Back in May, the James Webb Space Telescope had been pelted by a micrometeoroid, causing minor damage to one of its mirrors.

Now, a new 55-page report shows that the telescope suffered ‘significant uncorrectable change’ from the hit.

The damage hasn’t stopped the telescope, which has been beaming stunning images from the depths of the universe.

Between May 23 and 25, the £8.3 billion space telescope sustained an impact to one of its 18 primary mirror segments, said Nasa in a statement.

The space agency recorded six ‘surface deformations’ on the telescope’s primary mirror caused by the micrometeoroids. Of the six strikes, five had ‘negligible effects’, according to the report.

‘These occurred at a rate (roughly one per month) consistent with pre-launch expectations. Each micrometeoroid caused degradation in the wavefront of the impacted mirror segment,’

The report covered the James Webb’s overall performance since it reached its final destination in space.

The researchers expect the damages to cause a small effect on the telescope throughput, which is not yet measurable.

The biggest concern seems to be the micrometeoroid which struck the telescope in May, causing ‘significant uncorrectable change’ in the overall figure of a particular segment of the telescope.

‘However, the effect was small at the full telescope level because only a small portion of the telescope area was affected,’ said Nasa.

After initial assessments, the team found the telescope was still performing well with only a ‘marginally detectable effect in the data’.

The damage only affects one of the telescope’s 18 gold-coated hexagonal mirrors. Nasa has assured us that the telescope is still fully capable of achieving its goals.

‘Inevitably, any spacecraft will encounter micrometeoroids,’ said Nasa.

‘Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft, which routinely sustain many impacts over the course of long and productive science missions in space,’

Similar impacts are expected to occur throughout the entirety of Webb’s lifetime in space and engineers have built the telescope with these factors in mind.

Source: Read Full Article