Ubuntu spotted running on PC used by Hubble scientist

Apr 24, 2015 16:14 GMT  ·  By

A new documentary about the Hubble space telescope was just released on Nova, and a Reddit user pointed out that one of the scientists was using Linux to manage the data provided by the telescope.

The Hubble space telescope is now in the news because it celebrates 25 years since its launch and that is an amazing achievement, especially if we keep in mind that it was launched with a flaw that could have turned it into space junk.

Linux operating systems are used all over the world, in all kind of research projects or institutions, whether it's NASA, the European Space Agency, CERN, Fermilab, or hundreds of other places. For the most part, scientists choose what to use, so when they choose Linux it usually says something about that operating system.

In case of the documentary from Nova, we see a scientist using an Ubuntu OS (not sure which one) to interpret data from the satellite. That is both interesting and not all that surprising, if we keep in mind that Ubuntu has been spotted at NASA, JPL, and a few other places.

All things aside, Invisible Universe Revealed from Nova is a very interesting piece about the rescue mission that managed to fix the telescope and provide us with 25 years of incredible scientific discoveries.