NASA Hubble Space Telescope Still in Safe Mode After Capturing a Halo Hugging A Mourning Nebula

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) found several error codes after recently placing the Hubble Space Telescope into safe mode. Regardless of the optical instrument's situation, HST discovered a colorful halo ring hugging a planetary nebula after losing a star.

NASA Blames Error Codes On Hubble Space Telescope's Recent Safe Mode

According to the New York Post, NASA seeks to determine the cause of the newest Hubble Telescope problem immediately after the instrument's science activities were halted.

The telescope began displaying error codes on October 23, according to NASA. It was caused by a loss in synchronization message, which ensures that the space instrument reacts to data requests and orders with the greatest precision.

Nonetheless, the Hubble Telescope crew adjusted the telescope and continued to utilize the space equipment the next day. However, the telescope began to display more fault codes after two days, or on October 25 to be exact.

Hubble’s science instruments went into safe mode on Monday after experiencing synchronization issues with internal spacecraft communications. Science observations have been temporarily suspended while the team investigates the issue. The instruments remain in good health.
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 25, 2021

ALSO READ: NASA Hubble Space Telescope Saw Another Set of Galaxy Thousands of Miles Away!

This time, the codes revealed further problems with the telescope's synchronization communications. Hence, Science Times, citing NASA, said the space agency placed Hubble Telescope had gone into safe mode. As a result, the US space agency examined why the Hubble telescope did not do its research operations.

It's worth mentioning that NASA placed the Hubble Telescope into safe mode in March of this year due to a software issue.

Hubble Finds Colorful Ringed Hazy Halo Hugging Planetary Nebula

Despite being in safe mode, NASA said Hubble Space Telescope discovered a planetary nebula that formed when a Sun-like star died.

As it died, the medium-sized star NGC 2438 would have ejected its outer layers of gas into space. A white-dwarf core was left behind as a result of this occurrence. The nebula's brighter inner ring is surrounded by a halo of luminous gas that spans 4.5 light-years. These halo formations may be seen in many circular or nearly round planetary nebulae, and astronomers have been studying how they evolve. One of the nebulae analyzed was NGC 2438, and researchers discovered that the halo glows owing to the center white dwarf's ionizing radiation.

In the image above, blue symbolizes oxygen (O III), green represents hydrogen (H-alpha), orange represents nitrogen (N II), and red represents sulfur (S II).

Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 got the image, which revealed the nebula's characteristic stair shape. One of the camera's four detectors amplified the picture, which was then reduced down in the final image to match the other three, resulting in the distinctive form. For further details on the picture shape of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, check out this link.