Images: Hit parade from Hubble's now-defunct camera

NASA announced Monday that its key instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, has become unusable because of an electrical short circuit. The scientific instrument was installed on the Hubble in 2002. It consists of three electronic cameras, and filters and dispersers for observing wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared on the light spectrum. While its Solar Blind Channel will still be usable, the ACS will never be fully operational again, according to NASA. Its Wide Field Channel and High Resolution Channel are gone for good, according to Dave Leckrone, the senior project scientist for the Hubble. A new camera system, the Wide Field Camera 3, is scheduled to be installed on the Hubble in September 2008 as previously planned.

Here is a look back at some of the more striking images captured by the doomed ACS.

Text by Candace Lombardi, staff writer, CNET News.com

Photo by NASA and STScI