MANDALIKA NEWS – According to the statement NASAone of the telescope’s massive mirrors hit by a micrometeorid was larger than expected and larger than engineers could test NASA on earth.
Although the assessment of the impact of the collision is still ongoing, but the JWST seems to be operating quite well.
“The collision that occurred between 23 and 25 May did have a slightly detectable effect in the data,” said NASA in its announcement, as quoted from IndependentTuesday (14/6/2022)
NASA added that the telescope was indeed designed to withstand such an impact, even if the piece of space rock was larger than expected.
During the development process, the researchers used a mixture of simulated and actual impacts on mirrors to see how the telescope would be able to withstand the impact of the space rock, at very fast speeds.
“We know that JWST has to deal with a space environment, which includes harsh ultraviolet light and charged particles from the Sun, cosmic rays in the galaxy, to the occasional micrometeoroid strike within our solar system,” said Paul Geithner, JWST deputy project manager at the Flight Center. Goddard Space NASA
However, considering the JWST is a mission of many years, experts have designed the JWST in such a way.
The telescope is reportedly capable of handling any collision by moving its mirrors to correct certain problems.
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