Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

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Gorgeous new space photo shows two galaxies during an epic flyby Mashable A powerful space telescope orbiting Earth has spied on two galaxies in the midst of a cosmic close call 500 million light-years away. The Hubble Space ... NASA's Hubble telescope captures galaxy duo by the 'Hare'Zee News Hubble Telescope Captured Images of Galaxy Duo by the 'Hare'The Indian Tribune Passing in the night: Hubble spots 'double whammy' of individual galaxies speeding past each other at a million ...Daily Mail Science Times -Science Daily all 24 news articles »

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Gorgeous new space photo shows two galaxies during an epic flyby - Mashable

New Delhi: The US space agency NASA has released a beautiful image of the unusual galaxy IRAS 06076-2139, found in the constellation Lepus (The Hare).

The image was captured by NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope.

According to NASA, Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instruments have observed the galaxy from a distance of 500 million light-years.

The particular object stands out from the crowd by actually being composed of two separate galaxies rushing past each other at about 2 million kilometers (1,243,000 miles) per hour.

The speed is most likely too fast for them to merge and form a single galaxy.

Because of their small separation of only about 20,000 light-years, the galaxies will distort one another through the force of gravity while passing each other, changing their structures on a grand scale, as reported.

Such galactic interactions are a common sight for Hubble, and have long been a field of study for astronomers.

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NASA's Hubble telescope captures galaxy duo by the 'Hare' | Zee ... - Zee News

As Star-Lord and his team head to the big screen this weekend to guard a galaxy in the Marvel universe, new images from the Hubble Space Telescope remind us that there are far more galaxies in our own universe without any superheroes to protect them from evil villains.

"Much like the eclectic group of space rebels in the upcoming film 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2', NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing innumerable galaxies flung across time and space," NASA officials said in a statement that was published along with some incredible new views of galaxies in deep space.

A gorgeous galaxy cluster named Abell 370 stars in the images, which NASA released on Thursday (May 4). The cluster contains hundreds of galactic neighbors bound together by their own gravitational pull. Abell 370 lies about 4 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Sea Monster). But you can also see more distant galaxies that lie behind the cluster. [The 10 Must-Read 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Stories]

Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster Abell 370.

The background galaxies in appear cloudy and distorted due to an effect called gravitational lensing. All that gravity from the hundreds of galaxies inside the cluster bands the light that comes from the other side, causing those distant objects to appear warped.

"These far-flung galaxies are too faint for Hubble to see directly, NASA officials said in the statement. "Instead, the cluster acts as a huge lens in space that magnifies and stretches images of background galaxies like a funhouse mirror." One of these warped galaxies seen in Hubble's new images is nicknamed "the Dragon" for its shape and size.

These images from the Hubble Space Telescope's Frontier Fields program features massive galaxy clusters that act as gravitational lenses in space, magnifying and stretching images of distant objects in the background that would otherwise be too small and faint for Hubble to see.

Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble telescope has provided the deepest views of the cosmos we've even seen. Unlike the superpowers of the heroes in the Marvel realm, Hubble's superpower is far from science fiction. So if and when you decide to go see "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (which hits movie theaters Friday, May 5), maybe you'll take a moment to stop and think about the countless defenseless galaxies in the real universe that Hubble is keeping an eye on.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Paging Star-Lord! Hubble Spies Hundreds of Galaxies That Need Guarding - Space.com

First deployed in 1990, The Hubble space telescope was the first of its kind. Unencumbered by light pollution and our planets atmosphere, it has in its tenure achieved an impressive list of discoveries. Among them, its helped us better understand dark matter and dark energy, discover proto-planets and super-massive black holes, helped us fine-tune our estimate for the age of the universe13.75 billion years old, and much more. Despite its remarkable record, its getting old and is in need of retirement. So, whats going to replace it?

An even more remarkable piece of equipment, The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb). This is the most sophisticated telescopes ever created. It has a 21 ft. (6.5 meter) gold-coated, primary mirror array, six times larger in area than Hubbles. The mirror is made from 18 separate segments.

