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“I couldn’t believe we saw everything so clearly and how clear the images were“said Stefanie Milam, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.”It is really exciting to think about the opportunity we have to observe these kinds of objects in our solar system“These images, in fact, represent the demonstration that the Jwst can observe also satellites and rings near bright objects in the solar system like Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. In this regard, during scientific operations, scientists will use Webb for investigate the nature of the plumes of material emerging from satellites such as Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. “I think that’s just one of the coolest things we’ll be able to do with this telescope in the solar system“said Milam.
Speed test
In addition to testing the ability to detect nearby planets and satellites, the scientists subjected Jwst to a real one speed test, to understand how he got along with the moving targets: Webb, in fact, has monitored 6481 Tenzing, an asteroid located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which in the images appears as a point. Also in this case, the test was a successAlthough designed to track objects moving at the speed of Mars, Jwst was able to detect objects moving at twice this speed. “Everything worked perfectly“, Milam commented.
Protected from collisions
The preliminary period at the beginning of the actual scientific operations has not only served to understand what the JWST can do, but also to avoid future problems, such as collision with space rock particles that could cause damage to mirrors and, consequently, to observations. As stated in the report of the commissioning of the Jwst (and as we told you here), in fact, a few months ago a micrometeoroid larger than expected hit one of the main segments of the telescope mirror, causing a significant and uncorrectable change in that segment, according to the report.
Despite this, the effect on the images in general was negligible because the affected telescope area was small. In short, in this case, the damage resulting from that impact has been mitigated. The Webb team, however, is trying to figure out how avoid such inconveniences: according to scientists, one choice could be that of avoid pointing the telescope in the direction it is traveling, in order to avoid frontal collisions. This, according to experts, shouldn’t affect Webb’s hitherto incredible observations.
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