James Webb, the most powerful telescope launched into space, is expected to become fully active soon. The calibration studies of the space telescope, which was launched in December, have been going on for a while. An unexpected accident occurred on the James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to begin its first mission this summer.
One of the telescope’s mirrors is damaged
NASA’s most powerful eye, the James Webb Space Telescope, has been announced to have hit a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid at the end of May. The collision resulted in detectable damage to one of the space telescope’s 18 main mirror segments.
After this impact, this part of the telescope’s mirror will need to be repaired. Despite the damage, however, NASA declared that the telescope “still performs at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.”
Speaking about the collision, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Deputy Project Manager Paul Geithner made the following statements:
Webb’s harsh ultraviolet light from the sun and we always knew we would have to witness the space environment, including charged particles, cosmic rays from exotic sources in the galaxy, and the impacts of micrometeoroids in our solar system.
After launch, at least four different micrometeroids have hit the James Webb Space Telescope so far. However, it is stated that the impacting objects have been quite small so far. Micrometeroids, which are usually smaller than a grain of sand, were generally expected to not damage the telescope. It was stated that the piece that hit the telescope was slightly larger than expected and had a detectable effect on the data.
NASA’s James Webb is an incredibly powerful next-generation space telescope designed to peer into the farthest reaches of the universe, going back to the time of stars and galaxies formed just after the Big Bang. The telescope, which will cost around $10 billion to build and more than twenty years to complete, will soon be fully operational.
So what do you think about the incident? You can share your views with us in the comments section.
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