back

by privong·3y ago·view on hn ↗
> Not sure what you call near IR but JWST has a range from 600nm to 28micrometers. Typicaly people start talking about mid-air from 2 micrometers. So I would say JWST definitely covers beyond near IR.

JWST covers the mid-infrared too, as you implied. But @exabrial's point still stands, that SOFIA's coverage included much longer wavelengths than JWST does. SOFIA had instruments that could observe wavelengths as long as 1600 microns[0].

[0] https://www.sofia.usra.edu/about-sofia/sofia-overview

1 comments
Interesting 1600microns is mm waves, so that must be a different instrument? I don't think you could use the same "telescope* for imaging optical and what is essentially rf waves. Unfortunately the website doesn't give enough details without diving into the abbreviated instruments.