Submission + - Micrometeoroid noticeably damaged one of Webb scope's mirror segments (space.com) 2
Tablizer writes: A micrometeoroid struck the James Webb Space Telescope between May 22 and 24, impacting one of the observatory's 18 hexagonal golden mirrors. NASA had disclosed the micrometeoroid strike in June and noted that the debris was more sizeable than pre-launch modeling had accounted for. Now, scientists on the mission have shared an image that drives home the severity of the blow in a report(opens in new tab) released July 12 describing what scientists on the mission learned about using the observatory during its first six months in space.
Happily, in this case the overall effect on Webb was small...
[The] first six strikes met pre-launch expectations of rate as they came in at a rate of once per month, the report stated. Moreover, some of the resulting deformations are correctable through mirror realignments. But it's the magnitude of one of these six strikes that caused more concern, the paper noted, as it caused a significant blemish to a segment known as C3. The strike in late May "caused significant uncorrectable change in the overall figure of that segment," the report stated.
In this case, however, the overall impact to the mission is small "because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected." Seventeen [of 18] mirror segments remain unblemished and engineers were able to realign Webb's segments to account for most of the damage.
Happily, in this case the overall effect on Webb was small...
[The] first six strikes met pre-launch expectations of rate as they came in at a rate of once per month, the report stated. Moreover, some of the resulting deformations are correctable through mirror realignments. But it's the magnitude of one of these six strikes that caused more concern, the paper noted, as it caused a significant blemish to a segment known as C3. The strike in late May "caused significant uncorrectable change in the overall figure of that segment," the report stated.
In this case, however, the overall impact to the mission is small "because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected." Seventeen [of 18] mirror segments remain unblemished and engineers were able to realign Webb's segments to account for most of the damage.
Eh, I'm sure it will be fine (Score:2)