Science News Roundup: Tiny meteoroid bops $10 billion Webb space telescope; NASA to launch rockets from Australia's north for scientific studies and more

France's signing of the pact, called the Artemis Accords, will mark one of the most significant endorsements yet of Washington's effort to shape international legal norms and standards for exploring the lunar surface, said the sources, who asked not to be identified. Astronomers ponder 'cosmic mystery' over powerful radio wave bursts Powerful bursts of radio waves emanating from a distant dwarf galaxy that were detected using a massive telescope in China are moving scientists closer to solving what one called a "cosmic mystery" that has lingered for years.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Tiny meteoroid bops $10 billion Webb space telescope

A tiny meteoroid struck the newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope in May, knocking one of its gold-plated mirrors out of alignment but not changing the orbiting observatory's scheduled to become fully operational shortly, NASA said on Wednesday. The little space rock hit the $10 billion telescope sometime in late May and left a small but noticeable effect on the telescope's data, NASA said in a statement, adding that it was the fifth and largest hit to the telescope since its December launch.

NASA to launch rockets from Australia's north for scientific studies

NASA will launch three rockets within weeks from northern Australia for scientific research, authorities said on Wednesday, marking the first time the space agency will fire rockets from a commercial facility outside the United States. The Australian government has granted regulatory approval for the rockets to be launched from privately owned Equatorial Launch Australia's (ELA) Arnhem Space Centre, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday.

France to sign U.S.-led moon exploration agreement -sources

France is set to sign a U.S.-led multilateral agreement aiming to govern how countries behave in space and on the moon, according to two people familiar with the plans. France's signing of the pact, called the Artemis Accords, will mark one of the most significant endorsements yet of Washington's effort to shape international legal norms and standards for exploring the lunar surface, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.

Astronomers ponder 'cosmic mystery' over powerful radio wave bursts

Powerful bursts of radio waves emanating from a distant dwarf galaxy that were detected using a massive telescope in China are moving scientists closer to solving what one called a "cosmic mystery" that has lingered for years. Since being discovered in 2007, astronomers have struggled to understand what causes phenomena called fast radio bursts involving pulses of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation originating from places inside our Milky Way and other galaxies. Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.