A tiny meteoroid struck the newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope in May, knocking one of its gold-plated mirrors out of alignment but not changing the orbiting observatory's schedule to become fully operational shortly, NASA said on Wednesday.
The little space rock hit the $10 billion telescope sometime in late May and left a small but noticeable effect in the telescope's data, NASA said in a statement, adding that it was the fifth and largest hit to the telescope since its December launch.
Webb parked itself in a solar orbit roughly a million miles from Earth in January and is expected to yield its first full-color images of the cosmos in July.Webb's mirror was engineered to withstand bombardment with dust-sized particles flying at extreme velocities in space, but the most recent impact was "larger than was modeled and beyond what the team could have tested on the ground," NASA said.
Engineers designed the telescope to withstand occasional impacts from micrometeoroids - tiny space rocks traveling at ultra fast speeds during predicted meteor showers near Webb's location in space.
Brasil Últimas Notícias, Brasil Manchetes
Similar News:Você também pode ler notícias semelhantes a esta que coletamos de outras fontes de notícias.
James Webb Space Telescope struck by micrometeoroid | Digital TrendsNASA’s JamesWebbSpaceTelescope recently suffered a micrometeoroid strike by a particle larger than any that the team had modeled for.
Consulte Mais informação »
James Webb Space Telescope suffers 1st noticeable micrometeoroid impact just months into flightNASA says we can still expect pristine images on July 12.
Consulte Mais informação »
Hubble Finds a Bunch of Galaxies That Webb Should Check outA new Hubble survey of galaxies is the largest yet. It'll provide a huge list of targets for further observations by the James Webb.
Consulte Mais informação »
Think you can cheat water restrictions? This tiny disk will tame the thirstiest water hogsIt’s only the size of a silver dollar, but this tiny metal disk can tame even the biggest water hogs. A water district has unveiled a custom-built device that will drastically reduce water flow to customers who refuse to abide by new water restrictions.
Consulte Mais informação »