NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is experiencing a mysterious new problem. Currently, Hubble is down and in “safe mode” for about a week.New problem after 4 months of “respawning”
Hubble’s science instruments have been safely shut down after several failed attempts to communicate with each other.
NASA engineers are analyzing data from space equipment to study this problem, but so far little is known about the latest mysterious failure of the Hubble space telescope, according to Insider. A NASA spokesman said it was “too early in the investigation” to conclude what caused the problem, how to fix it or when Hubble could be back up and running.
This isn’t the first time Hubble has been shut down this year. The largest and most powerful telescope ever launched to date has spent nearly five weeks in safe mode after the payload computer suddenly stopped working on June 13. NASA engineers then “revived” Hubble in July by activating some redundant hardware. This is a complex, risky operation with the risk of causing new problems if implemented incorrectly.
Now, after 4 months of operation again, the Hubble space telescope has to temporarily stop working.
Hubble is the most powerful space telescope in the world. This space instrument has photographed the birth and death of stars, discovered new moons orbiting Pluto, and tracked two interstellar objects moving through the Solar System.
Hubble’s observations help astronomers calculate the age and expansion of the universe, as well as examine galaxies that formed shortly after the Big Bang. However, Hubble has been in Earth orbit since 1990 and is getting “old”.
Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said in July: “Could the cause of the problem have something to do with Hubble’s age? The answer is almost certainly yes. Someday Then, some component will randomly fail and we don’t have a backup. That could very well be how the Hubble mission ended.” More serious than the previous incident
The first signal of the new Hubble incident appeared at 1:46 a.m. on October 23, when Hubble’s scientific instruments sent an error code. The return code takes a synchronization message, which gives the information tools the time to respond to commands and collect data correctly.
The Hubble team restarted those instruments, and the telescope resumed scientific activity the next morning. However, by 25.10, Hubble’s science instruments sent back more error codes indicating the loss of some synchronization messages. The tool automatically switches to safe mode.
“The team is still working to identify the problem. They are reviewing the hardware and software design documents and gathering additional data from the spacecraft to help diagnose the problem,” a NASA spokesman said. believe. In June, when the payload computer failed, NASA engineers were able to quickly pinpoint the cause as the problem involved several systems. This time, the scope to define is much broader. NASA’s Hubble team is investigating all systems that communicate with scientific instruments and all systems involved in synchronized announcements.
“Hubble has really changed the way we see the universe and is still the most recommended telescope in the world today. So scientists still haven’t run out of work to do with it, that’s why we keep working hard to get it back in the science, so we can continue to make amazing cosmic discoveries. great,” Hertz said in July. NASA is preparing to launch a new observatory around Earth: the James Webb Space Telescope, in December. This telescope is set to revolutionize astronomy, observing the depths of the universe with precision. unmatched by infrared light. However, James Webb is not a replacement for Hubble. In fact, these two telescopes must collaborate.
Some of the Webb telescope’s first missions were to study the objects that Hubble had discovered. Later, when James Webb began to launch his own space explorations, NASA hoped to track parallels using Hubble. “What astronomers are really looking forward to is the ‘double punch’ from the Hubble-Webb combination,” said NASA’s director of astrophysics.
