![]() Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center However, the Hubble team methodically identified the possible cause and how to compensate for it. On June 13, 2021, the Hubble Space Telescope’s payload computer unexpectedly came to a halt. Other former team members lent a hand by scouring Hubble’s original paperwork, surfacing 30- to 40-year-old documents that would help the team chart a path forward. Retired staff who helped build the telescope, for example, knew the ins and outs of the Science Instrument and Command & Data Handling unit, where the payload computer resides – critical expertise for determining next steps for recovery. Hubble alumni returned to support the current team in the recovery effort, lending decades of mission expertise. ![]() To fix a telescope built in the 1980s, the team had to draw on the knowledge of staff from across its lengthy history. ![]() Working from mission control at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as well as remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions, engineers collaborated to figure out the cause of the problem.Ĭomplicating matters, Hubble was launched in 1990 and has been observing the universe for over 31 years. The Hubble team moved quickly to investigate what ailed the observatory, which orbits about 340 miles (547 kilometers) above Earth. That meant the telescope would no longer be doing science while mission specialists analyzed the situation. When the main computer failed to receive a signal from the payload computer, it automatically placed Hubble’s science instruments into safe mode. Hubble’s payload computer, which controls and coordinates the observatory’s onboard science instruments, halted suddenly on June 13. Other initial targets for Hubble included globular star clusters and aurorae on the giant planet Jupiter. These snapshots, from a program led by Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle, feature a galaxy with unusual extended spiral arms and the first high-resolution glimpse at an intriguing pair of colliding galaxies. Through their efforts, Hubble will continue its 32nd year of discovery, and we will continue to learn from the observatory’s transformational vision.” “This is a moment to celebrate the success of a team truly dedicated to the mission. “I’m thrilled to see that Hubble has its eye back on the universe, once again capturing the kind of images that have intrigued and inspired us for decades,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The telescope’s targets this past weekend included the unusual galaxies shown in the images above. Science observations restarted the afternoon of Saturday, July 17. The Hubble space telescope creates photographs that no human being, let alone the most creative artist could ever generate for us to enjoy.NASA, ESA, STScI, Julianne Dalcanton (UW) Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) The light emitted from these stars traveled from another time if not another century, until it was captured by these images. What photography is incapable of delivering is a picture of space and time, but these atomized impressions of color, the stars captured in these photographs are, however, pictures of time. One could almost believe that all this is not only rationally motivated, but rather that these prominent images which the Hubble (unlike any other instrument let alone the human eye) makes are concrete pictures of the invisible. Dangerous maintenance maneuvers are executed again and again to keep the Hubble functioning. Renowned scientists place the Hubble on the same niveau as Galileo Galilei's original telescope. For one and a half decades, Hubble has helped revolutionize our understanding of the universe its gaze goes further in time and space than ever before. It has occupied the editorial columns and feature pages of the world press ever since a space shuttle's robot arm placed the fragile telescope in orbit in 1990. The Hubble space telescope is one of the finest instruments humanity has ever sent into space. The large formats of these photographs enable complete immersion into the universal world of the stars. The abstract and beguiling beauty of gentle fog, colorful swirls, and glistening light is an invitation to stroll through the Milky Way and discover unanticipated solar systems. Viewing these panoramas of outer space is like taking a spectacular trip.
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