NASA’s subsequent nice eye within the sky, the golden-mirrored James Webb Area Telescope (JWST), handed a key overview this week, bringing it one step nearer to launching in November and observing new components of the cosmos for scientists right here on Earth.
That’s excellent news for the USA’ area company, which has spent the final a number of weeks attempting to troubleshoot points with its present window on the universe, the Hubble Area Telescope.
The storied telescope that has revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos for greater than three many years is experiencing a technical glitch. Based on NASA, the Hubble Area Telescope’s payload laptop, which operates the spacecraft’s scientific devices, went down all of the sudden on June 13.
Consequently, the devices on board meant to snap photos and accumulate knowledge should not at the moment functioning. The company’s finest and brightest have been working diligently to get the ageing telescope again on-line and have run a barrage of assessments however nonetheless can’t appear to determine what went flawed.
“It’s simply the issue of attempting to repair one thing orbiting 400 miles [653 million kilometres] over your head as an alternative of in your laboratory,” Paul Hertz, the director of astrophysics for NASA, advised Al Jazeera.
“If this laptop had been within the lab, it might be actually fast to diagnose it,” he defined. “All we are able to do is ship a command, see what knowledge comes out of the pc, after which ship that knowledge down and attempt to analyse it.”
Hubble’s legacy
When Hubble launched on April 24, 1990, scientists had been excited to look into the huge expanse of area with a brand new set of “eyes”, however that they had no thought how a lot one telescope would change our understanding of the universe.
The telescope has appeared into the far reaches of area, spying probably the most distant galaxy ever noticed — one which fashioned simply 400 million years after the large bang.
Hubble has additionally produced beautiful galactic snapshots just like the Hubble Extremely Deep Area.
Captured in a single single {photograph} are tons of of hundreds of historic galaxies that fashioned lengthy earlier than the Earth even existed — every galaxy an unlimited and thriving stellar hub, the place tons of of billions of stars had been born, lived their lives, and died.
The sunshine from these galaxies has taken billions of years to achieve Hubble’s sensors, making it a time machine of types – one which takes us on a journey by way of time to see them as they had been billions of years in the past.
Hubble has additionally spied on our cosmic neighbours, discovering a few of the moons round Pluto.
Its observations confirmed us that nearly each galaxy has a supermassive again gap at its centre, and Hubble has additionally helped scientists create an unlimited three-dimensional map of an elusive, invisible type of matter that accounts for a lot of the matter within the universe.
Known as darkish matter, the enigmatic substance can’t be seen. Scientists solely comprehend it exists by measuring its results on bizarre matter. Due to Hubble’s suite of scientific devices, scientists had been in a position to create a 3D map of darkish matter.
What went flawed
Scientists have been planning for Hubble’s inevitable demise for fairly a while. Over the previous 31 years, the telescope has seen its justifiable share of turmoil.
Shortly after it launched, NASA found that one thing wasn’t fairly proper: Hubble’s major mirror was flawed. The telescope is the one one in NASA’s historical past that was designed to be serviced by astronauts.
Over its lifetime (and the course of the company’s shuttle programme), teams of NASA astronauts have repaired and upgraded Hubble and its devices 5 completely different instances.
When the area shuttle retired in 2011, it meant that Hubble could be by itself. If the telescope had been in bother, floor controllers would wish to troubleshoot remotely.
To this point that has confirmed to be efficient. That’s, till June 13.
Simply after 4pm EDT (20:00 GMT), a difficulty with the observatory’s payload laptop popped up, placing the telescope and its scientific devices into secure mode.
Hubble has two payload computer systems on board — the primary laptop and a backup for redundancy. These computer systems, referred to as a NASA Normal Spacecraft Pc-1 (or NSSC-1), had been put in throughout one of many telescope’s servicing missions in 2009; nonetheless, they had been constructed within the Nineteen Eighties.
They’re a part of the Science Instrument Command and Information Dealing with (SI C&DH) unit, a module on the Hubble Area Telescope that communicates with the telescope’s science devices and codecs knowledge for transmission to the bottom. It additionally comprises 4 reminiscence modules (one major and three backups).
The present unit is a alternative that was put in by astronauts on shuttle mission STS-125 in Could 2009 after the unique unit failed in 2008.
When the primary laptop went down in June, NASA tried to activate its backup, however each computer systems are experiencing the identical glitch, which suggests the true subject is in one other a part of the telescope.
At the moment, the group is trying on the varied elements of the SI C&DH, together with the ability regulator and the information formatting unit. If a type of items is the issue, then engineers could need to carry out a extra difficult collection of instructions to change to backups of these components.
NASA says it’s going to take a while to type out the problem and swap over to the backup programs if essential. That’s as a result of turning on these backups is a riskier manoeuvre than something the group has tried up to now.
The operations group will want a number of days to see how the backup laptop performs earlier than it may resume regular operations. The backup hasn’t been used since its set up in 2009, however in response to NASA, it was “totally examined on the bottom previous to set up on the spacecraft”.
A part of the difficulty with Hubble is that the observatory was designed to be serviced immediately. With out a area shuttle, there’s simply no manner to take action.
“The largest distinction between previous points and this one is there’s no option to substitute components now,” John Grunsfeld, a former NASA astronaut, advised Al Jazeera.
However, he added, “The group engaged on Hubble are masters of engineering. I”m assured they’ll succeed.”
Trying to the longer term
The James Webb Area Telescope, scheduled to launch in November, is predicted to broaden upon Hubble’s legacy. The huge telescope, primarily an enormous piece of area origami, will unfold its shiny golden mirrors and peer even additional into the universe than Hubble ever might. Its infrared sensors will let scientists research stellar nurseries, the center of galaxies and a lot extra.
#Webb strikes an enormous step nearer to launch!!! ??️?
Webb has simply efficiently handed its “Ultimate Mission Evaluation Evaluation”, transferring it nearer to seeing farther!
Discover out extra: ???https://t.co/NiVRXHFQ0G #WebbSeesFarther #WebbFliesAriane #ExploreFarther @esa @nasa @csa_asc pic.twitter.com/pOrnlqfI7J
— ESA Webb Telescope (@ESA_Webb) July 1, 2021
Hubble has proven us that just about all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centres, the brightest of which we name quasars. These extremely vivid objects can inform us lots about galaxy evolution, because the jets and wind produced by a quasar assist to form its host galaxy.
Earlier observations have proven that there’s a correlation between the plenty of supermassive black holes and the plenty of their galaxies, that means that quasars might assist regulate star formation of their host galaxy.
“We see black holes at a time when the universe was solely 800 million years previous which might be nearly as large as the largest we see as we speak, so that they advanced extraordinarily early,” Chris Willott of the Canadian Area Company advised Al Jazeera.
“By finding out their galaxies, we are able to see what the influence of such excessive black holes is on the early formation of stars in these galaxies.”
Via Hubble’s eyes, scientists can not detect particular person stars within the galaxies with these ultra-bright quasars, however with Webb, scientists hope they’ll they be capable of see not solely particular person stars, but additionally the gasoline from which these stars type.
Which means the Webb telescope has the potential to actually revolutionise our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, the identical manner that Hubble did for our data of the universe over the previous three many years.