Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

Hubble Telescope, photographed from the Shuttle Discovery/NASA/Flickr Johnson

The Hubble Space Observatory has repeatedly justified its investment. For more than 30 years, the telescope has served science by helping humanity explore space. But the device is getting old and starts to work worse and worse.

Immediately after launch, the Hubble was found to be malfunctioning. But they managed to fix them thanks to the shuttle flights, thanks to which it was later even possible to modernize the space observatory. Shuttles no longer fly, so operators on Earth are doing the repairs. Fortunately, so far there have not been critical accidents that people on Earth could not cope with. Soon Hubble's successor, the next-generation James Webb telescope, will go into space, so the question arises: how much longer Hubble will operate.

Photos of the Hubble telescope taken during the STS-103 mission/Photo NASA Flickr Johnson

James Webb has not yet been launched and it will take more than a month before it is fully operational But even after that, Hubble will not be abandoned experts are likely planning to completely exhaust the giant resource of the legendary spacecraft.

NASA reports that the scientific mission of the space observatory has been extended until June 30, 2026. An additional $ 215 million is planned for this. The continuation of the mission takes place against the backdrop of problems with the Hubble equipment. But given the continued funding, it can be concluded that the problems are not critical and must be quickly resolved in order for the telescope to continue working.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space on April 24, 1990 thanks to the Discovery shuttle.

View original post here:
How long will the Hubble Space Telescope work? - The Times Hub

The Hubble Telescope, which launched more than 30 years ago in 1990, just imaged a curious massive bubble in a nebula 170,000 light years away from Earth. The bubble sits in nebula N44, a seriously elaborate 1,000 light year wide nebula filled with stars of all ages and size, clouds of hydrogen gas, and at the center, this massive bubble.

The superbubble, as NASA calls it, is 250 light years wide, and scientists are not quite sure exactly why it exists. The dark expanse dotted with stars inside this nebula is a bit of a mystery, although at least one theory for this gaping center exists. One posits that massive stars inside the bubble produce stellar winds that may have blown surrounding gas away, creating the blob. Not everything about this theory quite makes sense, though, because the wind velocities measured within the bubble dont seem strong enough to do this.

Another, more compelling theory states that the bubble was likely created in multiple chain reaction star forming events, as the stars within it have massive age gaps compared to those on the rim of the bubble. The nebula glows from the cooling of the ionized gas that fills it, dropping from a high energy state to a low energy state. Regardless of its origins, the bubble is as entrancing as ever.

Read the original post:
Hubble imaged a 'superbubble' floating in space - Popular Science

A new supernova captured by the Hubble Space Telescope may act as a decoder for other star explosions.

Given that the telescope caught the star so early in its "cataclysmic demise," as NASA called it, astronomers say the research may eventually help them formulate an early warning system for other stars that might be about to explode.

Scientists are dubbing the event, known as SN 2020fqv, as the "Rosetta Stone of supernovas." That's a reference to the Rosetta Stone, which has the same text written in three different scripts, allowing historians to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. (The stone was inscribed in ancient Greek, which was well-known to scholars, as well as two forms of Egyptian script, which were then poorly understood.)

The actual stone, dating from about 2,200 years ago, was found by accident in 1799 by soldiers in Napoleon's army campaigning in Egypt; you can see it today in the British Museum in London. Investigators for the Hubble discovery admitted the term "Rosetta Stone" is used often as a metaphor for deciphering information, but noted the term is an apt description for the importance of this new cosmic work.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!

"This is the first time we've been able to verify the mass with these three different methods for one supernova, and all of them are consistent," lead author Samaporn Tinyanont, a graduate student in astronomy at California Institute of Technology, said in a NASA statement.

"Now we can push forward using these different methods and combining them, because there are a lot of other supernovaswhere we have masses from one method but not another."

SN 2020fqv was found amid the Butterfly galaxies, a pair of spiral galaxies located roughly 60 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The supernova was first discovered in April 2020 by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego, California.

Coincidentally, the supernova was also in the view of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), whose primary mission is to search for relatively nearby planets outside of our solar system. Soon, Hubble and several ground-based telescopes joined the multinational observatory star party.

Hubble's sharp eyes allowed the observatory to look at the material close by the star, known as circumstellar material, only a few hours after the explosion occurred. Because the material clung onto the star until the last year of its life, astronomers say studying this stuff allows further research into what the star was doing before it died.

"We rarely get to examine this very close-in circumstellar material since it is only visible for a very short time, and we usually don't start observing a supernova until at least a few days after the explosion," Tinyanont said. "For this supernova, we were able to make ultra-rapid observations with Hubble, giving unprecedented coverage of the region right next to the star that exploded."

