The American space agency NASA has halted operations of its aging Hubble space telescope. The telescope, which has been in use for almost 35 years, has been in a kind of safety sleep mode for about two weeks, NASA announced on Tuesday (local time).
Of the six gyroscopes on board, which among other things control the alignment of the telescope, three were still working, one of which had recently sent incorrect data. It has therefore now been decided to use “Hubble” only with an active gyroscope until further notice – and to keep another ready for later use.
This will result in “minor restrictions”. “It will take more time to slew the telescope and will no longer have as much flexibility in where it can look at any given time. It will also no longer be able to track objects closer than Mars, but these are rare Hubble targets.”
Telescope in space since 1990
From mid-June, ‘Hubble’ will likely be available for scientific exploration again, the report said. The observatory is the size of a bus and was launched into space in 1990. With its images, ‘Hubble’ has produced groundbreaking scientific findings – including confirming that gigantic black holes exist at the centers of galaxies and that the cosmos is expanding at an increasingly rapid pace.
The Hubble Observatory operates mainly in the optical and ultraviolet range. The successor “James Webb”, launched in 2021, conducts research in the near-infrared range.
Source: Krone
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