Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope damaged after being smashed by space rock, images show

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Damage to the James Webb Telescope’s primary mirror from a micrometeorite strike in May is worse than first thought, according to new images revealed in a new report. A paper published Tuesday on the academic preprint server arxiv.org detailing Webb’s performance during the commissioning of the telescope revealed that most of the micrometeorite strikes on Webb’s big mirror resulted in negligible damage, but a strike that occured in mid-May even left the telescope with permanent damage. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which encloses the primary mirror the telescope uses to collect light and focus light on scientific instruments in a cylindrical housing, Webb’s 6.5-metre diameter segmented mirror is exposed to space. “It is not yet clear whether the May 2022 hit to segment C3 was a rare event,” the report read, “or whether the telescope may be more susceptible to damage by micrometeoroids than pre-launch modeling predicted.” The report goes on to note the Webb project team is considering actions to mitigate future micrometeorite strikes, such as limiting how long the telescope can be pointed in directions known to expose the mirror to a higher probability of micrometeorite strikes.