Helpfully, Hubble also has an archive of observations of this star dating to the 1990s. Astronomers probed the image series and added TESS observations of the system every 30 minutes in the days before the explosion, as well as during the explosion itself and for a few more weeks (before, we assume, the standard schedule of TESS shifted the telescope to gaze at another spot in the sky.)

Scientists then calculated the mass of the exploding star using three different methods: comparing observations with theoretical models, using information from a 1997 archival image of Hubble (this was to rule out higher-mass stars in the model), and measuring the amount of oxygen in the supernova, which is a proxy for mass. All three methods produced consistent results, with an estimate of 14 to 15 times the mass of our own sun.

One of the more famous unstable stars is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant that is late in its life and put up some antics in the last year or so. Co-author Ryan Foley, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said he doesn't believe Betelgeuse itself is about to explode, but added that SN 2020fqv will help in building our database of stars to watch.

"This could be a warning system," Foley said of the explosion behavior Hubble and other observatories noted. "So if you see a star start to shake around a bit, start acting up, then maybe we should pay more attention and really try to understand what's going on there before it explodes. As we find more and more of these supernovaewith this sort of excellent data set, we'll be able to understand better what's happening in the last few years of a star's life."

A paper based on the research was published Thursday (Oct. 21) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Link:
Hubble telescope spots doomed star that is the 'Rosetta stone' of supernovas - Space.com

The Hubble Space Telescope caught a pair of "squabbling" galaxies in action, according to the European Space Agency.

The pair of objects is known as Arp 86 and includes two galaxies roughly 220 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. They are known individually as NGC 7753 and the much smaller companion NGC 7752.

"The diminutive companion galaxy almost appears attached to NGC 7753, and it is this peculiarity that has earned the designation 'Arp 86' signifying that the galaxy pair appears in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp in 1966," ESA officials wrote in a statement about the new research.

"The gravitational dance between the two galaxies will eventually result in NGC 7752 being tossed out into intergalactic space or entirely engulfed by its much larger neighbor," the added.

Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!

The Hubble Space Telescope observations were meant to shed light on how cold gas in the area contributes to the formation of young stars observed in the image. The observatory examined star clusters, gas clouds and dust clouds in several environments in the neighborhood, including other galaxies outside of Arp 86, ESA stated.

The space telescope's work was combined with measurements from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a set of telescopes in the Chilean Andes optimized to peer through galactic dust in young systems. Between ALMA and Hubble, the research team is seeking more information about how stars are formed.

The research will also assist with future work by the James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch late in 2021 to explore the origins of the universe. One of Webb's research projects will be to look at dusty galaxies (such as Arp 86) to learn more about star evolution, ESA stated.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Read the rest here:
Hubble telescope spots a pair of 'squabbling' galaxies locked in cosmic dance - Space.com

This episode of American Built shows how NASA astronauts embarked on a mission and created the Hubble Telescope.

For ages, scientists, astronomers and human lifeforms alike have all begged to ask the big question: Are we alone in the Universe?

But exploring outer space from the ground didnt help with an answer until the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope took the quest above our atmosphere.

Former Lockheed Martin vice president Jim Crocker described studying the stars from the ground like studying birds from the bottom of a pond on the newest episode of FOX Business "American Built."

"By getting the telescope up above that few hundred miles of atmosphere, we can see clearly again," he said.

VIVA LAS VEGAS: HOW CONSTRUCTING SIN CITY'S STRIP BROUGHT THE GAMBLING MECCA TO LIFE

In 1946, Dr. Lymann Spitzer, an astronomer and physicist at Princeton University, first pitched the idea to construct a large telescope in space but soon realized the technology to see the project through would be generations away. But after the launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, NASAs simultaneous development of the space shuttle and an in-space telescope became more of a reality.

Engineers explain how the telescope malfunctioned even after billions of dollars spent on the project on 'American Built'.

As the project developed, NASA's first chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, known as the "mother of Hubble," became one of the biggest advocates for launching a telescope in orbit.

In 1970, Roman pitched the concept for an in-space telescope to Congress and was able to explain its importance for space exploration. The plan would be to fit the school-bus-sized spacecraft inside the space shuttles cargo bay to then release the telescope and watch it unfurl.

The telescopes functionality included the ability to send updates back to Earth and accessibility for astronauts. The most crucial feature of the telescope was its massive mirrors which required precise engineering in order to operate a project Congress worried was a waste of government spending.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

As the cost kept rising, the operation came to a halt when the Challenger shuttle exploded upon takeoff in 1986. Hubble was forced to be stored until the end of the decade once the shuttle was ready to launch once again.

On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery rose 340 miles above the Earth and began the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. But as the telescope left the bounds of the shuttle, the solar arrays suddenly seized up, threatening the $4.7 billion contraption from gaining any power.

