Telescope showing its age

NASA shuts down activities of “Hubble”

The "Hubble" space telescope in Earth orbit

(Bild: ESA)

The US space agency NASA is reducing the activities of its ageing space telescope "Hubble". NASA announced on Tuesday (local time) that the telescope, which has now been in operation for almost 35 years, has been in a kind of safety hibernation mode for around two weeks.

Of the six gyroscopes on board, which are used to control the telescope's orientation, among other things, three were still working, one of which had recently sent faulty data. For this reason, it has now been decided to operate "Hubble" with only one active gyroscope for the time being - and to keep another one ready for later use.

This will result in "minor restrictions". "The telescope will need more time to slew and will no longer have as much flexibility as to where it can look at any given time. It will also no longer be able to track objects closer than Mars, but these are rare targets for 'Hubble'."

Telescope in space since 1990
From mid-June, "Hubble" will probably be available again for scientific exploration, the statement continued. The observatory is the size of a bus and was launched into space in 1990. With its images, "Hubble" has delivered groundbreaking scientific findings - among other things, it has confirmed that there are gigantic black holes in the centers of galaxies and that the cosmos is expanding ever faster.

The Hubble Observatory works primarily in the optical and ultraviolet range. Its successor, "James Webb", which will be launched in 2021, investigates in the near-infrared range.