Washington - (AFP) - At the end of May, the James Webb Space Telescope was hit by a small meteorite, which caused minor damage to its main mirror, according to what the US space agency (NASA) announced, which confirmed that the accident would not affect the Earth. Continue the job.
Small meteors hitting vehicles will cause minor damage due to their speed, as do pebbles when they hit the windshield of the car.
Small meteorites are usually smaller than a grain of sand, and scientists expected that the telescope would be exposed to this danger and hedge against it.
In a blog post, NASA explained that the impact that occurred between May 23 and 25 this time appeared to be "larger than the model" expected.
But the agency reassured that "the telescope is still operating beyond all requirements for its mission, despite observing a margin impact on the data" collected.
The James Webb Telescope, an international project worth 10 billion dollars, was successfully launched at the end of last year, and is currently 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
"We expected that the impacts of small meteorites would degrade the telescope´s performance over time," Lee Feinberg of NASA´s Goddard Center said in a statement.
"Since launch, four small meteor impacts have been observed. They are smaller, measurable, and consistent with our expectations, and the last one is larger than our deterioration predictions."
"NASA" explained that the teams responsible for the telescope can redirect it in order to avoid the exposure of optical devices to possible meteor showers before they occur, but stressed that the collision that occurred at the end of May was "inevitable."
The first scientific and color images of the telescope, the most powerful telescope ever to be launched into orbit, are scheduled to be revealed on July 12.
These images, which are expected to be amazing, are awaited by researchers around the world and will demonstrate the enormous capabilities of the James Webb Telescope.
