It’s Been Three Months in Deep Space, and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument is Still Cooling Down

Universe Today ^ | 4/8/2022 | Nancy Atkinson

[Paladin2]

Physics rulz.

It’s not just a law....

[Yossarian]

How this sensor must work I'll never know - and I've designed image sensors! (Parts of them, anyways.)

The data on each pixel must be read out, and then transmitted from (I'm presuming) a purely analog chip over to a digital chip for encoding and digital read-out. Perhaps there is some digital circuitry over on that analog imager chip, but most certainly there HAVE to be amplifiers of some type to drive the data off-chip.

And when you go to power up those amplifiers...
...you're going to have a drop across some sort of resistance, and that's power, and that will get radiated off as heat. Heat for both the imaging chip, and probably heat radiated to other parts of the instrument.

So how this thing is going to keep itself so incredibly cold? I have NO IDEA.

[algore]

I might have spec’d a Sterling engine with an RTG maybe?

[real saxophonist]

[Scarlett156]

Wow Cool. O.O *stares into space*

[Scarlett156]

That thing gave me nightmares for YEARS after I first saw it.

[Scarlett156]

Space is a lot hotter than it seems.

[Ken H]

“It’s Been Three Months in Deep Space, and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument is Still Cooling Down”

---

It must’ve really been sore.

[Ken H]

What movie is that from?

[telescope115]

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

[Ken H]

Thanks!

[fidelis]

Is it not from the Star Trek TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine”?

[Beowulf9]

What is it

[Pox]

This article is a bit behind the current status.

MIRI cooldown has passed the 15K “Pinch Point” in the cooldown process, and it is now down to 5.6K (~-450F), and if it stays there, it has successfully reached its operating temperature.

The temperature Plots button is a good visual tool:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

[Beowulf9]

Did the operating system make it too hot or did deep space? I thought deep space, or all space, was a constant temperature somewhere in the 70s.

[Paladin2]

It’s not just a good idea, it’s The Law.

[Pox]

This may be a useful article about keeping it cool:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/cryocooler.html

[Telepathic Intruder]

[WMarshal]

I thought it would have been this guy.