Engineers revived the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), a 12-year-old instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, this week.
The instrument, which was repaired during the last shuttle mission to the telescope in May (imaged), was likely hit by a charged particle in early July, sending the instrument into standby, or 'safe', mode.
One of the detectors on STIS, used for about half of its observations, is now operational. But NASA's Hubble team is still studying an anomaly that affects two other detectors on the instrument. STIS can be used to hunt for black holes by studying the motions of speedy stars and gas clouds. (Image: NASA)
The instrument, which was repaired during the last shuttle mission to the telescope in May (imaged), was likely hit by a charged particle in early July, sending the instrument into standby, or 'safe', mode.
One of the detectors on STIS, used for about half of its observations, is now operational. But NASA's Hubble team is still studying an anomaly that affects two other detectors on the instrument. STIS can be used to hunt for black holes by studying the motions of speedy stars and gas clouds. (Image: NASA)
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