NASA's James Webb Space Telescope permanently damaged by asteroid: Report

Carina Nebula: NASA released first images from the world’s most powerful telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, on Tuesday (July 12, 2022). This image, called the Cosmic Cliffs, reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. What looks like a landscape of mountains and valleys is actually the edge of a young star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. The tallest ‘peaks’ in this image are about 7 light-years high, according to NASA. (Image: NASA)

Days after NASA's James Webb Space Telescope stunned the world with its photographs of the universe, scientists have announced that the device suffered permanent damage because of a series of asteroid attacks in May.

In a paper titled 'Characterization of JWST science performance from commissioning' scientists said that the telescope reported problems that “cannot be corrected”.  The telescope also suffered a “small effect throughout, which is not yet measurable”, they added.

On May 22, the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror was hit by six micrometeorites, the last of which caused significant damage. Initially it was not considered too big, but now the new paper by scientists suggests it could be more serious than thought.

The impact “exceeded prelaunch expectations of damage for a single micrometeoroid triggering further investigation and modeling,” the report further stated.

“At present, the largest source of uncertainty is long term effects of micrometeoroid impacts that slowly degrade the primary mirror,” the report stated.

Read more: Deepest image of the early universe captured by NASA's Webb telescope

In June, NASA stated that said the James Webb Space Telescope's mirror was “engineered to withstand bombardment from the micrometeoroid environment at its orbit around Sun-Earth L2 of dust-sized particles flying at extreme velocities”.

“While the telescope was being built, engineers used a mixture of simulations and actual test impacts on mirror samples to get a clearer idea of how to fortify the observatory for operation in orbit. This most recent impact was larger than was modeled, and beyond what the team could have tested on the ground,” it added.

Meanwhile, the paper added that the spacecraft was designed for a five-year mission. "The mirrors and sunshield are expected to slowly degrade from micrometeoroid impacts; the detectors are expected to experience cumulative slow damage from charged particles; the sunshield and multilayer insulation will degrade from space weathering," it stated.

Comprising one of the largest mirrors on a space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, and has been orbiting 1.6 million kilometres from Earth.

Read more: Loving my selfies with the James Webb Space Telescope, says Ganesha