Assignment 2 - Summary draft 1

 The article “Why stars look spiky in images from the James Webb Space Telescope” by Griggs (2022) discussed the causes of distortion in the images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope. These distortions are determined by the telescope being used, and its design and hardware. The JWST is a reflecting telescope that uses light from the universe to form images using mirrors and imaging instruments. The shape of the mirrors affects how lights can diffract around the mirror’s edge. The JWST consists of primary and secondary mirrors, where the primary hexagonal mirrors contribute to the six diffraction spikes in the produced image, and the secondary mirrors are held by three struts that are 25 feet away from the primary mirrors. These struts also contribute to the distortion due to how light diffracts off the struts. There are mainly two instruments that produce images from the telescope. The NIRCam uses near infrared lights to capture the image while MIRI uses mid infrared lights. In near-infrared light, the diffraction spikes are prominent as lights at these wavelengths are bright, which enables the stars in images to be more distinct. Images produced by mid infrared lights have lesser distortion, which produces images that are less clear. 



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