CHANGE MY LOCATION
Local
California News
Multimedia News
Is the Hubble Telescope going blind?
SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY
Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The Hubble Space Telescope returned the first high-resolution images of the universe on April 24, 1990.
This week, following a failure of the satellite’s main camera, NASA scientists are contemplating how to keep the Hubble alive for another seven years.
Installed in 2002, the camera stopped transmitting more than a week ago, and scientists think its main power supply may be damaged or defective. A backup supply can be routed to power the camera as early as Friday.
NASA officials and astronomers will meet Thursday to determine what steps to take to get the camera back in action, said spokeswoman Susan Hendricks.
The news comes as a blow to scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Adam Reiss, the astrophysicist who last week won part of a $1 million Shaw Prize for his discovery of dark energy, relied exclusively on Hubble images to make his findings.
Johns Hopkins researchers, meanwhile, are looking to the future, working on the design for a $100 million space telescope to measure far-ultraviolet light from distances as far as 300 million light years away.
During the last 16 years, hundreds of full-color images from Hubble have expanded scientists’ knowledge of the universe. Hubble revealed the existence of a 10th planet behind Pluto, identified two moons orbiting Pluto — since named Nix and Hydra — and provided high-resolution images of entire galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
The last service to the Hubble was performed in 2002. For the telescope to function beyond 2008, it needs new batteries and maintenance to the gyroscopes which help it focus in the right direction, NASA officials said.
khille@baltimoreexaminer.com
