Hubble's last photo, what will it be?

[Keatah]

There will a come a time when HST takes its last photo. Are scientists and the telescope's handlers making any plans as to what the subject mightl be?

 

[Urwumpe]

Earth.

 

[Linguofreak]

A series of photos: namely, a series of successively brighter dots on the same bearing, followed by loss of signal.

If the timing is just right, the last photo might even be distinguishable as a rock, rather than a dot.

 

[Urwumpe]

A series of photos: namely, a series of successively brighter dots on the same bearing, followed by loss of signal.

If the timing is just right, the last photo might even be distinguishable as a rock, rather than a dot.

http://what-if.xkcd.com/47/ :lol:

 

[Ghostrider]

Cleavage.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Earth.

Is it technically possible?

 

[SolarLiner]

Nope, exposure time plus MEO makes it way to quick to actually focus on something without motion blur, so all you'll get would be likely to be all blue.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Nope, exposure time plus MEO makes it way to quick to actually focus on something without motion blur, so all you'll get would be likely to be all blue.

They will make a shot at night! :lol:

 

[Artlav]

Isn't Hubble pointed at the Earth all the time, for calibration?
They take a perfectly blurred picture of Earth to get an image that is supposed to be all one colour, thus zeroing out pixel offsets, or something to that effect.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Isn't Hubble pointed at the Earth all the time, for calibration?
They take a perfectly blurred picture of Earth to get an image that is supposed to be all one colour, thus zeroing out pixel offsets, or something to that effect.

Which imager with?

 

[Unstung]

Which imager with?

Hubble used Earth to calibrate the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. By pointing at Earth over time, a flat field image is generated which should have the same brightness across the frame. Using data from this frame, the sensitivity of Hubble images can be corrected. I assume Hubble does this now with Wide Field Camera 3, launched on the last servicing mission, but the source is from 2000. Also, there's a relevant "what-if".


As for the time Hubble takes its last image, it may be well before the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere. When Hubble falls deeper into the thermosphere, the thicker atmosphere prevents the spacecraft from accurately pointing its telescope. So, well before Hubble is a fireball, it won't be able to take normal observations, if any. The final image may just be a regular observation, as the spacecraft becomes too difficult to adequately control. A source for this information is difficult to find.

If scientists can figure out when Hubble cannot produce any more worthwhile data, they may prepare a stunning photo for its demise like for each of Hubble's anniversaries. This photo can be taken months or years in advance, so knowing exactly when Hubble cannot function properly is not vital.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I don't know. I really hope it would be something rather simple, something that every astronomer (amatuer and pro) would appreciate and enjoy. Like when they did the horsehead nebula on the 10th anniversary.

 

[Andy44]

If they do the deorbit right, it will be a fish. If they do it wrong, it will be the roof of your house.

 

[thepenguin]

If they do the deorbit right, it will be a fish. If they do it wrong, it will be the roof of your house.

I'd like to come across that at a garage sale.

Space Telescopes, over 95% off!*

*may be slightly charred.

 

[agentgonzo]

IIRC they had to replace a few gyros in the last hubble servicing mission. As these gyros can fail at any time, I expect that at some point in the future, sufficient of them will fail again that NASA can no longer point Hubble in the direction that they want. This will probably happen suddenly as the last gyro* fails. As such, I expect Hubble's last photo to be unremarkable and to be of whatever it was studying before the gyro failure.


*Hubble needs 3 gyros to be able to be controlled in the three axes. IIRC it has 6 (for redundancy). So I expect that when it gets down to 2 working gyros, they can't control it enough anymore (this is what I mean by the 'last gyro' failure, not getting down to zero working gyros)

 

[Andy44]

If Hubble loses attitude control then whatever vehicle is sent to deorbit it won't be able to dock with it. Right?

 

[tl8]

If Hubble loses attitude control then whatever vehicle is sent to deorbit it won't be able to dock with it. Right?

I would expect they would have one attached by the time they get down to 3 gyro's for this event. That said, they could get by with just 2 gryo's but things get harder in that event.

 

[Cairan]

Hubble has gyros for precision pointing but it also has magnetic torquers for gyro desaturation if I remember correctly, so you could always point Hubble to -somewhere- ... Kind of an empty gaze, space telescope version...

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Gives new meaning to "million mile stare".

 

[Ghostrider]

I say we launch a folding mirror in orbit and have Hubble take a pic of it. Epic selfie!