Preposterous Universe

 
Hubble imaging spectrograph dies

As Jennifer mentions in the comments, one of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope has apparently broken down: the Imaging Spectrograph, used to (obviously) take images with simultaneous spectral information, for example of black-hole candidates. This is too bad but not a complete catastrophe (unless you had time on the instrument); it had already lived past its expected lifespan, and there are still three instruments working on HST. Sure would be nice to have a servicing mission, though.

~ posted by Sean Carroll at 8:30 PM ~ link ~ ~ ~