Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 159
This version created on 05 October 2006

Cool Stars, Star and Planet formation, and Disks studies with JWST
NIRCam


Scott Horner, Lockheed Martin
John Stauffer, Spitzer Science Center
Chas Beichman, California Institute of Technology
Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona
 the NIRCam Team

The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is one of the four science
instruments for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a 6.5 m
aperture space telescope scheduled for launch in 2013.  The NIRCam
science objectives are the observations of "first light" objects,
formation of stars and brown dwarfs, and planetary system formation,
detection, and characterization.  These three science programs are
also the key objectives of the JWST program as a whole.  NIRCam
provides diffraction-limited imaging over the 0.6 to 5 micron band.
It uses HgCdTe arrays with a total of 40  Mpixels to cover 2.2’x4.4’
arc minutes in two wavelengths simultaneously for efficient surveying.
These arrays have excellent performance at the projected ~37K
operating temperatures.  In 10,000  seconds, NIRCam should detect at
10-sigma a 10  nJy source (m_K = 27) at 2 micron and a 14 nJy source
at 3.6 micron.  A beamsplitter divides the input light at 2.4 microns
enabling the observation of two wavelengths at once.  NIRCam will also
have subarray modes - detector windows - that will allow exposures as
short at 3 ms.  It also includes a selection of coronagraphic
occulting masks and Lyot stops for observations of disks, planets, and
the galaxies around AGN.  The University of Arizona is leading the
NIRCam development effort, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center
is responsible for building NIRCam, and Rockwell Scientific Company is
providing the detector arrays.  Development of NIRCam is supported by
NASA contract NAS5-02105.

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