Hubble Telescope Stopped Functioning
By Asmitha Daggumati
After 31 years of successfully orbiting the Earth, the Hubble telescope has recently stopped working. This year on June 13th, the Hubble Telescope went into Safe Mode. Safe mode is a type of shutdown mode. This error was in the primary and backup computers. Then on June 23rd and 24th, tests were conducted showing that other parts were also experiencing this error. NASA had a hunch that this error is because the computer’s memory module of the Hubble Telescope is going bad.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24th, 1990, to gather light from cosmic objects, so scientists can better understand the universe around us. Over the years, this telescope has provided many images that have awed and inspired the public, like pictures of Supernovas and Nebulas. The history of the Hubble Telescope started in 1946, soon after World War II, when astronomer Lyman Spitzer proposed launching a space telescope. It took a couple of decades before the idea gathered enough support for the National Academy of Science to organize a committee of scientists to evaluate the potential of a Large Space Telescope. The National Academy of Science took this idea to NASA, which was the only agency capable of making the Large Space Telescope a reality. NASA had already started thinking about a space telescope of some kind but was unsure about where to start. Then, in 1971, George Low, NASA’s acting administrator at that time, green-lighted the Large Space Telescope Science Steering Group and NASA soon began lobbying Congress for funding for the project.
Funding for the project was initially denied by the House Appropriations Subcommittee in 1975. NASA then upped their lobbying efforts and got buy-in from European Space Agency, which shared the costs. Congress eventually granted funding for NASA’s portion of the Large Space Telescope in 1977. Development began, and NASA planned to launch the telescope in 1983, but production delays postponed the launch to 1986. Then the Large Space Telescope was renamed the Hubble in honor of Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer who determined that the universe extended beyond the borders of the Milky Way. The telescope’s launch was postponed again when the 1986 space Shuttle Challenger exploded a minute after takeoff on January 28th, killing all seven astronauts on board. It then took two years before NASA started planning Hubble’s launch again. Then finally, on April 24th, 1990, the world’s first space telescope was launched. The effort took 1.5 billion, but there were outgoing costs. The Hubble telescope has experienced many issues in its lifetime, so this recent issue is not so much of a surprise.
An astronomy researcher, James Maynard, believes that the solution to fixing the telescope is to turn the telescope on and off. But on June 15th, NASA decided to use the backup hardware on the telescope. If this works, the Hubble Telescope will be operational once again.
The Snap-On Battery Pack
By Eva Anand
This month Apple released a battery pack with some pretty cool features. It only works on the iPhone 12 models, but it provides extra battery life and uses reverse wireless charging. Of course, there are always some cons, such as heating up your iPhone and being pretty big. In this article, we will explain the pros and cons of this snap-on battery pack.
The MagSafe battery pack only comes in white for now, it is unclear if Apple is planning to release more colors, but it can snap onto your phone and charge your phone up to 90%! This battery pack also uses something called reverse wireless charging. This means that while charging your phone, you can also plug in your battery pack at the same time!
But then of course there are cons. The price for this portable battery pack is $99, which is pretty expensive. In pictures, this battery pack looks pretty slim, but in reality, it is 11mm thick, and the iPhone 12 is 7.4mm. It is also pretty heavy. It is 115 grams, while the iPhone 12 itself is 164 grams. So having the battery pack on will make your phone bulky. Also, MagSafe only works on the iPhone 12 models. Older phones aren’t compatible. People also say that MagSafe can start heating your phone, so it is recommended to only charge it to about 80%.
Now, this battery pack might have some cons, but it is way more convenient than having to carry around your charging cable for the regular battery packs. Comment on our Instagram, Medium, Twitter, or send us an email answering: Would you buy this battery pack? Do you think it is worth $99, even though it has its cons?
Oppo Watch
By Sara Simon
Oppo released a new smartwatch. The Oppo Watch took the design of the Apple Watch but made it compatible with Android. You can call it the Apple Watch for Android. One design change that Oppo made was they included curved edges to make swiping through tabs easy. It uses WearOS created by Google. Even though visually this watch looks like an Apple Watch, it does have a few features that the Apple Watch doesn’t have.
It has up to 36 hours of battery life, twice as much as the Apple Watch. It has a way better sleep monitor than the Apple Watch. Oppo Watches have a feature called Tiles. Basically, you have these Tiles you can swipe between, which you can customize to show different information. Oppo decided to replace the rotating crown used in the Apple Watch with another button. I do not think that was a good choice because people use the rotating crown in many scenarios in the Apple Watch.
As mentioned earlier, Oppo Watch runs WearOS by Google. This means the Oppo Watch has access to Google Products, like Google Assistant or Google Voice.
There are three different versions for this watch, the 41mm Wifi version, the 46mm Wifi version, and the 46mm LTE version. You might be wondering what’s the difference between LTE and Wifi. LTE means that the watch can use your phone’s Data Plan to use the Oppo Watch outside of your house, but Wifi means that the Oppo Watch is only limited to the boundary of your wifi network. The 41mm version comes in Black, Pink Gold, and Silver Mist, while the 46mm versions come in Black and Glossy Gold.
Do you think the Apple Watch for Android is worth buying?
Sources
- Hubble Telescope Stopped Functioning. Redd, Nola (April 20, 2020). Hubble Space Telescope: Pictures, Facts & History. Space.com. https://www.space.com/15892-hubble-space-telescope.html.
- Hubble Telescope Stopped Functioning. NASA Goddard (April 16, 2020). NASA’s Incredible Discovery Machine: The Story of the Hubble Space Telescope. Youtube. https://youtu.be/Lo43Gq_Xe1M.
- Hubble Telescope Stopped Functioning. Simon, Sara (July 18, 2021). Hubble Telescope. Thinker’s Chronicle. https://www.thinkerschronicle.com/post/edition-32.
- The Snap-On Battery Pack. Clover, Juli (July 20, 2021). Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack: Everything You Need to Know. MacRumors. https://www.macrumors.com/guide/magsafe-battery-pack/.
- The Snap-On Battery Pack. Malin, Zoe (July 14, 2021). Apple launches MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone 12 models. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/shopping/tech-gadgets/apple-magsafe-battery-pack-iphone-12-n1273959.
- Oppo Watch. Oppo (n. d.). Oppo Watch. Oppo. https://www.oppo.com/en/accessory-oppo-watch/.
- Oppo Watch. Unbox Therapy (October 11, 2020). This is NOT an Apple Watch…. Youtube. https://youtu.be/xCPjrHjdTRw.
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Edited by Sara Simon. Created by Aarush Reddy, Asmitha Daggumati, Chinmay Bhat, Eva Anand, Raghav Senthil Kumar, Rhea Paliwal, Sara Simon, and Vineeth Menon.
