Its mission has now ended, as it has exhausted the reserves of liquid helium required to maintain its instruments at a low enough temperature.

When they melted, the heat rapidly evaporated the liquid helium - in effect an explosion.

And nine days later a connection between two magnets short-circuited, heating the liquid helium used to supercool the magnets, and forcing it to escape as a gas very fast.

Body scanners used in hospitals would not be possible without superconductivity and liquid helium.

Additionally, the sensitive amplifiers used in radio telescopes are cooled using liquid helium to reduce thermal noise.