The imagers used by the $10 billion telescope are:

NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) an infrared imager from the edge of the visible through the near infrared

NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range.


MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) will measure the mid-to-long-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 27 micrometers.

FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph), is used to stabilise the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations.

The telescope is said to be able to see back to within 100-200 million years of Big Bang which is dated at 13.8 billion years ago.