Luckily, the astronauts were able to manually complete Hubbles deployment and ten minutes later, the telescope locked onto the suns power and the crew returned safely to Earth.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

"Science has been revolutionized by Hubble with discoveries that were made of things no one even imagined until Hubble was in orbit," Crocker said. "A thousand years from now, the images from Hubble will be in the minds and memories of a world that remembers what this country did with the first great observatory in space."

Continue reading here:
How NASAs Hubble Space Telescope gave America eyes above the atmosphere - Fox Business

Is there anything more relatable to the tech-lovers of the internet than the thrill of tearing open the packaging on the latest, shiniest gadget? NASA and the European Space Agency get it.

On Friday, the Twitter account for Ariane 5, an ESA launch vehicle, shared a series of "unboxing" photos for the James Webb Space Telescope. For those who might not know, that's the powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been peering into the furthest reaches of space since 1990.

In December, Ariane 5 will carry the new space telescope into orbit where it will bring its fancier optical technology to bear on the same kinds of tasks that Hubble once handled on its own. While it's a big moment for space research, the future satellite has been dogged by controversy due to its connection to Webb, a former NASA administrator who presided over the federal agency in the '50s and '60s when gay and lesbian employees faced discrimination there.

That controversy hasn't slowed down the launch plans, or led to a name change. But the concerns some have voiced continue to loom large as the Dec. 18 launch approaches. One NASA adviser even quit over their dissatisfaction with the agency's handling of naming concerns.

These photos nonetheless offer a fascinating look behind the scenes at how a massive and wildly expensive piece of space tech like this is transported. At roughly the size of a tractor trailer, the $10 billion satellite isn't exactly the easiest thing to ship.

The James Webb Space Telescope is currently set for its one-way trip to outer space to launch on Dec. 18, 2021. Although construction was completed in 2016, the launch has been delayed multiple times, first for further testing and later as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For now, all indications are that the December launch will proceed as planned, barring any of the usual temporary weather hiccups that often disrupt space launch plans.

Follow this link:
NASA and ESA tech geeks posted an 'unboxing' of the Hubble telescope's successor - Mashable

The US space agency NASA frequently shares amazing pictures and videos of space on its social media account, while people love all of NASAs recordings. NASA recently shared a rare record. Hubble Telescope has released a spectacular video clip of neighboring star Andromeda on its social media site Instagram. The video is very nice to watch and many stars are seen together, which will surprise you a lot.

Also read: Anupama Paras Kalnawats son gets empty box from Flipkart, shares record and shows anger

Also read: Viral video: Boy seen singing in the street to pay music school fees; Bollywood stars praised

In the title that comes with the post, NASA wrote that the Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy in a nearby local group. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured millions of stars in a part of the Andromeda Galaxy. The video shows Hubbles view of a part of Andromeda that reveals millions of stars. Old red stars and blue stars were seen in a sky. While crediting the video, NASA wrote, NASA, ESA, J. Talcanton (University of Washington), Ph.D. Group, and R. Universal Production Music.

This video has received over 1 lakh likes since its release. People are very surprised to see this video, while many netizens can see their reactions in the video.

Also read: Sanak: The entire action of Vidyut Jamwals Sanak won the hearts of the people, the user reacted on Twitter

Also read: Sanak: The entire action of Vidyut Jamwals Sanak won the hearts of the people, the user reacted on Twitter

Also read: Forest search operation: Tiger D-23 captured alive in Tamil Nadu Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

Read the rest here:
NASA shared a video of the amazing scene in space, and this post went viral on social media - The Press Stories

An artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope, successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, after its launch. (Photo: ESA)

A new dawn is emerging in the realm of space exploration and discovery. Ushering in that progress is a new joint NASA, ESA, and CSA space telescope: the James Webb Space Telescope, named after former NASA administrator James E. Webb. Scheduled to launch from the shores of French Guiana in December, it will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever put into space. With a primary mirror covered in gold and measuring 21 feet across, Webb is said to be 100 times more powerful than even the Hubble Space Telescope.

For generations, Hubble Telescope pictures have regaled us with spectacular cosmic landscapes that have allowed us to better understand some of the farthest reaches of our solar system and beyond. And its celestial images have since become iconic. Theyve allowed us a clearer view of space than what was previously possible from below Earths atmosphere, which can distort the light traveling from distant stars and planets.

Now, with the help of the James Webb Telescope, well be able to see even further into the corners of the universe. Thought by some to be a replacement for its well-known predecessor, scientists view the new telescope instead as more of a successor, intended to augment and expand upon the discoveries of the Hubble. As their missions overlap, they will jointly provide bewitching views of the cosmos.

Will Webb images look as gorgeous as Hubble images? muses Jane Rigby, a NASA astrophysicist on the James Webb team. Will we love them not just as scientifically valuable, but are they gonna knock our socks off? I'm pretty sure they are.

