Hardware problem knocks Hubble camera off line
9 January 2019 Astronomy Now
The Wide Field Camera 3, seen here during pre-launch processing, is responsible for many of the Hubble Space Telescope's most iconic images. It was installed during the final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. Image: NASA
On 8 January, the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, responsible for many of the observatory's most iconic photos, suspended operations because of an unspecified hardware issue. In a one-paragraph release, NASA said the observatory is continuing science operations with its other three active instruments – the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph – while engineers troubleshoot the WFC 3 anomaly.
Installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009, the Wide Field Camera 3 features redundant electronics that presumably could restore the instrument to normal operation if the problem cannot be resolved. But the issue is a reminder that Hubble, nearing its third decade in space and now nine years beyond its final service call, is increasingly susceptible to the challenges of old age. Last October, one of Hubble's three operational gyroscopes, used to help the telescope re-orient itself and lock on targets, failed. A backup was put into service, but it also ran into problems, briefly knocking the observatory out of action. Engineers later restored the backup to normal operation.
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble sees a glittering sphere of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
25 April 2016 Astronomy Now
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the simple beauty of NGC 339, a 6.5-billion-year-old massive intermediate age star cluster that lies in the SMC, a dwarf galaxy some 200,000 light-years away from us. The relationship between such clusters and true globular clusters is not yet fully understood.
Globular clusters make new stars by 'adopting' stray cosmic gases
27 January 2016 Astronomy Now
An international research team of astronomers has, for the first time, found young populations of stars within globular clusters that have apparently developed courtesy of star-forming gas flowing in from outside of the clusters themselves. This method stands in contrast to the conventional idea of the clusters' initial stars shedding gas as they age in order to spark future rounds of star birth.
Hubble finds a festive snow angel
24 December 2015 Astronomy Now
The bipolar star-forming region Sharpless 2-106 some 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central young and massive star. This hot gas creates the "wings" of our angel.