WASHINGTON: A James Webb space telescope mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid last month, but is expected to continue operating normally, NASA said Thursday.
“After initial assessments, the team found that the telescope was still operating at a level that exceeded all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect on the data,” the US space agency said.
“Webb’s early life performance is still far above expectations, and the observatory is fully capable of performing the science for which it was designed,” he added.
One of the primary mirror segments of the space observatory was hit by a micrometeoroid, which is usually smaller than a grain of sand, between May 23 and 25.
The telescope, which is expected to cost NASA nearly $ 10 billion, is among the most expensive science platforms ever built, comparable to its predecessor Hubble and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
Published in Dawn, June 10, 2022