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It is known that the “James Webb Space Telescope”, which has not entered large-scale observation, has recently collided with a small micrometeorite.
A micrometeorite is a rocky mass smaller than a grain of sand about 1 mm in size that orbits the solar system. The collision with small meteors scattered throughout the solar system was expected, but this collision was analyzed to exceed the expected range.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and foreign media on the ninth day, the meteor collided with C3, one of 18 mirrors that make up the main mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope from the 23rd to the 25th of last month. The James Webb Space Telescope has hit a micrometeorite five times since its launch in December last year, and this telescope was the largest.
The operations team announced that the impact of the collision was reduced by adjusting the C3’s mirrors to compensate for the dent in the accident.
The James Webb Space Telescope is located at the second Lagrangian point (L2), where the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Sun are balanced. As L2 is about 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, it cannot be fixed by a space shuttle like the Hubble Space Telescope. L2 is also an environment in which dust-sized particles pass at very high speeds. The James Webb Space Telescope was built with that in mind, but it surprised scientists when it hit a larger-than-expected microtoroid.
NASA said it is conducting an analysis with a team of experts to find ways to reduce the impact of micrometeorite impacts in the future.
“Even after the telescope’s successful launch, deployment and mirror alignment, James Webb’s initial performance continues to exceed expectations and is designed to function flawlessly,” NASA said. He added that the launch is still running smoothly.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope in human history. In addition to NASA, countries around the world, including the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), have collaborated on this next-generation telescope, whose main task is to observe events that took place in the early days. Universe.
We are excited to see the surviving planets that the James Webb Space Telescope will find in the future.
Source = Bamboo Media
Rating = Reporter Hyungi Kim [email protected]
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