The Hubble’s computer system dates back to the 1980s and manages the onboard measurement instruments. Flight control is investigating what is going on, space agency NASA reports.
Backup System
The Hubble had to be last summer too be stopped. Then the power supply to a computer on board the satellite failed. It took NASA a month to find the problem and the Hubble was able to switch to a backup system.
Launched in April 1990, Hubble has been orbiting the Earth for more than 31 years at an altitude of more than 500 kilometers. The telescope examined distant galaxies, among other things, giving scientists a better picture of the origin of the universe.
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Burning in the atmosphere
The Hubble received its last service in 2009. It is not known how long the instruments will last. If NASA abandons the space telescope, it could slowly fall out of orbit and eventually burn up in the atmosphere sometime in the next decade.
Successor Hubble
The successor to the Hubble should go to space at the end of this year. That’s the space telescope James Webb, built by the United States, Europe, and Canada.
The new telescope will not revolve around the Earth, like the Hubble, but around the Sun, 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. At that spot, the James Webb has to search for planets that may be home to life, distant galaxies and traces of the Big Bang.
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