James Webb Telescope damaged in Space, suspending scientific activity using key instrument

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Science operations involving critical instruments have been halted due to damage to the James Webb Space Telescope in space.

The world's most powerful observatory has got a technical glitch, and the science using the MIR instrument has been paused.

The Webb Telescope, located 1,50,000 kilometers away from Earth, has stayed vulnerable to the harsh environment. The spacecraft has been observed with a Mid-Infrared Instrument(MIRI).

The mechanism that had developed an issue, which allowed scientists to select between short, medium, and longer wavelengths when making observations using MRS mode, is currently trying to analyse the behavior of the observatory development to resume MRS observations as soon as possible.

The European Space Agency said in a statement. "The observatory is in good health, and MIRI’s other three observing modes, imaging, low-resolution spectroscopy, and coronagraph, are operating normally and remain available for science observations."

Not the first glitch with JWST

This isn't the first time that a telescope has reported glitches and damage. The observatory, which cost about $10 million, sustained micrometeoroid impact during the final phases of commissioning ahead of beginning science operations. NASA informed us that between May 23 and 25, JWT sustained an impact on one of its primary mirror segments.

However, the spacecraft had been operating at peak efficiency, stunning everyone with its deep field view as it peered towards the edge of time. Webb's mirror was designed to survive bombardment by extremely fast-moving dust-sized space particles. In order to better understand how to prepare the observatory for operation in orbit, the mirrors have been developed using a combination of calculations and actual test impacts on mirror samples.