These segments are made of an ultralight substance known as beryllium. They unfold and adjust as needed and take in seven times more light than Hubbles mirror. This is an infrared telescope, meaning it picks up infrared radiation, in addition to the visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum. This makes it so powerful, it can even see through cosmic dust.

One of the gold covered segments of the mirror array. NASA.

The telescope carries other instruments including cameras and spectrometers which can detect incredibly faint signals. Another impressive feature is called the NIRSpec, which uses programmable micro-shutters that can observe up to 100 objects at once.

John Mather is an astrophysicist and the senior project scientist for Webb. He said, "We've done two decades of innovation and hard work, and this is the result we're opening up a whole new territory of astronomy." This is such a sensitive instrument, it would be able to detect an object the size of a bumble bee, as far away as the moon is from Earth, according to Mather.

Hubbles replacement is set to launch in October of next year from French Guiana. Webb will be nestled atop an Ariane 5 rocket, a heavy launcher primarily used by the European Space Agency (ESA). This mission has been a collaborative effort among NASA, the ESA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Northrop Grumman, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Model of the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA.

Webb was first called the "Next Generation Space Telescope" (NGST). But a push was made to name it after James E. Webb, the second administrator of NASA, who ran the agency between 1961 and 1968. He oversaw the Apollo missions to the moon and many argue that although not a trained scientist himself, he did much for the advancement of science and space exploration. In this sense, the NGST embodies the legacy of the man.

Cutting edge space-ready technology is never cheap. The price tag for Webb all told is $8.8 billion. And just like anything breaking new ground, it comes with significant risk, which is why it's currently undergoing a battery of testing. While the Hubble was placed in low Earth orbit, the Webb is going to be positioned about a million miles (1.5 million km) away. So if something goes wrong, itll be difficult to get up there and fix it. Once placed, itll be a nail-biting six months before its even operational.

In its five-and-a-half to ten year mission, Webb will help us look back on the earliest moments of the universe, when galaxies were still in their infant stages. It'll beam back data using a high-frequency radio transmitter. Since space is so big, light can only travel so far, even at its incredible velocity. We measure distant bodies therefore in light years, or how many years it takes light to travel from there to Earth.

The 30 Doradus Nebula. A vast region found by Hubble where thousands of stars are born. Getty Images.

That means looking deeply into space is also looking back in time. For instance, it takes eight minutes for light from the sun to reach Earth. A better example, the nearest star system, Proxima Centauri, which is over four light-years away, appears to us on Earth as it was a little over four years ago. If a cataclysmic event occurred, we wouldn't see it until four years later.

In this way, Webb will allow us to see how planets, stars, and galaxies were created, and how the universe has changed over time. It will also aid in the search for exoplanets, as well as give us a closer look at newly discovered ones, for signs of water, an atmosphere, vegetation, and even intelligent life, such as any visible technology or signs of pollution. Recently, weve discovered thousands of exoplanets, including many small, Earth-like ones. So there are lots of good candidates that could potentially harbor life.

To learn more about the Webb and how it differs from the Hubble, click here:

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The Hubble Telescope's Successor Will Aid in the Search For Extraterrestrial Life - Big Think

BGR

Hubble just delivered one of the most gorgeous space photos ever BGR The past few weeks have been jam-packed with stunning imagery from Saturn, delivered courtesy of the Cassini spacecraft. Now, almost as if to say Hey, remember me?, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has grabbed our attention with what is almost ... Bright star upstages galaxy in new Hubble telescope photoMashable Hubble Space Telescope Looks at NGC 5917 | Astronomy | Sci ...Sci-News.com James Webb Space Telescope will soon leave NASA Goddard for next phase of testingBaltimore Sun Space.com -The TeCake -Tech2 (blog) all 11 news articles »

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Hubble just delivered one of the most gorgeous space photos ever - BGR

