SPACE
James Webb Space Telescope hit by large micrometeoroid
WORDS MEGHAN BARTELS
An artist’s concept of the JWST, which launched on 25 December 2021
NASA’s next-generation space observatory has sustained its first noticeable micrometeoroid impact less than six months after launch. The James Webb Space Telescope launched in December 2021. It has spent the intervening months trekking out to its deep-space post and preparing for science observations, a complicated process that has gone remarkably smoothly. The space agency recently announced that the observatory has experienced its first few impacts from tiny pieces of space debris called micrometeoroids. But don’t panic: neither the observatory’s schedule nor its scientific legacy is expected to suffer.