Wednesday, July 20, 2022 – 12:20 WIB
live techno – Since its launch on December 25, 2021, at least 19 space stones have been thrown at NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including a large boulder, causing damage to one of the 18 gold-plated mirrors Has happened.
In a new status report posted to the arXiv.org database, NASA researchers share the first images showing the extent of the damage. Viewed in the C3 mirror in the lower right corner, there is an impact mark in the form of a bright white indentation on the surface of the gold mirror.
The report said the impact caused irreparable damage to a small portion of the mirror. But this small dent does not hinder the telescope’s performance. In fact, JWST’s performance exceeded expectations.
Small rocks known as micro meteorites pose a threat to spacecraft in Earth orbit. The US Space Surveillance Network tracks more than 23,000 pieces of orbital debris larger than a sphere.
“Essentially every spacecraft will encounter micrometeoroids,” the new report says. So far, six micrometeoroids have left a noticeable distortion in the site-launched JWST mirror live scienceWednesday, July 20, 2022.
When building the JWST, engineers deliberately struck the mirror sample with a micrometer-sized object to test how the impact would affect the telescope’s performance.
The large size of the impactor makes the C3 mirror dent. The space rock appears to be larger than what the team tested and researchers are trying to assess the impact of the attack.
