Space Rock Hits James Webb Space Telescope

KOMPAS.com – Telescope Outer Space James Webb (JWST) was hit by a rock outer space small size.

A micrometeorid struck one of the telescope’s main mirrors between May 23 and 25. The NASA team that operates the telescope does not expect any significant impact to affect the observatory data.

James Webb Space Telescope itself launched in late 2021 and reached its permanent orbit in January this year. Since then the engineering team has been preparing the telescope’s instruments for scientific observations.

The most vulnerable part of the observatory is its main mirror which consists of 18 smaller, gold-plated hexagonal mirrors.

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However, as quoted from New ScientistThursday (9/6/2022) The Solar System is full of micrometeorids, most of them the size of a grain of dust, so it was not unexpected that it would hit JWST.

Meanwhile, mirror James Webb Space Telescope it is designed to withstand minor impacts and was tested before the telescope was launched.

But apparently one of the micrometeorids that hit the telescope in May was larger than the NASA team had previously tested or simulated.

And since it wasn’t part of a meteor shower, no one expected it. If predictable, the telescope operator could rotate the telescope to avoid a direct impact.

“Since launch, we’ve been hit by smaller micrometeorid strikes. But what happened recently was bigger than we predicted,” said Lee Feinberg, of the James Webb space telescope team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Furthermore, scientists will use the flight data to update performance analyzes over time as well as develop operational approaches to ensure the team maximizes the imaging performance of the James Webb Space Telescope in the years to come.

While the effects of the impact of this micrometeorid collision are known to be not too significant. The observatory team found that the images taken by the telescope did not degrade too badly.

For now, the James Webb Space Telescope is still working on planned scientific observations, including observations of the early universe and the first galaxies.

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