James Webb Space Telescope: NASA’s new telescope gets hit by micrometeoroid in space- What was the impact?

James Webb Space Telescope live: James Webb Space Telescope, a new power space observatory of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), was hit by a micrometeoroid in space at the end of May 2022.

The latest collision of the James Webb Space Telescope has caused detectable damage to one of the aircraft’s primary mirror segments. Reportedly, even though the telescope has been performing at a level exceeding all the mission requirements, the team will have to correct the distortion and the disturbance created by the strike.

While commenting on the impact of the James Webb Space Telescope, the technical deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Paul Geithner said that it was always known that James Webb Space Telescope will have to weather the space environment including harsh ultraviolet light and charged particles from the sun.

In late May, Webb sustained a dust-sized micrometeroid impact to a primary mirror segment. Not to worry: Webb is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements. Our first images will #UnfoldTheUniverse on July 12: https://t.co/9jp0uq7ytS pic.twitter.com/VKkSp16yrg

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 8, 2022

James Webb Space Telescope: What do we know?

James Webb Space Telescope, the new next-generation telescope has been designed to look much further into the universe and see stars and galaxies that had been formed when the Big Bang occurred.

James Webb Space Telescope took two decades to build along with an investment of $10 billion. The telescope was successfully launched on Christmas two years ago and it stationed itself 1 million miles away from the Earth.

James Webb Space Telescope gets hit by micrometeoroid: Know the impact

James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s new powerful space observatory, got pelted by a larger than expected micrometeoroid at the end of May 2022.

The collision has caused some detectable damage to one of the 18 primary mirror segments of the spacecraft. The impact on James Webb Space Telescope meant that the mission team will have to correct for the distortion created by the strike, however, as per NASA, the telescope has been performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements.

James Webb Space Telescope: How the telescope has been prepared for such collisions?

As per NASA, James Webb Space Telescope is expected to get hit by the tiny space particles during its lifetime; fast-moving specks of space rock are just an inescapable feature of the deep space environment.

NASA has designed the James Webb Space Telescope’s gold-coated mirrors to withstand strikes by the tiny space debris over time. The US Space Agency also did a combination of simulations and ground testing with mirror samples for determining how to best strengthen the mirrors to withstand the micrometeoroid impacts.

However, as per NASA, the models they used for these simulations did not have a micrometeoroid this large and it was beyond what the team could have tested on the ground.

James Webb Space Telescope Images: First Images from NASA’s Webb Space Telescope to be Released Soon