Celestial James Webb was damaged by a micrometeorite impact

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
Posted for fair use.....

James Webb was damaged by a micrometeorite impact
By Kajal Gupta - June 12, 2022

It is the nightmare of all astronauts and astronomers. Take damage from a micrometeorite impact. Invisible both to the naked eye for ISS astronauts during extravehicular outings and for the radars of the largest laboratories in the world, micrometeorites are a real plague in the world of space observation!

So when you launch a $20 billion space telescope 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, your worst nightmare is that it be damaged by a tiny meteorite, as big as a grain of sand. And that’s exactly what just happened to the James Webb Space Telescope.

A mission that went perfectly
Launched on December 25, this engineering gem had required more than 20 years of work from NASA and as many billions of dollars of investment. A true titan of the air, he took off from Kourou in French Guiana, before heading to point L2. A place in the solar system where the laws of gravity balance, and which allows it to stay in place, rotating around the Sun at the speed of the Earth.

While everything was going for the best for the space telescope. The latter having successfully deployed all of its devices. A micrometeorite whose size is yet to be confirmed (we are talking here about an object smaller than a fingernail) hit the golden mirror of the telescope, partially damaging it.


According to NASA, there is no reason to worry. Indeed, the telescope is still operational “at a level that exceeds all requirements”, assures the American space agency. According to the first reports of this incident which occurred at the end of May, the telescope was hit by an object of a “larger than expected” size, which caused a distortion on the one of the 18 golden panels that make up the telescope’s main mirror.

NASA assures that everything is fine
This small incident should be quickly corrected by NASA, which will have to review how to analyze the data received, taking into account this accident on one of the 18 panels.

While impacts with micrometeorites were unavoidable for NASA and the JWST, Paul Geithner, NASA project manager, did not expect a micrometeorite of this size to hit the telescope, especially not before that the latter takes the first “real” photo in its history.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvauOoJmD
 

jward

passin' thru
Uh-oh did you forget something??
..disappointing. Am actually looking fwd.



drifted another of your threads w/ JWst info- will I get sent to my special house if I drift this one too?
:rdog:


NASA assures that everything is fine
This small incident should be quickly corrected by NASA, which will have to review how to analyze the data received, taking into account this accident on one of the 18 panels.

While impacts with micrometeorites were unavoidable for NASA and the JWST, Paul Geithner, NASA project manager, did not expect a micrometeorite of this size to hit the telescope, especially not before that the latter takes the first “real” photo in its history.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvauOoJmD
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
So technically, isn't it a micrometeoroid impact? I was under the impression they don't become -ites until they hit the ground. In this case the impact was out around the Moon's orbit and presumably the little bugger never made it to Earth proper.
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The first #JWST image will be released TOMORROW!

If you get a chance, please do post that first image! I know they've had some preliminary pictures as they've been fine tuning the many mirrors, but the first "official" picture should be something worth seeing.
 

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
All that time, all that money, for the screen to crack.

You'd think (again my mistake) that if the Atlanta Aquarium can house Whale Sharks, you'd be able to make a phone, or in this case, a SPACE telescope, that wouldn't crack.

I'm just saying....
 

jward

passin' thru
I intend to post the pictures, and other info as they come available. We have some background info on another thread too- should probably pick one and keep all the details together.

"if" the screen stays functional long enough, should prove o' interest to some of us.

 

Telescope Steve

Veteran Member
Small particles have tremendous power if they are going fast, and these are going really fast.

It would not hurt much if I threw a bullet at you. But increase the speed by shooting it out of a gun and it can kill you. Most of these micro-meteors are going much faster than a bullet, so they can cause a lot of damage even if they are small.
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Understand that the James Webb telescope is not a single mirror. There are 18 mirrors and all that information is combined using software, sort of like how some of the radio telescopes use widely separated dishes (although of course the JWST mirrors are quite close to each other) to create a "bigger" radio telescope. So losing one mirror is probably more a matter of adjusting the software as anything else.
 

jward

passin' thru
True, but on the other hand, a larger than expected hit one of the first days out to one "of only" 18 mirrors is a wee bit disconcerting :(

Understand that the James Webb telescope is not a single mirror. There are 18 mirrors and all that information is combined using software, sort of like how some of the radio telescopes use widely separated dishes (although of course the JWST mirrors are quite close to each other) to create a "bigger" radio telescope. So losing one mirror is probably more a matter of adjusting the software as anything else.
 

jward

passin' thru
TalkRadio 77 WABC
@77WABCradio

49s

@NASA
and the
@WhiteHouse
have just revealed the first images from the Webb Space Telescope (
@NASAWebb
). The picture shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. More images will be released on July 12th at 10:30AM EST.
Jul 11, 2022



NASA’s Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet

distant galaxies appear as bright glowing spots in this Webb telescope image, with some smeared by gravitational lensing; foreground stars appear bright with six-pointed diffraction spikes, owing to the shape of Webb's mirrors

Back to Gallery

  • President Joe Biden unveiled this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, during a White House event Monday, July 11
  • Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe
  • Webb’s sharp near-infrared view brought out faint structures in extremely distant galaxies, offering the most detailed view of the early universe to date
  • NASA and its partners will release the full series of Webb’s first full-color images and data, known as spectra, Tuesday, July 12, during a live NASA TV broadcast
En español
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast. Learn more about how to watch.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; and others.
NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
Download full-resolution, uncompressed versions at
https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images.

Last Updated: Jul 11, 2022

Editor: Rob Garner



Tags: Galaxies, Goddard Space Flight Center, James Webb Space Telescope, Universe
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
True, but on the other hand, a larger than expected hit one of the first days out to one "of only" 18 mirrors is a wee bit disconcerting :(

Considering the odds of a repeat, wrapping yourself around the JWST just might be one of the safest places to be for years to come (at least from hits by more meteoroids). As far as I know there's not a whole lot of junk in the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points, so the meteoroids probably would have to come from "outside" those points. Or not.

Thanks for the image! One of these days there's going to be an image of a giant eye looking back at us ...

Edited to add: I thought the JWST was orbiting the L4 point but it's orbiting the L2 point instead. Big difference, but it's still way the hell out there (beyond the Moon's orbit, in fact) and there will be no manned missions to fix it if anything goes wrong.
 
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jward

passin' thru

jward

passin' thru
O I understand your statistics, but but but once an unlikely event occurs ONCE I can't retrain my mind to discount it occuring again.

..besides, it just mighta been aliens shootin' at the intrusion into their hoods, so :: shrug ::
And you're welcome for the posts; I only regret I've piggy backed upon House's threads instead of giving all o' JWST posts their own thread



Considering the odds of a repeat, wrapping yourself around the JWST just might be one of the safest places to be for years to come (at least from hits by more meteoroids). As far as I know there's not a whole lot of junk in the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points, so the meteoroids probably would have to come from "outside" those points. Or not.

Thanks for the image! One of these days there's going to be an image of a giant eye looking back at us ...

Edited to add: I thought the JWST was orbiting the L4 point but it's orbiting the L2 point instead. Big difference, but it's still way the hell out there (beyond the Moon's orbit, in fact) and there will be no manned missions to fix it if anything goes wrong.
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
For what it's worth there's a Wikipedia page of various Lagrangian systems in the Solar System and the spacecraft that have either flown through them or orbited/-ing them. Known Lagrangian systems have come a long way since the 1980s! It's odd that there's no Sun-Saturn system, but there is a science paper out there that reviews why (I found it on search but haven't had a chance to read it).

 
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