Hubble opens its eye again

Esahubble_potw1851a_1024

esahubble_potw1851a December 17th, 2018

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Shapley (UCLA)

For three weeks in October, Hubbles eyes on the Universe closed. On the evening of Friday 5 October, the orbiting observatory put itself into safe mode after one of its gyroscopes failed. The telescope stopped making science observations, oriented its solar panels toward the Sun, and waited for further instructions from the ground. Within hours the ground control team had activated a backup gyroscope. However, when that gyroscope did not work correctly, the long, hard work to get the telescope exploring the Universe once again began in earnest. The Hubble team had either to figure out how to get this backup gyroscope working, or to turn to a previously developed and tested one-gyroscope mode, which is proven to work. It took weeks of creative thinking, repeated tests, and minor setbacks to solve the problem of the misbehaving gyroscope. Members of the Hubble operations team and of the review board suspected there might be some sort of obstruction in the gyroscope affecting its readings. Attempting to dislodge such a blockage, the team repeatedly tried switching the gyroscope between different operational modes and rotating the spacecraft by large amounts. In response, the extremely high rotation rates from the gyroscope gradually fell until they were close to normal. Encouraged but cautious, the team uploaded new software safeguards to Hubble to protect the telescope in case the gyroscope should again report unduly high rates, and then sent the telescope through some practice manoeuvres to simulate real science observations. They kept a close watch to make sure everything on the spacecraft performed correctly. It did. In the early morning of 27 October Hubble captured its first image since slipping into safe mode at the beginning of the month. The observations targeted star-forming galaxies 11 billion light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Astronomers hope to use observations like this to answer the question of how the Universe was reionised between 150 million and one billion years after the Big Bang. Links: Hubble in safe mode as gyroscope issues are diagnosed Update on the Hubble safe mode Hubble moves closer to normal science operations Hubble Space Telescope returns to science operations

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1851a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Hubble Space Telescope
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy
Esahubble_potw1851a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 22h 39m 32.7s
DEC = 11° 49’ 43.6”
Orientation
North is 48.8° CCW
Field of View
2.3 x 2.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Pegasus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J) 1.3 µm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1851a_1280
×
ID
potw1851a
Subject Category
D.5  
Subject Name
Hubble Space Telescope
Credits
NASA, ESA, and A. Shapley (UCLA)
Release Date
2018-12-17T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1851a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
H, J
Central Wavelength
1600, 1250
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
339.886430372, 11.8287812614
Reference Dimension
1064.0, 943.0
Reference Pixel
532.0, 471.5
Scale
-3.55599639209e-05, 3.55599639209e-05
Rotation
48.839999999999925
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1851a
Metadata Date
2018-11-27T16:14:21+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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