Revealing exoplanet formation with the James Webb Space Telescope Aperture Masking Instrument

The recently-launched James Webb Space Telescope is poised to revolutionise astrophysics. Its unprecedented sensitivity, infrared wavelength coverage, and resolution will enable near-infrared direct imaging of exoplanets and their birth environments. Crucial to this goal is an Australian-designed component, the Aperture Masking Instrument, which enhances both the resolution and precision of high angular resolution imaging. Using a century-old technique, an array of holes in a metal plate is all that is necessary to restructure the interference pattern of light to allow exquisite self-calibration of noise – and give us a glimpse of the dusty disks around stars and the nascent planets embedded in them.