Astrophysicists say the information it provides about the universe is invaluable, but the US government and NASA have decided to stop maintaining the Hubble Space Telescope. George W. Bush has more far-reaching ambitions than deciphering the secrets of the universe: a manned flight to Mars
Haim Handwerker, Haaretz, Walla News!
The photograph of the depth of space obtained by the Hubble telescope. Galaxies formed billions of years ago
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A spectacular photograph was projected on a huge screen in the planetarium of the Museum of Natural History in New York at the beginning of March. Against the background of the cosmic darkness that covered most of the area of the screen, dots and spots of light flickered - some pale and some glowing, some focused and others spreading, some of them look like flying saucers and some resemble diamonds.
Many astrophysicists have been waiting for this photograph. It was transported by the Hubble Space Telescope, where a special camera was installed. The bright points and spots represent the youngest galaxies ever observed by scientists. They were created about 500 million years after the big bang, that is, about 12.5 billion years ago.
A few dozen scientists from Columbia University, Stony Brook University and the museum sat crowded on a stage placed in the center of the planetarium and tried to decipher the photographs. The complete decoding of the photographs sent by the Hubble is a tedious technical work, which will take many months.
The scientists will look for galaxies that were formed billions of years ago and try to understand the process of their development, wonder about the materials that make them up and conclude from all this about the structure of the universe and its future. "The universe is very old," says Prof. Arlene Crotts from Columbia University, "but it is constantly changing. Hubble's photographs allow us an unusual glimpse into the universe. They will help us understand many things that are not understood today."
The Hubble Space Microscope provided the new discoveries about the universe precisely in the days when its future is causing a real storm in the scientific world. Sean O'Keefe, the director of NASA, decided in January of this year that the Hubble project had come to an end. The direct background to the decision is the Columbia disaster. An investigative committee that looked into the circumstances of the crash of the space shuttle, in which the Israeli Ilan Ramon was flying among others, revealed a series of safety failures. The committee found that NASA professionals had warned of safety problems with the shuttle, but NASA leaders ignored the warnings. It also determined that all three existing ferries have significant safety risks.
Following the findings, the heads of NASA began to act, to reduce the risks to a minimum. Therefore, it was decided to stop the flights to repair malfunctions in the space telescope on the grounds that if the astronauts were to get into trouble, there would be no way to rescue the astronauts. Flights to the International Space Station, however, will continue. On the space station, it is possible to repair malfunctions such as the falling of insulation panels, which led to the Columbia disaster, and follow the repair work with a camera that will transmit photographs to the ground.
The decision not to send astronauts on a routine maintenance mission on Hubble is critical. The telescope urgently needs repairs that will allow its continued operation. He needs new batteries, technical equipment and state-of-the-art cameras, which will improve the quality of the photographs obtained from him. All this equipment has already been built, at a cost of 200 million dollars. To carry out the renovation, a shuttle with astronauts must be sent to Hubble, who will install the equipment in the telescope. If the work is not done, the Hubble will stop operating in about three years. Two years later it will enter the atmosphere and burn up.
"I don't want astronauts to risk their lives," says Prof. Crotts, "but Hubble's death will be a very sad day for science. The space telescope is the most important tool available to astrophysics today. All existing telescopes on Earth are unable to provide photographs of the quality that Hubble delivers. The explanation for this is simple - the Hubble takes pictures outside the atmosphere, and thus the quality of the photographs is not affected. Hubble can give us vital information about the matter between the galaxies, that is, the material from which the galaxies were formed. Hubble is the best source of information about the history of the universe."
Michael Schara, head of the astrophysics department at the Natural History Museum, chaired for five years the committee responsible for allocating research time to scientists interested in delving into Hubble's photographs. According to him, Hubble provided one of the most important discoveries in the history of modern physics - with its help it became clear that the universe is expanding and that it is accelerating. He points out that there were several dozen other important discoveries that were discovered with the help of Hubble, such as photographs of the impact of the comet Shumchar Levi 9 on the planet Jupiter in 1994. "He discovered that there are collisions between stars. What we thought existed in theory, happened before our eyes through grief. We saw two galaxies colliding with each other and forming new star clusters. We saw black holes, which swallow other stars."
According to the original plan, the Hubble should operate in space until 2010. To meet the plan, a space shuttle must be sent to it once every three to four years. Due to budget constraints, it was decided that all maintenance tasks would be performed in one flight, but following the Columbia crash, this task was also canceled.
Behind the scenes, some claim that the real reason for the damage to Hubble is budgetary. The President of the United States, George Bush, recently announced a grandiose plan, according to which a man will be sent to Mars by 2020. The base for going to Mars, according to the same plan, will be the moon. Changing NASA's budget priorities is an important part of the plan. Bush ordered the transfer of $11 billion from the space agency's budget over the next five years to the mission of manned flight to Mars.
The announcement completely disrupted NASA's agenda. The cost of the flight to Hubble is half a billion dollars. A lot of money, but not too much. In total, Hubble is allocated 2% of NASA's operating budget. The president's advisers believe that Hubble has exhausted himself and prefer to move on to the next plan. By their side stands public opinion, which is in no hurry to get excited about finding galaxies. A manned flight to Mars excites the imagination much more.
"I hope that the plan to send a man to Mars will not damage the space telescope," says Prof. Crotts. "I am aware that a manned flight to Mars is an idea that excites a lot of people. But it should be remembered that this is a very expensive program, which must be planned carefully. The cost of an unmanned program, such as Hubble's maintenance, is relatively small. It should also be remembered that in the past manned flights into space were carried out that did not have much scientific value and were in fact sterile."
NASA's position regarding Hubble has provoked criticism not only in the scientific community, but also in Congress. Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland expressed opposition to such decisions being made at the top of NASA, without public criticism. As reinforcement, she brought the opinion of retired admiral Harold Gaiman, who chaired the committee to investigate the Columbia disaster.
Gaiman believes that every flight in a space shuttle entails risk. According to him, the flight to Hubble will be slightly more dangerous than the flight to the space station. O'Keefe announced that he is ready to appoint a professional committee on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences to examine the question. Shortly afterwards, at a press conference, the NASA administrator said that even if it were decided to send astronauts to maintain the Hubble, the chances of his mind changing were slim. The statement caused a lot of anger among Hubble's fans.
Even if the fate of Hubble is sealed for the tribe, the interruption of the flow of information from the early days of the universe is only a temporary matter. In the future, another, even more powerful telescope will be sent into space. This telescope, known as James Webb, will be launched to a distance of 200 kilometers from the Earth (Hubble cruises only 500 kilometers from the Earth). The James Webb telescope will be equipped with more sophisticated facilities than those carried by the Hubble and it will operate from a very dark and very distant region of space. The new telescope will allow scientists to observe events that occurred very close to the Big Bang, perhaps 100 million years after the event that created the world. But it won't be ready for launch before 2015-2011.
Yadan Astrophysics 3 - the beginning of the universe
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