NASA has permanently retired its Galaxy Evolution Explore, a galaxy hunter spacecraft after a decade of its functioning, the space agency announced Friday.
After a decade of operations NASA has announced the permanent retirement of its Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which was responsible for studying millions of galaxies across a period of 10 billion cosmic years using its ultraviolet vision.
"GALEX is a remarkable accomplishment," said Jeff Hayes, NASA's GALEX program executive in Washington. "This small Explorer mission has mapped and studied galaxies in the ultraviolet, light we cannot see with our own eyes, across most of the sky."
The signal to decommission the spacecraft was sent Friday at 3:09 p.m. EDT. A press statement confirms that the spacecraft will remain in orbit for the next 65 years at the least, after which it will fall to Earth and self-burn as soon as it enters the planet's atmosphere. GALEX's objectives were achieved successfully and its missions were renewed three times before NASA finally decided to retire the spacecraft.
GALEX was responsible for the discovery of a gargantuan comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira and providing visuals of a black hole consuming a star. The spacecraft also found evidence of giant rings of new stars around old, dead galaxies. It was also independently responsible for confirming the nature of dark energy, which scientists thought was questionable previously. GALEX also solved the missing link in galaxy evolution about how young galaxies transform into older ones and what happens during this transition period.
GALEX also provided visuals ranging from "ghostly nebulas to a spiral galaxy with huge, spidery arms." NASA also loaned GALEX to Caltech in May last year. Investigators from around the world have used the spacecraft to study stars in the Milky Way as well as in galaxies 5 billion light-years away.
"GALEX, the mission, may be over, but its science discoveries will keep on going," said Kerry Erickson, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
