A mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope was struck by a micrometeoroid last month, but it is expected to continue operating normally, NASA said Thursday.
“Following initial assessments, the team found that despite a small detectable effect in the data, the telescope is still operating at levels that exceed all mission requirements,” the US space agency said.
“Webb’s early life performance is still far beyond expectations, and the observatory is fully capable of conducting the science for which it was designed,” it added.
One of the space observatory’s main mirror segments was struck between May 23 and 25 by a micrometeoroid, usually smaller than a grain of sand.
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 the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Webb’s mission involves studying distant planets known as exoplanets to determine their origin, evolution and habitability, and is expected to produce “spectacular color images” of the cosmos in mid-July.
The telescope has spent the last few months aligning its instruments in preparation for the big reveal.
NASA said micrometeoroid impacts are an “unavoidable aspect of operating a spacecraft” and “were anticipated in the construction and testing of the mirror.”
“This latest impact was larger than modeled and beyond what the team could have tested on site,” it said.
Lee Feinberg, element manager for Webb Optical Telescopes at NASA Goddard, said, “Because Webb’s mirrors were exposed to space, we anticipated that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would elegantly degrade telescope performance over time.
“Since launch, we’ve had four smaller measurable micrometeorite impacts that were in line with expectations,” Feinberg said.
NASA said to protect Webb, flight teams can avert optics from known meteor showers.
It said May’s micrometeoroid impact was not the result of a meteor shower, but an “unavoidable chance event.”
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