James Webb Telescope relies on micrometeoroid effect

At Lagrange 2, somewhere 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) He was on the job of photographing the beginning of the universe between May 23-25. a micrometeoroid reached one of the primary mirror segmentsAccording to a NASA statement released Wednesday (8).

While damage to the $10 billion structure of equipment was detectable, the collision with the celestial body did not cause any change in JWST’s operating schedule, according to the space agency.

Meteoroids are small pieces of rocks or metal that orbit the sun but are too small to be called asteroids or comets. When they catch fire as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, their flash is called meteor. meteorites when they fall on the planet’s floor. Micrometeoroids are very small objects that can be the size of dust particles.

What happened to James Webb after the crash?

NASA teams, after making the initial assessments, determined that the space telescope remained operational. and exceeding all mission requirements, informs the aviation authority. Additionally, the JWST mirror is designed for the harsh weather conditions of the space environment such as ultraviolet light, charged particles from the Sun, cosmic rays and eventual micrometeoroid effects.

According to Paul Geithner, Deputy Technical Project Manager at Goddard Space Flight Center, “We designed and built Webb with a margin of optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical performance to ensure it can fulfill its ambitious science mission even after many years in space.”

Like this, the telescope itself can detect and adjust the positions of the mirrors, to partially correct the effects of the impact. Currently, Earth engineers have already made an initial adjustment for the C3 segment reached and will continue to process the automatic mirror adjustments correction.