The James Webb Space Telescope was hit in late May by a small meteorite, which partially damaged its main glass, but fortunately it did not affect the continuation of the mission, NASA confirmed.
Like gravel hitting the windshield of a car, micrometeorite can slightly damage the spacecraft because of their speed.
Micrometeorites are usually smaller than a grain of sand, and scientists know the telescope will be exposed to this danger and have prepared for it.
But the impact, which occurred between May 23 and 25, was revealed this time larger than that modeledsaid NASA in a blog post.
however, the telescope still operates at a level that exceeds all the necessary requirements for its mission, despite the visible impact on the data margin collected, the American space agency assured.
The telescope, which was successfully launched at Christmas, cost approximately $ 10 billion and is now 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. His observations are awaited by scientists around the world.
We expect that micrometeor effects will decrease telescope performance over timesaid Lee Feinberg of NASA’s Goddard Center in a statement. Since liftoff, we’ve had four smaller, measurable micrometeor effects that matched our expectations, and this one recently, was larger than our deterioration predictions.
Scientists will now work on better predictions of the future.
The teams responsible for the telescope could re-orient it to prevent possible meteor shower on the optical instruments before it happens, but the impact that occurred at the end of May was unavoidableaccording to NASA.
In the event of an impact, the main mirror consists of 18 segments, the position of each of them can be slightly rearranged independently, to limit the distortion caused. But not all adverse effects can be completely resolved this way.
The first scientific and colored images of the telescope, the most powerful launched into orbit, are due to reveal on July 12, and promise to be spectacular.
James Webb had to make it possible in particular to observe the first galaxies, formed only a few hundred million years after the big bang, and exoplanets.
The mission of the telescope must last at least 5 years.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
