The world's eye in the sky since April, 1990 has been NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. On Monday, June 19, 2006, Hubble's main camera stopped working. It could be a software problem. It could be a power supply problem. It could have been caused by a "cosmic event."
You realize, of course, that if there were aliens and they were planning to sneak out on us, they would take out the Hubble via a cosmic event. Good thing I don't believe in aliens.
The Hubble is a mainstay of our exploration into space. It was the Hubble that saw the Pluto moons just named as Nix and Hydra. Hubble has seen amazing things, among them:
Blue stars orbiting rapidly around a black hole:
Saturn's auroras behaving differently than we had believed for the last 25 years:
A disk galaxy tilted on edge:
A baby galaxy:
And two galaxies merging:
It would be a shame to lose the source of such knowledge. Scientists are working on it, but thus far it remains blind in the dark of space.
Get well soon, Hubble.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
I believe NASA is working on a mission in the near future to repair (once again...) the Hubble Space Telescope.
Also, there is a Space Shuttle launch scheduled for July 1st...mark your calendars!
Me, I'll be watching it take off, live, from my front porch... ;-P
2 - PoizonMyst
Nice article.
I hope they do choose to repair the Hubble, rather than let it become rusty space junk - as proposed by NASA in 2005. The uproar created over the decision ensured we will be blessed with more beautiful pictures and exciting discoveries for years to come.
I would hope the issue of Hubble's main camera malfunction would be important enough to schedule a repair into the July 1st Shuttle mission ... but I wont hold my breath.
Hope they get it back online soon though.
3 - RJ Elliott
"I hope they do choose to repair the Hubble, rather than let it become rusty space junk"
It won't rust, in an oxygen-deprived environment... ;-)
4 - matt
Thank goodness they've decided to keep Hubble going! Love the pictures of Saturn's auroras.