Last week we saw the first pics from the James Webb Space Telescope. The stunning images of early galaxies were amazing, although as an instrument nerd I find myself paying more attention to the camera specs. It’s an impressive bit of kit: 6.5m mirror and IR camera operating under 50K, requiring a five-layer sun shield, which had to unfold in space after being launched, with no chance of fixing things if it went wrong. Got to respect the team doing the QA/QC.

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