> When Webb's mission began, the affected C3 segment had a wavefront error of 56 nanometers rms (root mean square), which was in line with the 17 other mirror portions.
> Post-impact, however, the error increased to 258 nm rms, but realignments to the mirror segments as a whole reduced the overall impact to just 59 nm rms. For the time being, the team wrote Webb's alignment is well within performance limits, as the realigned mirror segments are "about 5-10 nm rms above the previous best wavefront error rms values."
> There is no debating that that big strike was outside the model.
Yes it is. That means the model is wrong. Hopefully JWST doesn't devolve into a micrometeorite detector. That instrument could have been built and operated at far lower cost and one wonders if that shouldn't have been done beforehand.
> Post-impact, however, the error increased to 258 nm rms, but realignments to the mirror segments as a whole reduced the overall impact to just 59 nm rms. For the time being, the team wrote Webb's alignment is well within performance limits, as the realigned mirror segments are "about 5-10 nm rms above the previous best wavefront error rms values."