According to reports, Halley’s comet debris will be traversed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The chance of a micrometeoroid striking the $10 billion telescope is being reduced by experts. JWST had previously suffered damage from one of the micrometeoroids in May 2022.
Now, however, Halley’s comet cannot affect the space telescope because scientists are working to mitigate the problem.
The comet, which is 15 km long and 8 km wide, won’t likely pass through our solar system once more until 2061. JWST will be obsolete by that time. Even our most advanced space observatory is predicted to exist until 2040.
Comets are composed of ice and rocks. They melt as they get nearer to the sun, leaving streams of dust and debris in their wake.
Webb’s designers anticipate one meteoroid strike per month, but the likelihood of a hit increases significantly if the telescope travels through the debris stream.
For the JWST engineers, forecasts are being computed by NASA’s meteoroid environment office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, according to Nature.
In May 2023 and May 2024, Webb is predicted to pass through Halley’s comet stream.
