A micrometeoroid struck one of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments, causing a minor scratch, according to NASA.
Thankfully, the Webb telescope is a piece of solid space equipment and did not weep. NASA has reviewed the telescope, and while more research is being done, Webb's performance does not appear to have been adversely impacted by the hit.
A micrometeoroid is a space particle about the size of a grain of sand. CNN, citing NASA, said millions of meteoroids and micrometeoroids reach Earth's atmosphere regularly. However, the majority of them are incinerated as they hit the atmosphere.
A woman stands near a model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on April 2, 2015.
Micrometeoroid Hits NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
Last May, a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid pummeled NASA's new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. The small object damaged one of the spacecraft's 18 primary mirror segments.
The impact means the mission crew must compensate for the resulting distortion. However, NASA claims the telescope is still functioning above and beyond all mission objectives.
"After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data," NASA wrote.
Since its launch, NASA pointed out that JWST has been impacted by at least four separate micrometeoroids. Still, they were tiny and around the size NASA expected the telescope to encounter.
The one that impacted JWST in May, on the other hand, was larger than the agency had anticipated, but it did not identify its exact size.
Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, and we expect that impacts will continue to occur throughout Webb’s lifetime. Our team built and tested the mirror on the ground anticipating such events. More details: https://t.co/mw203VHmb8
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 8, 2022
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A report from The Verge mentioned that the incident, which happened between May 23 and May 25 created a "marginally noticeable change on the data." Engineers are still analyzing the impact's effects.
During JWST's lifespan, NASA expected it to be impacted by small space particles; fast-moving bits of space rock is an unavoidable element of the deep space environment.
The gold-coated mirrors of the telescope were actually built by NASA to survive small space debris hits over time. To decide how to effectively reinforce the mirrors to survive micrometeoroid hits, the space agency used a combination of modeling and ground testing using mirror samples.
However, NASA claims that the simulations they used did not include a micrometeoroid of this size, and that it was beyond the team's ability to test on the ground.
How Engineers Prepared The Telescope For Impact
CBS Local said engineers ensured that the telescope's massive mirror could withstand the micrometeoroid environment the spacecraft would encounter in its orbit about a million miles from Earth at a point known as L2, where dust particles are accelerated to extreme velocities when the telescope and its massive mirror were built and tested on Earth.
While on Earth, Webb was put through its paces, with the researchers using models and test hits on mirror samples to figure out what it would face.
While Webb was still on the ground, the May impact event was much greater than anything the crew had tested or could have predicted.
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