Archive for the 'HST' Category

四土卫掩土星

Published on 三月 23, 2009 in HST and Transit. View Comments Tags: .

quadruple saturn moon transit 24 feb 2009 300x205 四土卫掩土星点击图片放大

在2009年2月24日，哈勃空间望远镜首次摄下了罕见的四颗土卫凌土星表面的照片。图片中最大的卫星就是泰坦(土卫六），是最大的土卫，它还大过最靠近太阳行星——水星。其他的卫星市Dione, Mimas和Enceladus（土卫二）（抱歉。。中文翻译我可得找找）。将页面滚动到最底下可看到标上名字的土卫。

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Hubble’s New Equipments In 2008

Published on 十一月 30, 2006 in Astronomical Instruments, HST and NASA. View Comments

HST Service Mission 4Yes, Michael Griffin has announed that Hubble Space Telescope will have its Service Mission 4 (SM4), the final SM, in 2008. It will be giving stunning discoveries again with the latest scientific instruments.

New batteries will be installed during this mission. The capacity of the olds are degraded and cannot work for 2 to 3 more years. Thermal blankets protecting it against the harsh environment of space will be installed as well. Don’t forget the almost broken down gyroscopes. Some of the current are dead and it is running on the backup gyroscopes. These are the basic equipments for it to function properly. Now, we go to the astronomical instruments.

One of the three fine-guidiance sensors will be replaced to improve its ability to track faint guide stars and measure stellar positions with greater accuracy. The Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph are the Hubble’s new guns. These two powerful instruments will push its ability to the peak. The astronauts will try to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. It has stopped operating since 2 years ago when a power supply failed.

Good luck to all the astronauts and staffs joinning this service mission. Did I mention that HST is as old as I am?