Lifeboat Foundation

The James Webb Space Telescope dima_zel/ iStock

Between May 23 and 25, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was hit by a micrometeoroid that has impacted one of its primary mirror segments, NASA said in a recent update on its website. The telescope continues to function at levels exceeding mission requirements.

A meteoroid is a fragment of an asteroid and can be either large or small. A micrometeoroid, though, is a microscopic fragment of a meteoroid and is smaller than a grain of sand. NASA estimates that millions of meteoroids and micrometeoroids strike the Earth’s atmosphere every day but most burn up due to the friction.

#PlanetExplorers brings you epic stories of exploration and discovery around five bodies in our solar system, told by the scientists who love and study them.

This week, explore a mysterious burst of radio waves from space, meet a miraculous Galapagos tortoise, discover a fearsome dinosaur, learn what it takes to explore Venus, and more.

NASA’s Mars helicopter has run into a bit of trouble after 28 successful flights and well over an entire dusty Earth year into its mission on the Red Planet.

One of the four-pound rotorcraft’s navigation sensors has given out — an unfortunate new development, especially considering Martian winter is almost upon it. Extreme temperature swings could soon wreak havoc on the rest of the helicopter’s electronics.

But the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab says their plucky rotorcraft isn’t finished yet.

The probe will wait in space for a yet unknown, but very exciting, object to arrive.

Europe’s Comet Interceptor probe will lurk in space, waiting for a pristine interstellar comet to zoom by.

The agency will release a report on UAPs sometime next year after a nine-month investigation.

NASA will fund a “no more than $100,000 study” looking at what astrophysical data exists with unexplained origins led by astrophysicist David Spergel.