cosmic rays hit james webb space telescope (JWST) said it messed up one of its instruments. NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Canada’s contribution to the JWST, Near-infrared imager and slitless spectrometer (NIRISS) experienced a mysterious anomaly on January 15th. suffered from communication delays Inside the vessel. This caused NIRISS’ flight software to time out. After a thorough review, reboot, and test observations, both space agency teams are breathing a sigh of relief.
NIRISS is a quarter of JWST’s scientific power. The device absorbs light above the visible red of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sometimes it takes pictures. It also collects data that tells scientists the composition of the far-flung dusts and gases of the universe.Last year, NIRISS study the atmosphere A potentially habitable alien world.
For NIRISS and the three other instruments on board JWST to operate in their prime, NASA, CSA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) will fly the telescopes to a frigid location about a million miles from Earth. selected. Here, JWST is able to sense the most subtle cues from incredible distances, even without the spacecraft’s distracting terrestrial thermal radiation.
But this perch is also vulnerable to cosmic rays. According to NASA, these high-energy slingshots are occupational hazards. blog post Tuesday provided the latest NIRISS update. According to the blog, “Encountering cosmic rays is normal and to be expected in operating a spacecraft.
“After a thorough investigation by a team from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), it was determined that the likely cause was galactic cosmic rays, which could disrupt the electrical system of the solar system. It’s a kind of high-energy radiation from outside,” they added. .
JWST engineers decided to reboot the equipment after determining that it was the most plausible way to bring NIRISS back online. This seems to have fixed the communication delay. However, they did a check to confirm and got a positive result on Monday.
“After the reboot was complete, the NIRISS telemetry data showed normal timing, and to fully confirm, the team scheduled a test observation. Submitted and results confirmed on January 30th. [that] NIRISS is back to full scientific operation,” the blog said.
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