麻豆社

Nasa: Hubble Space Telescope fixed after being offline for a month

A picture from Hubble telescopeImage source, NASA
Image caption,

One of the first pictures the, now repaired, Hubble telescope sent back

Nasa's Hubble Telescope is working again, after a glitch caused it to drop offline.

The Hubble telescope is one of Nasa's most famous and important telescopes.

It was launched in 1990, and since then, has gathered more than 1.5 million observations, which have helped change the way we think about about the Universe.

Image source, EPA/NASA
Image caption,

The Hubble telescope

On 13 June Hubble's payload computer, which controls and co-ordinates the telescope's science instruments, suddenly stopped working.

The telescope was placed into safe mode - meaning it would not work on any science missions - whilst scientists on Earth tried to figure out what was wrong with it.

Image source, NASA GSFC/Rebecca Roth
Image caption,

Nzinga Tull, the Hubble system's anomaly response manager, working with her team to figure out how to fix the telescope

The Hubble engineers spent almost a month trying to figure out what was wrong with the telescope, before finally pin-pointing the problem - the telescope's Power Control Unit.

On 15 July, the team switched over to the telescope's backup hardware, which brought the science instruments back online again two days later.

"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.

Image source, NASA
Image caption,

Another image sent back from Hubble after experts fixed the telescope

"This is a moment to celebrate the success of a team truly dedicated to the mission. Through their efforts, Hubble will continue its 32nd year of discovery, and we will continue to learn from the observatory's transformational vision."

Hubble will be joined by the new James Webb Space Telescope later this year, and many astronomers hope that the two will be able to work alongside each other.