James Webb Space telescope is facing technical issues

MRS observations by the $10 billion instrument have been paused

Uranus is surrounded by 13 rings and 27 small moons as it rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. Photo: Nasa

Complex organic molecules similar to smoke or smog in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years from Earth. Photo: Nasa

A delicate image of dust structures and bright star clusters taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Photo: Nasa

Saturn has seven rings with several gaps and divisions between them, as well as 53 known moons. Photo: Nasa

Star cluster NGC 346, spiral galaxies NGC 1672 and Messier 74, and the Pillars of Creation, towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas at the heart of the Eagle Nebula. Photo: Nasa

An infrared image of Neptune, the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. Photo: Nasa

Every eight years, the two stars in this image are brought together by their orbits – creating colliding streams of gas that, under the right conditions, form a new ring of dust. Photo: Nasa

A part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. Photo: Nasa

A crowded field of galaxies, along with stars crowned with the James Webb Space Telescope's signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. Photo: Nasa

The NGC 3256 spiral galaxy was formed after a collision of two massive galaxies about 500 million years ago. Photo: Nasa

The Wolf-Rayet 124 star, featured in an image combining near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light. Photo: Nasa

An hourglass-shaped cloud of dust and gas is illuminated by light from a protostar. Photo: Nasa

Two views of the Southern Ring Nebula, which show the planetary nebula as a misshapen oval. Photo: Nasa

A composite image of the Cartwheel Galaxy captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in August 2022. AFP

A cluster of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, near the Milky Way. Photo: JWST

A colour composite image of the Messier 74 galaxy. Photo: JWST

The gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647 bends and magnifies light from the more distant MACS0647-JD. Photo: Nasa

The 'Pillars of Creation' — clouds of hydrogen gas and dust 6,500 light years from Earth — captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, left, and James Webb Space Telescope. AP

Dust rings resembling a fingerprint created by a rare type of star and its companion. PA

Images of the asteroid Dimorphos hours after Nasa crashed a spacecraft into it in September 2022. EPA

Neptune and seven of its 14 known moons. AFP

Thousands of young stars in a stellar nursery called the Tarantula Nebula. Photo: Nasa

A image of an exoplanet — a gas giant with no rocky surface. Photo: Nasa, ESA and CSA

Glass-z13, the oldest galaxy to be detected, was formed about 300 million years after the Big Bang. Photo: JWST

Jupiter and its moon Europa. Photo: Nasa

Jupiter and its moons Europa, Thebe and Metis. Photo: Nasa

Another image of Jupiter and some of its 79 moons. Photo: Nasa

An image of galaxy cluster Smacs 0723 taken by the James Webb telescope. Photo: Nasa

Stephan’s Quintet is an area in space that has five galaxies. Photo: JWST

The 'Cosmic Cliffs' of the Carina Nebula. Photo: JWST

An anniversary image shows the birth of a star in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. Photo: Nasa

A problem with one of the instruments on Nasa’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has caused the space agency to pause one of its means of making observations.

Nasa announced on Wednesday that a mechanism on the observatory’s mid-infrared instrument, or MIRI, was experiencing technical issues.

Scientists use four modes on this mechanism to see further into space, but one that supports medium-resolution spectroscopy, or MRS, is facing issues.

The space agency said that there was increased friction in the mode during set-up for a science observation.

“Following preliminary health checks and investigations into the issue, an anomaly review board was convened on September 6 to assess the best path forward,” it said.

“The Webb team has paused in scheduling observations using this particular observing mode while they continue to analyse its behaviour and are currently developing strategies to resume MRS observations as soon as possible.”

The space agency said that the telescope was in “good health” and that MIRI’s other three observing modes — imaging, low-resolution spectroscopy and coronagraphy — were operating normally.

Observations by the MRS allows scientists to select between short, medium and longer wavelengths.

This is a crucial element in the telescope, which has enabled scientists to make discoveries and deliver stunning pictures of the universe.

The world’s most powerful observatory was launched into space on Christmas Day, 2021, to look back at the galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang, almost 13.8 billion years ago.

It was developed along with the European and Canadian space agencies.