Infrared detectors enable spectacular infrared astronomy

Abstract

Major advances in infrared astronomy have been enabled by new technologies‐from the first example of infrared astronomy using the vacuum thermocouple to the expansion of the field into the thermal infrared using the Ge:Ga bolometer. The introduction of high‐performance detector arrays had an even more profound influence through the James Webb Space Telescope: it is the rapid and exciting development of these arrays that built the case for this major investment in breakthrough astronomy. The arrays were developed in defense‐oriented aerospace firms, making the mechanisms for delivering them to astronomers eccentric. This article describes this formative era for infrared astronomy with arrays and how it led to the incredible devices now strutting their stuff on James Webb Space Telescope.