The collision has sent more than 600 pieces of debris whizzing around the Earth at 17,500 mph. At those speeds, shards can take out a spacecraft (and you don't even want to think about what it could do to astronauts on a spacewalk). NASA has calculated the chance of a catastrophic impact at around 1 in 185—just below their 1 in 200 threshold. A decision on whether or not to progress with the Hubble repair mission in May is expected to come down within the next week or two. [Discovery via Wired]

There are six targets in all, and NASA is currently conducting a poll to figure out which one to survey using the venerable (and at times glitch-ridden) space telescope.

Voting concludes March 1, so you have some time to deliberate and research your choice. "Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172" currently leads, followed by the plucky "Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274" in second, and the moxie-filled "Star-Forming Region: NGC 6634" is in third.

And guys, a quick aside, if you will. These are space-only locations. "Cute Girl's Window in the Apartment Across the Street" is not one of the options. [Hubble Site via Tom's Astronomy Blog]

Surprisingly, the replacement SIC&DH, which will undergo extensive testing starting in mid-December, will be constructed from hardware of the same vintage as the hilariously old version that keeps flipping out in space right now. Whatever works, I guess.

Even by Hubble standards, the latest picture is pretty amazing. As much I'd like to start off on a some kind of Saganesque soliloquy about sand, whales and the vastness of space, I can't because this picture looks exactly like every third Starfox 64 level. Seriously NASA, are you playing some kind of trick on us? Is the Hubble really OK? Is space even real? [NASA via The Register]

The 486 was activated Thursday, and that went well, NASA scientists said. It was everything else on board the aging space telescope that pooped the bed, unfortunately.

When the 486 fired up, a low-voltage power supply issue sidelined one of Hubble's cameras, and prevented it from rebooting properly. Not good. After that, further unidentified "computer trouble" hit Hubble hard, and ended all recovery efforts instantly. Now NASA is tasked with going through piles of data beamed back from Hubble since the malfunction on Friday to find a cure.

Today the best case scenario for Hubble is that engineers get it up and running late next week, said Art Whipple, a Hubble manager. The worst case scenario is Hubble has to wait for human hands to arrive next year as part of a shuttle mission. And fixing the telescope with astronauts is no joke. As we noted in September when this mess first started, fixing Hubble by hand is more risky that you could possibly imagine. Unless you're an astronaut, of course. [MSNBC]

NASA scientists won't be sure of their success until the computer proves capable of executing mission-critical commands and/or playing through the entirety of Escape From Monkey Island, but their hopes are high for both possibilities. [NASA via The Register]

Think about if this failure had occurred two weeks after the servicing mission, we had just put two brand new instruments in and thought we extended the lifetime for five, 10 years and this thing failed after the last shuttle mission to Hubble. So in some sense, if this had to happen, it couldn't have happened at a better time.

Now, the astronauts will have to add another task to their long list—replace the command and data relay modules with new ones—which will delay the mission until the beginning of next year. Until then, however, scientists will be able to communicate and get images from Hubble using the backup systems, which are being turned on as I write these lines. This is a delicate procedure because these systems haven't been turned on since the late 1980s, before Hubble was launched. [AP]

The flash in the sky is a remnant of a blast 7,000 light-years away in the Lupus constellation. Scientists say that it was the brightest observed supernova in recorded history, and that the light from the explosion could be seen in the daytime for weeks afterward.

The supernova sent a shockwave that traveled outwards at nearly 20 million mph. In the 1960s, radio astronomers first detected the ring of material pushed out by the shockwave. With the latest imagery, released by the Hubble Space Telescope's science team, you can see a gossamer stripe with starlight shining through it—the rocket's red glare indeed.

[Cosmiclog]