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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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It's been more than a decade
since the Hubble Space

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Telescope gave us this
iconic image of a small slice

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of the universe.

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With a seemingly countless
number of galaxies

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and other celestial
objects to study,

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one of Webb's instruments,
NIRSpec, or Near-Inrared

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Spectrograph, is
uniquely designed

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to overcome this challenge.

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Joining us now is the James
Webb Space Telescope project

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scientist for the
European Space Agency,

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and he's here in Greenbelt,
Maryland at the NASA Goddard

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Space Flight Center.

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Thanks for joining us.

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First of all, what
exactly is a spectrograph?

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A spectrograph can take
light of one of its objects

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and divide it in its colors.

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An astronomer can study how much
light is present in each color.

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This is what we call
a spectrum, and this

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is why NIRSpec is
called a spectrograph.

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So, what do colors tell us?

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The colors tell us a lot
of things about the object.

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It can tell us
what it is made of,

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how it moves, how
far it is from us,

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all this type of information.

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So what makes
NIRSpec so special?

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I'm sure there are other
spectrographs up in space.

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NIRSpec was the first
multi-object spectrograph

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in space.

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It's able to obtain
spectra of multiple objects

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at the same time.

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How far along are you
in building NIRSpec?

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We are assembling it, and
this is done in Germany

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at Astrium, our main
contractor, and in fact, it

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would be a very good time to
go there to see it before we

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put the protective cover on it.

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Well, thanks a lot for your
time and telling us a little

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bit about the
science of NIRSpec.

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Thanks a lot.

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Hi, Ralf.

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Hi, Mary.

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Pierre just gave us a rundown
about the science of NIRSpec,

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and I was hoping you could
tell me more about NIRSpec,

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the instrument.

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Yes, for sure.

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The NIRSpec development
is, for the Astrium team,

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really fascinating stuff because
we have the unique opportunity

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to apply new
technologies in space.

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Is that instrument
back there NIRSpec?

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This is the first
model for NIRSpec,

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which we have
developed to learn all

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about the feasibility
of this technology,

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but it's not yet
the flight model.

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The flight model is over here,
and we can have a look on it.

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Sounds good.

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Mary, now here, you see
the flight instrument.

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The cover is not yet on.

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You can do a slight flight
through the instrument starting

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from the light, which comes
from an intermediate focus

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from the telescope.

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OK.

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Goes up there in a periscope,
like the submarines.

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Yeah, that's what
it reminds me of.

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Yeah.

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Then we are on the
other side of the plate,

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and then we have
another telescope.

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And this telescope
prepares the image

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for the entrance of
the spectrograph.

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Spectrograph is the area
where the light is split up

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in its colors.

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We should move around and
see it from the other side.

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So, now we are on the
spectrographic part

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of the instrument.

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The light is spread
up in these colors.

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These beams are then
focused on the detector

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with another telescope, which
is another three mirrors.

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And then we have the
colors on the detectors

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and can evaluate them further
downstream electronically.

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Well, thank you so much
for showing us or giving us

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a guided tour of NIRSpec.

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You're welcome.

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As you can see, NIRSpec gives
astronomers a powerful tool,

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a tool that will let astronomers
study as many as 100 objects

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at the same time.

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Thanks for joining us for this
edition of Behind the Webb.

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