Hubble

Quadruple Saturn Moon Transit Snapped by Hubble

By lisala on 3/28/09 5:36pm
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The Hubble Space Telescope group released an image last week that shows four of Saturn's moons in transit across the face, and rings, of Saturn. This is a fairly rare event, occurring only every fifteen years. This particular image was taken on February 24, 2009. Because the orbits of the larger Saturnian satellites are in the ring plane, or edge-on, it's an exceedingly spectacular event, and the Hubble team succeeded wildly in capturing it for us. </p.

I've linked to a small image of the moons in transit across the face of Saturn in this post; you can click it for a more detailed view, Annotated image of four of Saturn's moons in transitwith annotations. You'll see, moving from the top, Saturn's largest moon, Titan (larger even than Mercury), looking faintly orange in color because Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere is tinted by the side effects of sunlight on methane and nitrogen.

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Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra on M 101

By lisala on 3/7/09 9:18pm
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As part of the celebration in honor of the International Year of Astronomy, and the 400th anniversary of Galileo's discoveries, NASA has released special images made at each of its associated observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each observatory has turned its scopes, using a variety of equipment and wave lengths, to the spiral galaxy known as Messier 101, or M 101. Hubble provided an optical view, Spitzer an infrared, and Chandra an X-ray view. The data from each observatory was combined to create a single image, linked above.

M 101 is a spiral galaxy, larger but otherwise much like our own milky way, and located in the constellation Ursa Major. M 101's nickname is "the Pinwheel Galaxy," because, well, the gas clouds formed around the stars make it look very like a pinwheel.

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Hubble's Next Discovery: You Decide

By lisala on 1/31/09 5:52pm
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As part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's astronomical discoveries Image of the official Hubble's Next Discovery badge400 years ago, scientists and enthusiasts all over the world are celebrating 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. NASA is offering everyone a chance to vote on which of six possible astronomical objects should be studied by the "new and improved" Hubble later this year. The six objects include:

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Ganymede: Now You See It, Now You Don't

By lisala on 12/19/08 8:34pm
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Yesterday NASA released a nifty photo of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, immediately before Ganymede seems to disappear behind Jupiter. Ganymede makes a complete orbit around Jupiter every seven days, but because Ganymede's orbit is tilted, from Earth's perspective, it looks as if Jupiter's moon passes in front of Jupiter, then disappears behind the "dark side" of the massive planet, only to reappear again later. Ganymede is not nearly as tiny as the image would suggest. In fact Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury, but Jupiter is so huge that it dwarfs Ganymede, making the moon seem tiny even though it is the largest moon in the solar system, larger even than Earth's own satellite.

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Hubble Finds CO2 on HD 189733b

By erika on 12/15/08 6:19pm
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Researchers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory report that the Hubble Space Telescope has found CO2 on a planet outside our solar system. HD 189733b is unlikely to actually harbor extraterrestrial life, being a Jovian class planet with a surface temperature of 1,292 degrees F. But the successful detection bodes well for our search for extraterrestrial life.

Although Hubble was originally designed to observe distant stars and galaxies, researcher Mark Swain discovered that he could use its infrared imaging and multi-object spectrometer to identify gases. Using what is called the "secondary eclipse method," Swain waits for the target planet to be eclipsed by its parent star, and compares the light spectra before and after the eclipse.

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Hubble Repairs: Servicing Mission 4

By lisala on 12/2/08 9:40am
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The Hubble Space Telescope was deliberately designed to allow upgrades via servicing missions while the telescope remains in orbit. The plan was for shuttle missions to carry upgrades, new equipment and tools for repair and dock near the telescope, near enough that astronauts can repair and upgrade the telescope while it remains in orbit. This has worked extremely well.

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Hubble: More mysterious objects in space

By beatriz on 9/22/08 1:25pm
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eggs in space What could these mysterious objects be?  Eggs in space?  Or cosmic river rocks?  Find out here and check out more cool pictures courtesy of the Hubble Telescope.

Mystery objects found in space

By beatriz on 9/16/08 8:58am
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New images from the Hubble Telescope show a mystery object out in space. The super-bright object was observed for 100 days and then it just disappeared. The mysterious object is not being identified as a supernova, or as belonging to any galaxy, no one knows exactly what it is. Read more here. Does anyone have any ideas?

Blame the Russians

By beatriz on 9/9/08 11:44am
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Well, they're just partly to blame. Next month the Space Shuttle Atlantis will be embarking on a mission to do repairs on the eighteen year-old Hubble Telescope. This mission might prove to be a bit tricky due to all the debris floating about in space. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor:

"The environment where the Hubble orbits, about 350 miles above the Earth’s surface, has more debris than where the International Space Station orbits and where most shuttle missions are conducted, at about 210 miles above the Earth. This “space junk” includes defunct satellites and spent rocket stages, fragments from exploded satellites, rocket engine effluents, paint flakes, and other small particles – all traveling at speeds of more than 15,000 miles per hour."

That doesn't sound very good.

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Amazing pictures from space

By beatriz on 9/2/08 4:31pm
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These images from the Hubble telescope are breath-taking. I haven't been able to stop looking at them. Some of these photos look like abstract or surreal art. It's an amazing universe that we live in, and we're very fortunate to have the tools to be able to look past the heavens into outer space. I can't help but wonder how in all this vastness we could possibly feel alone. It seems silly, I know, but you know there's other life out there. they're probably peering at us through their telescopes and wondering what we're looking at.

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Hubble explores dark nether-regions

By beatriz on 9/1/08 11:51am
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Recently, the Hubble telescope was peering into George W. Bush's head and it found anti-matter--- a black hole.