry, Dan Lewis, Stefi A. Baum, Charles Beichman, René Doyon, Alan Dressler, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Laura Ferrarese, K. W. Hodapp, Scott Horner, D. T. Jaffe, Doug Johnstone, John Krist, P. G. Martin, Donald W. McCarthy, Michael R. Meyer, G. H. Rieke, John T. Trauger, Erick T. Young
Abstract
Abstract The Near Infrared Camera for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is delivering the imagery that astronomers have hoped for ever since JWST was proposed back in the 1990s. In the Commissioning Period that extended from right after launch to early 2022 July, NIRCam has been subjected to a number of performance tests and operational checks. The camera is exceeding prelaunch expectations in virtually all areas, with very few surprises discovered in flight. NIRCam also delivered the imagery needed by the Wavefront Sensing Team for use in aligning the telescope mirror segments.