In June, we published here information about the impact micrometeorite in the mirror James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The collision, in May, was the third on record and the most severe, causing damage that minimally affected the quality of images captured by the camera. JWST. This week NASA published a graph showing the impact on one of the segments telescope. Verify.

Impact of a micrometeorite on JWST

Mirror segment reached micrometeorite (meteors are so small they are the size of a grain of sand) was C3 located in the lower corner James Webb telescope (see second image). O JWST was designed with these influences in mind, which will degrade image quality over the years. However, the third blow was stronger than expected by the time telescope is in orbit. In the image below, the lighter areas show the areas most affected by the impacts. Notice the white dot on the C3 mirror segment.

Although exposure constantly affects image quality, James Webb left “quality” for their records. Even with a reduction in quality, it will still provide the best astronomical images in human history. Proof of this are the first official images released NASA. O micrometeorite caused unexpected consequences in a few months of operation? Yeah. Is this cause for regret? Not at all. Now look at the image of all the mirrored segments and their respective “names”.

James Webb: years from production to release

project James Webb telescope was developed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with European and Canadian space agencies. It was originally supposed to be launched in 2007. But some problems delayed the launch of the model, one of them was the high cost of production of the James Webb telescope, which was increasing more and more and back in 2005 made Engineers rethink the original design.

In 2016, the telescope was declared ready, but its project was again put on hold due to construction difficulties and remained so until 2019, when it was finally assembled. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been more delays until NASA finally scheduled for release on December 18, 2021.

With it, researchers will be able to observe even more things from space, being able to see some of the oldest galaxies in the universe and other celestial bodies such as black holes. Its operation began on July 12, 2022.

Source: Cosmos

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