Optimized to see near- and mid-infrared lightunlike the Hubble which can primarily detect light visible to the human eyeWebb will be able to view older and colder objects in space. This also allows it to see through dust, which can often obscure stars and other objects in Hubble images. Located about one million miles from earthmore than four times further away than the moonthe powerful telescope will be able to see light that has been traveling for nearly the entire history of the universe.

Due to its massive size, Webb cannot fit into a rocket fully assembled. As a result, its folding 18-segment mirror and tennis court-sized sun shield will need to be unfurled and set up over a period of six months once it arrives at its destination. If these complicated maneuvers go according to plan, then its first images should arrive by sometime next summer. And, according to Rigby, the first images released to the public are intended to be jaw-droppingly beautiful, powerful, both visually and scientifically.

The James Webb Space Telescope is currently scheduled to launch from Guiana Space Centre (aka Europe's Spaceport) on December 18, 2021.

Two views of the Eagle Nebulas Pillars of Creation, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in visible and infrared light. (Photo: NASA,ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team)

Two views of the same detailed area in the star-forming nebula NGC 2174 from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Photo: NASAandESA)

Two images of a pillar of star birth taken in visible and infrared light by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, revealing dramatically different and complementary views of the object. (Photo: NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI))

An artist's impression of the James Webb Space Telescope as it transits in front of the Milky Way. (Photo:ESA)

James Webb Space Telescope: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTubeh/t: [NPR]

How Galileo and His Telescope Changed Ideas About the Universe

NASA Releases 30 New Space Images for 30th Anniversary of the Hubble Telescopes Launch

Watch How People React to Seeing the Moon Through a High-Powered Telescope

Astrophotographer Captures Extraordinary Details of Moons Surface in 209-Megapixel Photo

Read the rest here:
James Webb Space Telescope To Give Cosmic Views of Outer Space - My Modern Met

NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is set to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, which is 100 times more powerful than Hubble and will be the largest space telescope in history.

Considered the next generation of space telescopes, Webb is set to become the premier space observatory for astronomers worldwide, according to NASA.

The launch of Webb is expected to take place on December 21, 2021, the first day of winter.

NASA isnt calling the Webb a successor to the Hubble telescope, but rather an extension of what it has accomplished.

While Hubble orbits the Earth at 570 km above our home planet, Webb will sit at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million km away.

NASA

According to NASA, Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries, and help humankind understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Construction of the telescope was a massive undertaking.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Webb is an exemplary mission that signifies the epitome of perseverance, said Gregory L. Robinson, Webbs program director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement.

The CSA contributed a scientific instrument and a guidance sensor, and Canadian scientists will take part in missions related to Webb once it becomes active.

Webb, the man, was an American government official and the second appointed administrator of NASA in the 1960s.

Webb will be launched from Europes Spaceport in French Guiana.

Read more:
Canada helping NASA launch Webb, the largest space telescope in history | Venture - Daily Hive

Astronomy experts note that when the universe was about 3 billion years old, it experienced the most prolific star birth in its long history. However the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) located in northern Chile, in the Atacama Desert, observed cosmic objects from that period and found true rarities: six galaxies of the early universe, massive and dead. Despite belonging to a time with a lot of activity, these galaxies ran out of cold hydrogen, the fuel with which stars are created.

Those galaxies are believed to have expanded since then, not through the creation of stars but by merging with other smaller pairs and gas.

Hubble and ALMA found these strange galaxies increasing their capabilities, by taking advantage of a natural lensOf space that is created by massive galaxy clusters in the foreground. As explained by scientists in the study published in the journal Nature, the gravity of these clusters stretches and amplifies the light of the background galaxies, allowing researchers to use them as magnifying glasses and thus study their characteristics in detail.

At that time in our universe, all galaxies should be forming many stars. It is the time of maximum formation , commented astronomer Kate Whitaker, lead author of the study. By using strong gravitational lenses like natural telescopes, we can find the distant, most massive galaxies and the first to stop star formation, Whitaker added.

As NASA, one of the main responsible for the Hubble project, notes, approximately 11,000 million years later, in the current universe, these previously compact galaxies are believed to have evolved to be larger, but they are still dead in terms of any new star formation .

The six galaxies found had short lives, creating their stars in a short time. According to the US space agency, the reason why star formation abruptly ceased (that is, the loss of cold hydrogen) is a puzzle.

Whitaker establishes some hypotheses in this regard. Did a supermassive black hole create in the center of the galaxy and heat up all the gas? If so, the gas might still be there, but it would be hot now. Or it could have been kicked out and is now preventing it from accumulating back into the galaxy. Or did the galaxy just use it all up and the supply was cut off? These are some of the open questions that we will continue to explore with new observations in the future, said the specialist.

The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.

View post:
Hubble telescope finds six dead galaxies of the early universe - Market Research Telecast