So many exciting discoveries have been made using the Hubble Space Telescope that it seems much longer than 12 years since its launch. This run is now being extended thanks to a successful servicing mission that was carried out earlier this year.
New solar panels consisting of rigid panels of gallium arsenide cells have replaced the old arrays of silicon cells. They are only two-thirds of the size of the old cells, but produce 20% more power and are less vulnerable to the vibration that can affect the sensitive instruments on board.
A new digital camera will take images with twice the area of sky and five times the sensitivity of the camera it is replacing, the Faint Object Camera. This old camera has returned to Earth and will be used to study the effects of long-term exposure in space.
A new cooling system has also been installed for Hubble’s infrared camera, which has been unused since 1999 when it ran out of coolant after an accidental heat leak. The camera will now be cooled down to -193 °C by circulating neon gas. The first new astronomy images are expected this month.
Hubble looks set to continue at the forefront of optical astronomy for another 10 years until it is replaced by the Next Generation Space Telescope.
