Trouble with one of the Hubble telescope’s three remaining gyroscopes, critical for aiming and locking onto targets, has prompted mission managers to switch to a backup control mode that will limit some observations but keep the iconic observatory running until the 2030s, officials said. Tuesday. “We still believe there is a very high probability and … Read more
Larger / Hubble Space Telescope on Earth, photographed during STS-125, Shuttle Mission 4, May 2009. The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is running out of gyroscopes, and when there are none left, the instrument will cease to perform meaningful science. To preserve the telescope, which has operated in space for nearly three and a half decades, … Read more
We’ll get an update on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope tomorrow (June 4), and it could be a pretty big deal. On June 3, the agency announced that the Hubble Space Telescope team will hold a press conference about the observatory’s status tomorrow at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT). Specifically, officials said the purpose of this … Read more
Jupiter’s moon Io, imaged by SHARK-VIS on January 10, 2024. This is the highest-resolution image of Io ever taken by an Earth-based telescope. The image combines three spectral bands—infrared, red, and yellow—to highlight the reddish ring around Pele volcano (below and to the right of the moon’s center) and the white ring around Pillan Patera, … Read more