NASA's Actual Response To The Space Rock That Hit The Webb Telescope

A tiny rock particle hit the Webb telescope. The mission isn't nearly doomed. Misleading headlines may have suggested that the James Webb Space Telescope - the most powerful observatory ever built - has incurred some permanent costs damage.

That's The following excerpt comes from a 55-page report describing the instrument's excellent scientific performance over the past six months, as engineers prepared and tested its unprecedented cosmic-viewing capabilities.Webb's telescope is overall in excellent condition. There are a few things you should know about the observatory that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

The Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency concluded that Webb is 'fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was designed' even after a micrometeoroid (a small dust-sized rock particle) hit one of its 18 gold-coated hexagonal mirrors.

Webb must exceed expectations. JWST's science performance is almost universally better than expected, according to Webb's scientists.Why is Webb expected to exceed expectations? The mirrors on the instrument are cleaner than necessary to meet its lofty scientific objectives

As if that wasn't enough, Webb's scientists have found enough finite fuel aboard to power the mission for 20 years. Initially, NASA had hoped the instrument would last five years, and it was delighted to learn it would operate for more than a decade with sufficient propellant.

Overall, the telescope appears to be in great condition. During the six months scientists spent preparing the $10 billion telescope, they detected six impacts from micrometeoroids.They expected about one hit per month. Any spacecraft will encounter micrometeoroids, the report stated.

At over 21 feet across, the observatory's mirror, which collects faint light from extremely distant galaxies, is quite large. Therefore, most of the telescope isn't affected.'At the full telescope level, the effect was small because just a small portion of the telescope area was affected

'Webb's ability to sense and adjust mirror positions enables partial correction for the results of impacts,' NASA previously stated. Engineers can cancel out some distortion by adjusting the position of the affected segment.'It will take time to determine whether this impact was rare or if it was more common than Webb scientists estimated.

'There is no indication yet whether the May 2022 hit to segment C3 was an unlucky early strike by a high-kinetic energy micrometeoroid, or whether the telescope may be more susceptible to damage by micrometeoroids than pre-launch models predicted,' the report stated.

In the event the telescope is at a higher risk for damage, NASA and its Webb partners may consider minimizing how much time the telescope peers in directions where more micrometeoroids are flying through space, or pointing it away during certain meteor showers.