The Hubble Space Telescope is back in action, returning to science operations, but now only has one working gyroscope. And to prove that it still has what it takes, the venerable observatory took a remarkable photo of the dusty spiral galaxy NGC 1546.
There are about 50 million light years far away in the constellation Dorado, the Swordfish, NGC 1546 is a fine example of what is called a “flocculent” spiral. Rather than the graceful sweep of curved arms that some spiral galaxy NGC 1546 appears to appear more chaotic, with bursts of star formation in the arms triggering more star formation nearby, resulting in a patchy structure.
The dust we see backlit by the bright core of NGC 1546 is the product of countless generations stars which were born, lived and died, spewing out vast quantities of dust space during their death throes. Dust made of particles as small as microns (millionths of a meter) shows that the galaxy has a healthy chemistry; that dust will be recycled into new generations of stars and provide heavy elements for planets around these new stars. The bright blue regions, more visible on the far side of the galaxy where dust does not block the view, are examples of these hot young stars in newly born star clusters.
Although Hubble Space Telescope it has taken many spectacular pictures like this during its existence 34 years of operation in Earth orbit, this image of NGC 1546 taken by the telescope’s wide-field camera 3 is one of HST’s most important. That’s because it puts to rest any doubts about the HST’s immediate future.
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Over the past yearspace telescope repeatedly entered safe mode because one of the last three working gyroscopes started returning bad data. Hubble was equipped with six new gyroscopes, which are used to rotate and aim the telescope during service mission in 2009. 15 years later, only two remain fully functional. While three working gyroscopes at a time are preferred for efficiency reasons, Hubble can only operate on one. This was even tested in 2008 when all of his previous sets of gyroscopes failed. With two gyros remaining and no hope of another servicing mission ( shuttle retired in 2011), Hubble must only work on onewith the remaining gyro retained as a backup should this fail.
This is not a perfect solution: While HST can still point anywhere on the celestial sphere, its mobility is more limited with slower rotation and target lock-on speed, meaning that the area it can observe on any time is reduced. Plus, he won’t be able to track any asteroids or comets interior to orbit Mars, because they move too fast for a single gyroscope to keep up with. Overall, NASA estimates that Hubble will see a productivity drop of up to 25% from now on.
Hubble returned to active duty on June 14, with this image of NGC 1546 being its first since — and the first of many more to come.
“Hubble’s new image of a spectacular galaxy demonstrates the full success of our new, more stable pointing mode for the telescope,” said Jennifer Wiseman, Hubble project manager at NASA. Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Va. said declaration. “Now we are ready for many years of discovery and we will see everything from our perspective Solar System on exoplanets to distant galaxies. Hubble plays a significant role in this NASA“The Astronomical Toolkit.”
Over the years, the Hubble Space Telescope has overcome many problems, from an improperly polished primary mirror requiring the insertion of corrective lenses on a do-or-die rescue mission, to several faulty instruments that needed to be replaced, and wear and tear on the spacecraft, now in its fourth decades in space. And yet, against all odds, Hubble survives and thrives. Here’s to many more years of this fantastic observatory providing breathtaking views of space.