The damage to NASA's flagship observatory was significantly greater than pre-launch expectations
The micrometeoroid that hit the James Webb Space Telescope in May caused significantly more damage than expected and will have a lasting impact on the telescope’s observations,on the spacecraft’s performance. By contrast, other micrometeoroid impacts during the spacecraft’s first six months of operation have had a negligible effect.
The performance of the main mirror is determined by how much it deforms incoming starlight and measured by a quantity called wavefront error rms . At the beginning the mission, the C3 segment had a wavefront error of 56 nanometers rms, a level similar to the main mirror’s other 17 segments. The impact increased C3’s wavefront error to 258 nm rms.
Nevertheless, the impact raises questions about the nature of the space environment where the JWST operates. This is a point in space about a million kilometers from Earth where the gravitational fields of the Sun, Moon and Earth are in balance and so provide a relatively stable location.
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