Behind the Webb: Cosmic Shutterbug (Episode 27)

This episode of “Behind the Webb” explores the multi-tasking capabilities of one of the cameras on the Webb Space Telescope, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph. Newly designed technology known as “microshutters” – tens of thousands of tiny shutters that open and close to allow only the light from targeted objects to enter the instrument — enables scientists to study the spectrum of more than one galaxy at a time. As many as 100 objects can be simultaneously observed.