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How will they feel when they find out that the telescope has already sustained "significant uncorrectable damage" from micrometeoroids? [1] Hopefully this was

How will they feel when they find out that the telescope has already sustained "significant uncorrectable damage" from micrometeoroids? [1] Hopefully this was a rare event that happened to occur right after it was opened up. But there's a decent chance that this is will be a common occurrence that will happen again in the near future and continue to degrade the accuracy of the images. 1: https://news.sky.com/story/meteoroid-hit-has-caused-significant-uncorrectable-damage-to-james-webb-space-telescope-12655489 https://news.sky.com/story/meteoroid-hit-has-caused-signific... EDIT: thanks for the links! This was shown to me on google news, and I clicked on the link for more headlines but none of them looked more authoritative (The Hill?). I sure wish they’d included the NASA link!

Sparkle-san 4y ago
While the damage to the mirror segment itself can't be corrected, the effect on the JWST as a whole is negligible and it is still operating within performance limits. Just telling someone that it received "significant uncorrectable damage from micrometeoroids?" seems intentionally worded to incite a negative response directed towards NASA.
mturmon 4y ago
It's hard to see through the fog of breathless reporting in that link. Here's one closer to the source: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/06/08/webb-engineered-to-endure-micrometeoroid-impacts/ https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/06/08/webb-engineered-to-en... It seems like they have 4 impacts that are consistent with expectations and one outside expectations. The first 4 can be be mostly corrected by fine-tuning the deformable optics.
AnonMO 4y ago
Its not rare per se NASA expects an impact about every month. this one was larger than their calculations, but that "significant uncorrectable damage" won't affect the pictures or the scientific work. also all damage to the telescope is uncorrectable due to the location of the telescope. If you read NASA report and not sky news which doesn't even link the report you would know. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2207/2207.05632.pdf https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2207/2207.05632.pdf

Sparkle-san 4y ago

While the damage to the mirror segment itself can't be corrected, the effect on the JWST as a whole is negligible and it is still operating within performance limits. Just telling someone that it received "significant uncorrectable damage from micrometeoroids?" seems intentionally worded to incite a negative response directed towards NASA.

mturmon 4y ago

It's hard to see through the fog of breathless reporting in that link. Here's one closer to the source: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/06/08/webb-engineered-to-endure-micrometeoroid-impacts/ https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/06/08/webb-engineered-to-en... It seems like they have 4 impacts that are consistent with expectations and one outside expectations. The first 4 can be be mostly corrected by fine-tuning the deformable optics.

AnonMO 4y ago

Its not rare per se NASA expects an impact about every month. this one was larger than their calculations, but that "significant uncorrectable damage" won't affect the pictures or the scientific work. also all damage to the telescope is uncorrectable due to the location of the telescope. If you read NASA report and not sky news which doesn't even link the report you would know. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2207/2207.05632.pdf https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2207/2207.05632.pdf