BBC Focus - 04.2020_

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KEVIN

HARTNETT

Hubble’sscienceoperationsmanagerjoinedtheteamin1997,andis

responsibleforoverseeingscientificaspectsofthespacetelescope’s

operations.Witha bachelor’sdegreeinphysicsandastronomy,his

career began in the private industry before he started working at NASA

I N TERV IE W

ABOVEKevin

Hartnettworking

intheSpace

Telescope

Operations

ControlCenter

duringHubble’s

finalservicing

mission in 2009

HOWISHUBBLEDOING?

It’sperformingatthepeakofitscapabilitiesandfunctioning

marvellously.Therearen’tasmanyavailablebackupsas

thereweresomeyearsago.Forinstance,Hubblehassix

gyrostokeepitselforientated,butonlythree are active and

weneedthreetodoourbestscience.

Ourengineersarecomingupwithcleverwaystocombat

ageing.Thingsdim,theyfade,onesideofthedetectorhasa

greatersensitivitythantheother.Butthey’vekeptthe

observationsreallyattheforefrontofwhatanyonecando

on the ground or in space, and that’s pretty remarkable.

WHATSETSHUBBLEAPART?

It’sa one-stopshopforverystable,highcontrastimaging

andspectroscopyfromthenearinfraredwavelengthsright

throughtotheultraviolet,witha 2.4mmirrorabovethe

atmosphere.Wehaveveryfineguidancesensorstoo.In

layman’sterms,it’slikebeingontopoftheWashington

Monumentin Washington,DCandkeepinga laserpointeron

a dimeonthetopoftheEmpireStateBuildingin NewYork

City 330 kilometresawayfor 24 hours. So once we lock on,

we really lock on target.

WHATTYPEOFRESEARCHDOESHUBBLEDO?

SolarSystemastronomy,galaxies,large-scalestructureof

theUniverse,andeverythingin between– Hubblehasmade

majorcontributionstoeveryastronomicalfield.Thereare

alsolegacyprogrammes.Forinstance,there’sa largeproject

rightnowtoobserveeveryMilkyWayglobularcluster.Not

becausesomeonewantstowritea paperonall 150 clusters,

but the data is there if someone ever does.

DOESTHEOLDDATASTILLGETUSED?

Ohmy,yes.There’sa lotofinterestingscienceyoucando

witha 25-yearbaseline.If you’vegotgoodobservations

from 25 yearsago,youcancomparethemtosimilar

observationstoday.Youcanseejetsactuallymovingoutof

thebigquasarin M87.Youcancalculate velocities. Scientists

can get a lot out of data like that.

HOWLONGDOESHUBBLEHAVELEFT?

Hubbledoesn’thavea propulsionsystemandit is slowly

fallingtoEarth.A reportfromSeptember 2018 predicts

Hubblere-entrynoearlierthan2027,andthemeandateis

around2038.We’reveryin-tunewiththeperformanceof

thetelescopeandwe’retryingtopamper all of its systems,

to keep it running as long as possible.

FROMTHEMAKERSOF

“WEHAVEVERYFINEGUIDANCESENSORS.

IT’SLIKEKEEPINGA LASERPOINTERON A

DIME 330KM AWAY FOR 24 HOURS” DISCOVERMORE

M

READ

Hubble: 30 Years

Of Discovery is out now.