Over the weekend, mission operators were able to return the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys to science operations. Additional instruments remain in safe mode, but this is a promising start.

After 31 years in space, Hubble is starting to feel like the character in a science fiction movie who has to keep working, far beyond a reasonable age, for the benefit of everyone around us. Slated to be turned off more than a decade ago, the mission has hit the point of just being tired, and glitches in the hardware have been catching our attention more and more often. 

Hubble is uniquely able to study the sky in wavelengths spanning from ultraviolet to infrared, and this gives it something of a human view of the sky. While many folks often refer to JWST as a successor to Hubble, the reality is that JWST will see the sky in longer infrared colors. At this time, no true replacement to Hubble is planned, and the entire science community is trying to get as much data out of this telescope as they can before it finally ceases to function.

More Information

NASA press release