The artist’s concept for the Webb space telescope. It launched in December 2021. NASA said in June 2022 that a larger-than-expected micrometeorological impact had injured a segment of the telescope’s main mirror. For now, it looks like the telescope will continue to work as expected. This is a relief, as repair would be difficult; the telescope orbits at point L-2, 4 times the distance of the Moon from the Earth. Image by Northrop Grumman / Canadian Space Agency.
Web in micrometeoroid impact
A micrometeorological impact at the end of May 2022 marked one of the main mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble’s successor, NASA announced on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Web operators expected micrometers to strike. But the strength of this particular blow – the 5th registered since the launch of the instrument – was greater than its operators expected. NASA has said its engineers will need to adjust the instrument to compensate for unexpected early damage. Meanwhile, NASA announced in a blog post:
After initial assessments, the team found that the telescope was still operating at a level that exceeded all mission requirements, despite a slight effect in the data. In-depth analysis and measurements continue.
Is there talk of changing the mirror segment? No, and probably won’t. The damage does not seem to be large enough for such a drastic step. And the telescope is in orbit far from Earth – a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth – at point L-2 in the Earth-Sun system.
Micrometeorological impacts are expected
The title of the June 8 post on NASA’s blog announcing the impact of micrometeoroids is Webb: Designed for Micrometeorological Impact Resistance. The publication quotes Lee Feinberg, NASA’s Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager, as saying:
With Web mirrors exposed in space, we expected that accidental micrometeorological shocks would gracefully impair the telescope’s performance over time. Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeorological shocks that met expectations, and this one is recently larger than our degradation forecasts.
We will use this flight data to update our performance analysis over time and also to develop operational approaches to ensure that we maximize Webb image performance to the best of our ability for many years to come.
Webb operators believe the last strike took place between May 23 and May 25.
Designed to be solid
Engineers designed the Webb telescope to be robust. Indeed, it has undergone full testing to mimic the conditions it will experience outside the Earth’s orbit. NASA says Webb was created to sustain lifelong damage and remain operational. NASA’s blog post quotes Paul Geithner, technical deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, as saying:
We have always known that the Web will have to withstand a cosmic environment that includes harsh ultraviolet light and charged particles from the sun, cosmic rays from exotic sources in the galaxy, and accidental micrometeroid impacts in our solar system. We designed and built Webb with a margin of productivity – optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical – to ensure that it can fulfill its ambitious scientific mission even after many years in space.
Micrometeorological shock compensation
Because engineers have predicted damage from this type of Webb, ground controllers are able to compensate to some extent. They can do this, for example, by repositioning the mirror segment. NASA said:
Engineers have already made the first such adjustment for the recently affected C3 segment, and additional planned mirror adjustments will continue to adjust this adjustment. These steps will be repeated when necessary in response to future events as part of the telescope’s observation and maintenance during the mission.
The first scientific results of Webb will be published on July 12
This period is stressful for Webb workers. The tool is currently in preparation for six months before starting primary data collection. The first full-color images from the telescope will be released on July 12, 2022.
It is significant that this date should mark the beginning of a new era of understanding of the universe around us. Eric Smith, a Webb scientist at NASA’s Washington headquarters, said:
As we near the end of the Observatory’s preparations for science, we face an abyss of an incredibly exciting period of discovery for our universe. The release of the first full-color images on the Web will offer a unique moment for all of us to stop and marvel at a sight that humanity has never seen before.
These images will be the culmination of decades of devotion, talent and dreams – but they will also be the beginning.
Technicians are preparing the Webb telescope for launch in December 2021. Under the ring on the floor is the Ariane 5 rocket, which launched it into space for its journey to L2. This point in space – the second Lagrange point – is where in the Earth-Sun system the gravitational forces and the orbital motion of the body balance each other. Thus, an object can “hang” relatively easily in L2. But L2 is far away, almost 1 million miles (1.5 million km) behind the Earth, seen by the sun. This is about 4 times the distance to the moon. Image via ESA.
Bottom line: A micrometeoroid impact slightly damaged one of the segments of the Webb telescope’s main mirror. Fortunately, the tool still works outside the mission parameters. Its first full-color images will be released on July 12, 2022.
Dave Adalian
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The love affair of award-winning reporter and editor Dave Adalian with space began during a long summer study trip to the legendary and respectable Lik Observatory on top of Mount Hamilton in California, east of San Jose in the misty Diablos mountain range and far above Monterey Bay. of the infinite blue Pacific. This excursion continues today, while Dave is still chasing his nocturnal adventures, perched in the dark in front of the eyepiece of his telescope or chasing wandering stars through the night fields as an observer with the naked eye. A lifelong resident of Tulare County, California – an agricultural paradise where the Great Joaquin Valley meets the Sierra Nevada in endless miles of grassy foothills – Dave grew up in a desert larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, suffocated by the most a great variety of flora and fauna in the United States, which spends its nights under a dark dark sky, rising above some of the highest mountain peaks and largest off-road areas of the North American continent. Dave studied English and American literature and mass communications at Redwood College and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has worked as a reporter and editor for a number of online and offline news publications during a career spanning nearly 30 years. His most cherished literary hope is to share his passion for astronomy and everything cosmic with anyone who wants to get involved in adventure and explore the past, present and future of the universe.
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