3 ms·

L1-3 are saddle points, convergent on the tangent plane between the two stellar bodies and divergent on the normal axis.

• ianai 4y ago
  Seems like being divergent on any access would push matter away over time.
  • leephillips 4y ago
    It does, which is why, as a commenter above mentioned, the Telescope needs to burn fuel to remain in orbit around the Lagrange point.
  • samatman 4y ago
    Space outside of Lagrange points and gravity wells isn't attractive along any axis, the unstable Lagrange points have a plane which allows unstable orbits which have longer or shorter durations, depending on how exactly aligned with that plane the vector is. We should expect more junk, not necessarily a lot more, and this is of course simulated in the models used to design JWT... but not necessarily with perfect fidelity.