NASA experts are struggling to wake up the Hubble Space Telescope after a glitch sent it into hibernation.
The malfunction means the high-tech instrument has temporarily stopped observing the cosmos.
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NASA said at a press conference that the telescope – which is equipped with powerful cameras – went into hibernation more than a week ago.
This is due to a faulty gyroscope.
The instrument has six gyroscopes – part of its pointing system – but only uses three at a time.
However, three gyroscopes no longer work.
And one of the three remaining gyroscopes is faulty.
WIRING
“The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave erroneous telemetry readings,” he said. NASA.
Flight controllers are currently trying to figure out how to fix the glitch, officials added.
“Hubble’s gyroscopes… are part of the system that precisely determines and controls the direction in which the telescope is pointed.
“Hubble’s instruments are stable and the telescope is in good condition.”
The telescope received six new gyroscopes during the astronauts’ last visit in 2009.
“The devices’ rotating wheels keep the telescope stable and in the right direction, tracking Hubble’s rotation and position in space,” explained news agency The Associated Press.
However, NASA said the 34-year-old observatory could continue making discoveries with just one or two good gyroscopes.
TURN FAILURE
NASA previously explained that Hubble’s gyroscopes can malfunction over time.
This “usually occurs due to wear and tear on thin metal wires (less than the width of a human hair), called flexible cables, that carry power in and out of the mechanism,” he said.
“Hubble had eight of 22 gyroscopes fail due to a corroded flexible cable.”
There was a similar problem in 1999 when the fourth of six gyroscopes failed.
“The spacecraft was in safe mode awaiting a shuttle maintenance mission that installed six new gyroscopes a month later,” NASA said.
Each of Hubble’s six gyroscopes keeps a wheel spinning at a constant 19,200 revolutions per minute.
Hubble’s pointing and control system is equivalent to keeping a laser shining more than 200 miles away.
NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope has one of the most precise pointing systems of any spacecraft.
It captures light from distant objects billions of light years away (one light year is 9.88 trillion miles).
They appear as blobs a few pixels high on the camera.
“These observations require extreme precision and a steady, steady gaze as Hubble speeds about 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 km/hour) around Earth,” NASA said.
“Hubble’s pointing and control system is equivalent to keeping a laser shining on a coin from more than 200 miles away for as long as Hubble takes a photo – up to 24 hours.
“Any movement beyond this level of precision would blur the image or throw Hubble off target.”
KEEP WORKING
Despite the current malfunction problem, NASA said it expects Hubble to continue making discoveries throughout this decade.
It is also possible to continue making observations over the next decade by working with other observatories, such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA officials said more information is expected to be released this week.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
Here’s what you need to know…
- The Hubble Space Telescope is a telescope that captures images while in space
- It was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and is still fully operational
- The advantage of Hubble is that it takes photos from outside the Earth’s atmosphere
- This means that atmospheric distortion is removed, allowing for more accurate image capture.
- NASA’s Hubble captured some of the most detailed images of space ever recorded
- The Hubble telescope was also able to accurately determine the expansion rate of the universe.
- Hubble is also the only telescope designed to be serviced by astronauts in space
- Five different missions were launched to repair, upgrade or replace parts of the Hubble Telescope
- It is believed that the Hubble telescope could continue operating until 2040
- But its successor – the James Webb Space Telescope – already launched in December 2021
The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, oversees Hubble’s science operations.
Hubble has taken some of the sharpest and deepest images of our Universe thanks to its position above the atmosphere, said the Greenwich Royal Museums In London.
Among his many contributions to science are the discovery of Pluto’s two moons, Nix and Hydra
He also discovered that almost all large galaxies are anchored by a black hole at the center.
Other fascinating images captured by the telescope were those of the spiral galaxy NGC 4731, which is in the constellation Virgo and is located 43 million light years from Earth.
Revealed on May 31, incredible photos illustrated the galaxy’s billowing clouds of gas, dark lanes of dust, bright pink star-forming regions, and a long, bright bar with trailing arms.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
