Tag: Hubble Space Telescope
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Hubble back in service after gyro scare—NASA still studying reboost options
The Hubble Space Telescope resumed science observations on Friday after ground teams spent most of the last three weeks assessing the performance of a finicky gyroscope, NASA said. The troublesome gyroscope is a critical part of the observatory’s pointing system. Hubble’s gyros measure how fast the spacecraft is turning, helping the telescope aim its aperture…
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30 years after its first repair mission, Hubble continues to observe the cosmos
30 years ago, on the very early morning of Dec. 2, 1993, the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the STS-61 crew launched on a high-stakes mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. 30 years after the successful flight, which enabled Hubble to finally fulfill its promise to revolutionize our view of the Universe, the veteran observatory…
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A new, thin-lensed telescope design could far surpass James Webb
Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today. I am an astronomer who studies astrobiology and planets around distant stars. For the…
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Satellites keep photobombing space images. Astronomers need a fix
Throngs of satellites are streaking across the Hubble Space Telescope’s field of view, leaving what look like scratch marks on space photos and hindering scientists’ work. Teeming swarms of these satellites, which reflect sunlight and mimic astronomical objects, threaten to gradually transform the night sky and affect how astronomy can be done. “We see these…
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Study highlights concerns over satellite interference with Hubble observations
A raw Hubble image shows a satellite streak. (NASA / ESA / STScI / Kruk et al. / Nature) An analysis of more than 100,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope, conducted with the aid of artificial intelligence and hundreds of human volunteers, confirms that satellites including SpaceX’s Starlink spacecraft are increasingly interfering with astronomical…
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NASA blames recent Hubble woes on aging hardware
The Hubble Space Telescope, seen from the space shuttle Columbia at the end of a 2002 servicing mission. The observatory’s door is open in this picture. Credit: NASA Hardware problems that cropped up earlier this month on the Hubble Space Telescope, now approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch, are the latest signs the observatory…
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Hubble resumes science observations after software error
The Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis during the last servicing mission in May 2009. Credit: NASA NASA has partially restored the Hubble Space Telescope to science mode after a software error temporarily halted observations, but engineers continue studying a problem that kept the telescope’s aperture door from closing and…
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Jupiter looms large in spectacular Hubble image
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this view of Jupiter and its icy moon Europa on Aug. 25. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team The Hubble Space Telescope turned toward Jupiter last month, capturing colorful views of the giant planet and…
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Hubble still going strong 30 years after launch
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, one day after its launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA Thirty years ago Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the shuttle Discovery with a famously flawed mirror, the opening…
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Astronomers offer a solution to Hubble Space Telescope’s case of the disappearing planet
More than a decade ago, Fomalhaut b was considered one of the first exoplanets to be directly imaged — but now it’s vanished, and scientists suspect it was actually nothing more than a huge cloud of dust created by a cosmic smashup. The disappearing act in the Fomalhaut star system, 25 light years away in…