CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -On Jan. 30, 2020, the venerable Spitzer Space Telescope mission will officially come to an end as NASA makes way for a next-generation observatory. For more than 16 years, Spitzer has served as one of NASA’s four Great Observatories, surveying the sky in infrared.

Detailed explanation-2: -The James Webb Space Telescope that just provided the world with the deepest-ever view of the universe has been permanently damaged by asteroid attacks.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation.

Detailed explanation-4: -Webb is currently at its observing spot, Lagrange point 2 (L2), nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km). It is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched.

Detailed explanation-5: -The month-long shut down was due to a faulty payload computer onboard Hubble that coordinates science operations. When the main computer failed to receive a signal from the payload computer on June 13, it automatically placed Hubble’s science instruments into safe mode, making it blind in space.