In news- NASA has planned to fix a glitch that had stopped the Hubble space telescope from being used for science work for more than a month. The safe mode was activated after an onboard computer halted on 13 June, leading to all non-essential systems being shut down.
About the telescope-
- Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the observatory is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space.
- It was launched by Discovery in April 1990.
- It has a 7.9 feet mirror, and captures images of deep space playing a major role in helping astronomers understand the universe by observing the most distant stars, galaxies and planets.
- It was not the first space telescope, but is one of the largest and most versatile.
- Its four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- It was built by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency.
- The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble’s targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft.
- Hubble is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts.
- One successor to the Hubble telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is scheduled to be launched in late 2021.
Source: Indian Express
