Micromachines and the Cosmos
Understanding the formation of the universe requires scrutinizing very faint infrared signals that tend to be overwhelmed by nearer, brighter light sources. Now, engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have designed a light filter with 62,415 micrometer-scale shutters that allows scientists to select the objects they wish to study and block everything else. The shutters are made of silicon nitride, and any one or hundreds of them can be opened or closed by a magnet and electronics controlled by a computer system that encodes a digital map of the cosmos. The microshutter system will sit atop a camera, called the Near Infrared Spectrograph, as part of the James Webb Space Telescope destined for launch in 2013.

Keep Reading
Most Popular
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate
Make Sunsets is already attempting to earn revenue for geoengineering, a move likely to provoke widespread criticism.
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023
These exclusive satellite images show that Saudi Arabia’s sci-fi megacity is well underway
Weirdly, any recent work on The Line doesn’t show up on Google Maps. But we got the images anyway.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.