NASA finally unfurled the James Webb Space Telescope! The JWST has been undergoing acoustic and vibration testing for months, but its been fully opened because now its time for the next phase of testing. That will take place at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. There, mission techs and scientists will test and calibrate the telescopes instruments. The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to the Hubble telescope. Behold here the completely opened telescope mirror in all its glossy, high-tech beauty:

Bears a certain resemblance to an extremely sciencey daffodil. Image: NASA

While the JWST has yet to launch, theres no turning back for Cassini: its flyby of Titan early this week altered its orbit in a way that means it cant avoid crashing into Saturn this September. Starting April 26th, the spacecraft is scheduled to make a series of 22 dives between Saturns rings and its surface. Then its mission will end for good as Cassini crashes into Saturn. Were sending it to dive into Saturn because scientists believe that environment would immediately kill any Earthly microbes that somehow managed to live through Cassinis mission in some crevice on the orbiter. Its better that we not accidentally contaminate Enceladus with Earthly lifeforms that could cause headaches later.

With this flyby [of Titan], were committed to the Grand Finale, said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL, in a statement. The spacecraft is now on a ballistic path, so that even if we were to forgo future small course adjustments using thrusters, we would still enter Saturns atmosphere on Sept. 15 no matter what.

And then theres the bricks.

Youve probably heard of rebar, those steel rods we use to reinforce concrete. You may also have heard of fiber-reinforced concrete. Its cool stuff; we use it for bridges and other applications where extreme bending forces will be applied to the concrete, because the fibers make the concrete less likely to crack under the combined tension and compression. Some scientists figured out that by taking soil samples like Martian regolith, putting them in a mold and applying an amount of force equivalent to beating the daylights out of them with a ten-pound sledgehammer, they were able to produce rammed-earth (rammed-regolith?) bricks that held up better than fibercrete.

How? The iron oxide in the regolith fuses under the hammering, forming a mesh-like network of iron oxide fibers throughout the brick. Like fibercrete and rebar all in one. So, Mars colonists could make these bricks to construct homes and other facilities out of in situ materials without having to ship massive amounts of building materials from Earth.

Now read: The 25 Best Hubble Space Telescope Images

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This Week in Space: Cassini, the James Webb Space Telescope, and Bricks - ExtremeTech

Twenty-seven years after it launched into orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to snap spectacular views of the cosmos. The aging space observatory, which launched into low Earth orbit on April 24, 1990, kicked off this year's birthday celebration with somedazzling new views of a pair of spiral galaxies.

NASA released the photos Thursday (April 20), just a few days before the anniversary. The images show NGC 4302 and NGC 4298, two neighboring pinwheel galaxies that have similar structures yet look completely different. NGC 4298 is clearly a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, but NGC 4302 looks more like a glowing bar of stars. Because we see NGC 4302 edge-on, its spiral shape is not apparent.

In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take a portrait of a stunning pair of spiral galaxies. The edge-on galaxy is called NGC 4302, and the tilted galaxy is named NGC 4298.

"This starry pair offers a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like to an outside observer," Hubble scientists said in a statement. [Celestial Photos: Hubble Space Telescope's Latest Cosmic Views]

Both of these spiral galaxies lie about 55 million light-years away, in the constellation Coma Berenices, also known as "the Wig." They're also members of the Virgo Cluster, which contains up to 2,000 galactic neighbors.

This view from the Hubble Space Telescope zeroes in on a small, random location of the sky that is filled with distant spiral galaxies. The image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys while Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 was imaging NGC 4302 and NGC 4298. (Space telescopes can multitask, too!)

The famous astronomer William Herschel discovered both galaxies in 1784, but he originally called them "spiral nebulas" because he did not know that they were distant galaxies.

More than a century later, astronomer and cosmologist Edwin Hubble realized that these "spiral nebulas" were actually galaxies. Another century later, NASA named the Hubble Space Telescope after him.

