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News & Views item - January 2007 |
Hubble Space Telescope's Power Supply Problems Means Main Camera May Not Regain
Full Functionality. (January 30, 2007)
NASA
reports that the Hubble Space Telescope's problem is with the power supply to
the Advanced Camera for Surveys, or ACS has forced it to be shut down. The
instrument was installed by space shuttle astronauts in 2002 and was designed to
work for five years, i.e. until March 2007. It greatly increased
the telescope's visual reach and has taken the sharpest pictures of the birth of
galaxies.
Although close to its "used by" date, Hubble manager Preston Burch says this is still a big loss because the instrument was in high demand by astronomers. "The ACS instrument comprises a large percentage of the total science that is done on Hubble. However, there is a lot great science that can be done with the other instruments. So we are in a replanning mode and we will probably get back 'on the air' later in the week." He added that NASA hopes to get the third channel of the ACS working by the end of February. It allows Hubble to detect ultraviolet wavelengths.
"It's a shame," says Adam Riess, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Riess had been using the ACS's wide-field camera to study distant supernovae, exploded stars that probe dark energy — the mysterious force pushing the Universe apart at an ever-faster rate. That work has now been sidelined, along with about two-thirds of the proposed scientific observations for the telescope.
Space shuttle astronauts are scheduled to upgrade Hubble for the fifth and last time around May or June 2008.
Burch said, "Certainly one of the things we will do is we
will examine this failure and see if there are any implications to new science
instruments that we are bringing up. I don't know, however, that we will be able
to get sufficient information to be able to make any judgment about that."
According to Burch, as matters stand the Hubble servicing mission will
take place without any changes in plan.