[meteorite-list] Hubble hit by instrument failure

[mark ford]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3545130.stm


Hubble hit by instrument failure

One of the four instruments on board the Hubble Space Telescope has
stopped working, US space agency Nasa has said. The exact source of the
problem is not known.

The STIS, or Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, was installed during
the second Hubble servicing mission in 1997 and was designed to work for
five years 

It was used to investigate black holes, to discover dim stars that
reveal clues to the age of the Universe and study the atmosphere of an
extrasolar planet. 

Engineers are currently trying to track down the source of the problem.