2023/09/01 by René Doyon, Chris J. Willott, J. B. Hutchings +78 · 82 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Bolometer #Broadband #Coronagraph #Detector #Exoplanet #Interferometry #James Webb Space Telescope #Optics #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Planet #Remote sensing #Spectral line #Spectrograph #Spectroscopy #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Telescope
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/acd41b
published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 135(1051), 098001 (Institute of Physics)
openalex publication_date 2023/09/01 · openalex created_date 2023/09/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.