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Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Galaxy NGC 1546 is located in the Dorado constellation. Behold galaxy NGC 1546. It’s a beauty.

Its glowing center and ethereal lanes of dust are highlights of a new Hubble Space Telescope image released by NASA on June 18. It’s more than a pretty picture; it’s proof Hubble is back in business after a pesky string of glitches and a major change to how the observatory operates. Hubble had been struggling with an ongoing gyroscope problem that kept sending it into safe mode, a protective mode that suspends science operations so its handlers back on Earth can take a crack at fixing the issue.



The gyroscopes are critical components that help Hubble point in the correct direction to make observations. The aging observatory originally had six gyroscopes, but was down to just three operating gyros. One of those three was on the blink, so NASA put into motion a plan to allow Hubble to operate with only a single working gyro.

The view of NGC 1546 is like a thank-you note and a proof-of-life statement. It shows NASA’s fix is working. “The image represents one of the first observations taken with Hubble since transitioning to the new pointing mode, enabling more consistent science operations,” the space agency said.

“The NASA team expects that Hubble can do most of its science observations in this new mode, continuing its groundbreaking observations of the cosmos.” The single-gyro pointing mode means the telescope’s o.

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