getty NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been hit by a micrometeorologist, which has destroyed one of the 18 pieces of beryllium-gold that makes up the main 6.5-meter-long mirror. It happened between May 23 and 25, according to NASA, with the result being a “marginally detectable effect on the data”. Part C3 is believed to have been affected by small dust particles. It’s serious? Apparently not — despite the impact of the telescope being slightly out of alignment. Webb “recently had an impact on a major mirror portion,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator at NASA’s Office of Science Mission, said in a tweet. “After initial evaluations, the team found that the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.” He added that micrometeorological shocks are an inevitable aspect of space operation. The Webb – a $ 10 billion space telescope looking at the infrared spectrum – was launched on Christmas Day 2021 and has been orbiting L2 since February about one million miles / 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. The images of the “first light” will be published on July 12. It is expected to be a dazzling demonstration of what the world’s most advanced space observatory is capable of. Analysis and measurements are ongoing, NASA said, but it does not appear that these initial images — or the science program that follows — will be greatly affected. This is because the engineers were able to adjust his 18 mirrors to fix the damaged part. “We always knew that Webb would have to transcend the space environment, which includes hard ultraviolet light and charged particles from the Sun, cosmic rays from exotic sources in the galaxy, and occasional micrometeorological impacts into our solar system,” said Paul Geithner. . Technical Deputy Project Director at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We designed and built the Webb with a margin of performance — optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical — to ensure that it can accomplish its ambitious scientific mission even after many years in space.” This includes dust-sized particles that fly at extreme speeds, although this impact was larger than it was when Webb was built, NASA said. However, he added that Webb’s initial performance is still far above expectations. This is not the first time Webb has been hit. “Since the launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeorological impacts that were in line with expectations and the most recent one, which is larger than we expected in our downgrade predictions,” said Lee Feinberg, director of Webb optical telescope data at NASA Goddard. . “We will use this flight data to update our performance analysis over time and also develop business approaches to ensure we maximize Webb visualization performance for many years to come.” Although the recent collision is described as an “inevitable accident”, Webb engineers are able to maneuver it to protect the optics from known meteor showers. I wish you clear skies and open eyes.
