/ 8 February 2005

Bubble bursts for pioneer Hubble

It watched the broken pieces of a comet crash, one after another, into the clouds of Jupiter. It peered at a dark patch of sky no bigger than a grain of sand at arm’s length for 150 orbits and spotted so many galaxies that cosmologists had to double their estimates of the size of the universe.

It confirmed the existence of black holes and caught stars in the act of formation. Its astonishing images have become the stuff of poster art and gallery displays.

But the Hubble space telescope, which orbits the planet 576km above the clouds and atmosphere, could soon plunge to Earth and perish in a fireball over the Pacific Ocean.

Nasa chiefs on Monday night confirmed that their budget rise for 2006 would not be enough to cover the cost of a repair mission to the 14-year-old instrument. The United States space agency will have $16,5-billion to spend, but only $75-million to spend on Hubble. This is just about enough for a robot spacecraft that could rendezvous with the world’s most famous telescope and nudge it back into the deadly embrace of the planet’s gravitational field.

The decision is likely to infuriate astronomers: last year the US National Academy of Sciences urged a final visit by a team of astronauts to Hubble, to replace parts likely to wear out in a year or two.

Hubble was launched in a blaze of glory that turned to tragicomedy: when the telescope returned its first snaps of the heavens, researchers discovered faulty curvature in its 2,4m mirror.

In 1993, astronauts went aloft and fitted the equivalent of spectacles, and suddenly Hubble revealed its astonishing capacity: it could resolve galaxies 13-billion light years away, at the edge of space and time.

But techniques in Earth-based astronomy advanced, and British astronomers now use a telescope in Hawaii twice as powerful as Hubble.

Nasa began looking for ways to save money. ”We have been as eager as the Congress to try to save the Hubble, but at the end of the day what we’re trying to save is the science related to Hubble,” said Nasa’s controller, Steve Isakowitz. – Guardian Unlimited Â