The Failing Of The Hubble Space Telescope
It was only a matter of time before one of the observation instruments that has most allowed us to know the universe began to give signs of 'tiredness'. The Hubble Space Telescope, after more than 28 years orbiting the Earth and showing the cosmos in all its beauty and grandeur, is beginning to fail, as predicted.
For the moment, NASA has left it out of circulation, since one of the gyroscopes stopped working last Friday, so aiming at any object is more difficult without this equipment.
Be that as it may, NASA astronomers were already aware that one of the gyroscopes would stop working this year, so it's not surprising. It was even stranger that one of the reserve gyros stopped operating last Saturday as well, so the team is now in safe mode and the observations have been suspended until further notice.
Hubble Space Telescope Gyroscope Problems
This is not the first time that Hubble's gyroscopes have failed. They were always problematic and all six of them had to be replaced in 2009. Now, half of Hubble's gyroscopes are unusable, so pointing in a particular direction is very difficult and inaccurate. This is certainly a serious problem for astronomers, as any slight variation could ruin the research and the validity of the data collected.
Even so, we do not know whether Hubble will work again. However, if we look back, we must say that since it was launched into orbit in 1990 500 kilometres above the face of the Earth, it has made almost one and a half million observations and has located three quarters of the exoplanets we know today, amounting to about 4000. It is safe to say that this has been one of NASA's most successful projects. In addition, the Hubble telescope has not only observed extrasolar planets. It has also looked at countless galaxies, stars and black holes. In other words, it has been a small peephole into the universe that today is a little less unknown to us thanks to this incredible device.
Now, NASA will try to repair the telescope, although it will not be an easy task, as it could get worse if it is not done well. So, at the moment, since it does not have its three fully functional gyroscopes to operate, it is still in a resting state until they decide what to do, but it seems they will take a risk, as they say it still has a lot of war to go.
