The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), provided by the University of Arizona is an imager with a large field of view and high angular resolution (NASA).
NIRCam is the 0.6 to 5 micron imager for NASA’s successor to Hubble and Spitzer, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NIRCam passed its Critical Design Review in May, 2006, and now is in its construction phase. The JWST will detect the first light emitting galaxies and star clusters to form in the Universe after the Big Bang. The NIRCam design is optimized for finding these ‘First Light’ sources. The camera also includes features that will make it a wonderful tool for studying star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy and for discovering and characterizing planets around other stars (Univ. of Arizona).
