Quote:
Originally posted by tritium
Whoa whoa whoa. Time to set some facts straight.
There already is a replacement with significantly greater camera capabilities. The Spitzer Space telescope is superior in about 1,000 different categories over the Hubble platform. I like redundancy, but why when the old stuff has become antiquated?
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
In any case, there already is a replacement in orbit and has been for some time now. Take a look at the photographs coming back -- spectacular!
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Actually, the original plan was to keep them both operational:
"Spitzer will be the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program - a family of four orbiting observatories, each observing the Universe in a different kind of light (visible, gamma rays, X-rays, and infrared). Other missions in this program include the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory(CXO). Spitzer is also a part of NASA's Astronomical Search for Origins Program, designed to provide information which will help us understand our cosmic roots, and how galaxies, stars and planets develop and form. "
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/about/index.shtml
Scrapping the Hubble
is a large loss and a step backward for astronomy.