The Webb Space Telescope didn’t send too many photos in December because it has been in safe mode on and off since December 7. Although science operations resumed on the 20th, NASA only recently reported the failure of the telescope.
The Webb Space Telescope is capable of imaging the universe at infrared and near-infrared wavelengths. Since his official scientific observation in July this year, he has taken countless beautiful photos, such as seeing more columns of dust and columns of newborn stars.
However, this telescope costing up to tens of billions of dollars also faces multiple software and hardware threats. For example, one of the primary mirrors was hit by a high-energy micrometeoroid. The search direction of the mirror front is away from the micrometeoroid avoidance area.
This month, Webb hits another snag. On Dec. 7, due to a software error triggered by the attitude control system that controls the observatory’s orientation, the Webb has been intermittently in safe mode for the past two weeks, unable to conduct science observations.
At the moment, the observatory and instruments are in good condition, and just yesterday an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 7469 was released. This galaxy is 220 million light years away from us. There are strong diffraction spikes spreading out from the center of the galaxy, much like a cosmic Christmas photo greeting card.
(Source of the first image:NASA）
