The first full-color images from the telescope will be released on July 12, 2022. Currently, the instrument is undergoing a six months of preparation before its primary data gathering can begin. The current period is a stressful one for those operating the Webb. 1st Webb science results to be released July 12 These steps will be repeated when needed in response to future events as part of the monitoring and maintenance of the telescope throughout the mission. NASA said:Įngineers have already performed a first such adjustment for the recently affected segment C3, and additional planned mirror adjustments will continue to fine tune this correction. They can do that, for example, by repositioning the mirror segment. Since the engineers anticipated damage of this type to Webb, ground-based controllers are able to somewhat compensate. We designed and built Webb with performance margin – optical, thermal, electrical, mechanical – to ensure it can perform its ambitious science mission even after many years in space. We always knew that Webb would have to weather the space environment, which includes harsh ultraviolet light and charged particles from the sun, cosmic rays from exotic sources in the galaxy, and occasional strikes by micrometeoroids within our solar system. The blog post from NASA quoted Paul Geithner, technical deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, as saying: NASA says Webb is built to take a lifetime of damage and remain operational. Indeed, it underwent complete testing to mimic the conditions it will experience beyond the orbit of Earth’s moon. Designed to be toughĮngineers designed the Webb telescope to be tough.
Webb’s operators believe the latest strike occurred between May 23 and May 25.
Finetune odds hitting earth update#
We will use this flight data to update our analysis of performance over time and also develop operational approaches to assure we maximize the imaging performance of Webb to the best extent possible for many years to come. Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations, and this one more recently that is larger than our degradation predictions assumed. With Webb’s mirrors exposed to space, we expected that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would gracefully degrade telescope performance over time.
The post quoted Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, as saying: The title of NASA’s June 8 blog post, announcing the micrometeoroid strike, is Webb: Engineered to Endure Micrometeoroid Impacts. And the telescope is orbiting far from Earth – a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth – at the L-2 point in the Earth-sun system. The damage doesn’t appear to be great enough for such a drastic step. Is there talk of replacing the mirror segment? No, and there likely won’t be. Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing. Meanwhile, NASA reported in a blog post:Īfter initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data. NASA said its engineers will need to adjust the instrument to compensate for the unexpected early damage. But the power of this particular strike – the 5th recorded since the instrument launched – was greater than its operators had anticipated. Webb’s operators had expected micrometeroids to strike. Webb in micrometeoroid strikeĪ micrometeoroid strike in late May 2022 scarred one of the primary mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope – Hubble’s successor – NASA said on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Image via Northrop Grumman/ Canadian Space Agency. That’s a relief, since a fix would be difficult the telescope orbits at the L-2 point, 4 times the moon’s distance from Earth. So far, it appears the telescope will still perform as anticipated. NASA said in June 2022 that a bigger-than-expected micrometeoroid strike has scarred a segment of the telescope’s primary mirror. Artist’s concept of the Webb space telescope.
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