1. About
  2. Earth
    1. ISS
    2. Aqua
    3. GOES-14
    4. JWST
  3. Moon
    1. LADEE
    2. NRHO
  4. Mercury
    1. MESSENGER
  5. Venus
    1. Venus Express
  6. Mars
    1. MRO
    2. MAVEN
  7. Interplanetary
    1. MAVEN transfer

JWST

Sun-Earth L2 halo orbit

Files

Click here to download the trajectory.
Click here to download the run options file.

Description

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a NASA large strategic science mission and space telescope.  Its large (25 m2) mirror and cooling system permit investigators to study faint objects in red and near-infrared wavelengths.  JWST slowly circles around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point; hence, the spacecraft orbits the Sun while remaining near the Earth.  The spacecraft’s coordinate system is similar to a Sun-centered ecliptic coordinate system, and we therefore generate output using a Sun-centered body-fixed output coordinate frame.

JWST is located approximately 1 au from the Earth and therefore does not benefit from planetary shielding.  In fact, the only significant differences between the meteoroid environment at Earth and that near the Sun-Earth L2 point are due to the relative lack of gravitational focusing and planetary shielding.  JWST’s velocity relative to the Sun varies very little, and therefore the sporadic meteoroid sources show up clearly in a directional flux map.

Graphics

Trajectory in inertial frame

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Trajectory in Sun-centered ecliptic frame

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Meteoroid flux and properties

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Meteoroid directionality in body-fixed frame

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