This image shows the same two galaxies imaged with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in two different light channels infrared (IR) and ultraviolet/visible light (UVIS) with different color filters. Because infrared light can pierce through interstellar dust, more stars are visible in the infrared images.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency. Since its launch 27 years ago, it has imaged more than 42,000 celestial objects and circled Earth nearly 148,000 times while racking up 3.8 billion "frequent-flier miles," Hubble scientists said.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Spiral Galaxies Shimmer in Hubble Telescope's 27th Birthday Photos - Space.com

Since it left Earth on April 24, 1990, the Hubble telescope has delivered again and again stunning snapshots of the vast universe around us, and kept us in awe of the marvels of space. To mark the 27th anniversary of the telescopes launch, NASA has released this epic image of two galaxies captured in one frame.

The image, which was released by NASA on April 20, captures two galaxies located 55 million lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices, in the Virgo Cluster of close to 2,000 galaxies. The level of detail is stunning, largely because the distance between us and the galaxies is close in cosmic terms, says Zolt Levay, an image processing specialist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the research center responsible for the Hubble. The image is a composite of several dozen exposures, stitching together images that captured different colors and portions of the featured areas.

Being able to spot two neighboring galaxies so close together is rare, says Levay, although not unprecedented. In 2015, the Hubble captured an image of two merging galaxies in one picture. The distribution of galaxies is uneven, Levay says. While most of the separation between galaxies is very very large, they do occur in groups, and they do occur relatively close to each other.

In the animation above, the galaxy on the left of the final image, NGC 4302, is known as an edge-on galaxy. It appears elongated because it is tilted at 90, so we are viewing the frisbee-shaped galaxy from the side.

The center that appears as a dark lane is dust that absorbs light, striking a contrast with the stars that run on both sides.

The other galaxy, NGC 4298, is a spiral galaxy. Its tilted at 70, and therefore appears as a flattened oval.

According to NASA, the edge-on galaxy is about 87,000 lightyears in diameter, just slightly smaller than our own Milky Way. The diameter of the spiral galaxy featured in the image is 45,000 lightyears, merely a third of the size of the Milky Ways diameter.

The Hubble observations were taken between Jan. 2 and Jan. 22.

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NASA's Hubble telescope captured two galaxies in one epic photo - Quartz

Sacramento Bee

On its birthday, Hubble telescope keeps reaching out for deep-space secrets Sacramento Bee The Hubble Space Telescope turns 27 on Thursday, marking another milestone for earth's eye on space that has brought immense amounts of new knowledge down to the home planet during its lifetime. In a post on its Facebook page, the National ... Galaxies snuggle up in Hubble 27th anniversary imageCNET Hubble team celebrates telescope's 27th birthday with a double scoop of galaxiesGeekWire Hubble celebrates 27 years with two close friendsScience Daily UPI.com -eNews Park Forest -KHOU all 13 news articles »

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On its birthday, Hubble telescope keeps reaching out for deep-space secrets - Sacramento Bee

Interested in galaxies? We have got something for you.

Images of a galaxy turning gas into newborn stars were shared online and the internet just couldn't handle itself.

The galaxy seemed to be turning gas into newborn stars faster than it can replenish its gas supply and is churning out new stars at a prodigious rate.

The stunning new images were captured by the Hubble Space Telescope suing Hubble's wide field camera 3.

NGC 4536 is found within the Virgo constellation, 50 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy boasts several regions of intense star formation. The star formation frenzies within NGC 4536 are bolstered by an intense concentration of gas.

Astronomers aren't sure exactly how the galaxy came to possess so much gas. It's possible NGC 4536 acquired it during a galactic collision.

Stars born in starburst regions tend to burn fast and die young, consuming large amounts of gas very quickly. This makes them easy to identify. Their insatiable appetite gives off massive amounts of ultraviolet light, which excites nearby hydrogen atoms and turns nearby gas clouds into a kaleidoscope of blues and yellows.

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Hubble telescope captures stunning image of starbursts in Virgo ... - Geo News, Pakistan