Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

NASA, with the help of its various advanced telescopes such as Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, has published fascinating images of galaxies thousands and even millions of light-years away. Some of these include Centaurus A Galaxy, Hamburger Galaxy, Rubins Galaxy, Arp 78 and more. These galaxies exhibit an array of sizes, ranging from diminutive dwarf galaxies with a meager population of a few billion stars to colossal elliptical galaxies with trillions of stars. Moreover, some of these galaxies have unusual shapes like a hamburger, toothpicks, rings and more.

Todays NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is a snapshot of NGC 1566, also known as the Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy, located about 40 million light-years away towards the constellation of Dorado. Within the galaxy are blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes which follow two prominent spiral arms. According to NASA, several images of this galaxy have been captured to study star formation, supernovas, and the spiral's unusually active center.

The image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope which is run by NASA and ESA in collaboration, and was processed by Detlev Odenthal.

This stunning discovery by the Hubble Telescope further proves the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope. Despite being nearly 3 decades old, it still amazes us with stunning images of far-off celestial objects.

To capture such objects, Hubble has advanced optical instruments such as the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was primarily designed to survey large areas of the sky at visible and red wavelengths with 10 times greater efficiency than the earlier premier Hubble camera. It has certainly proved fruitful as most of Hubble's images have been captured by the ACS.

If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe containing billions of stars and situated about 40 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado), NGC 1566 presents a gorgeous face-on view. Classified as a grand design spiral, NGC 1566 shows two prominent and graceful spiral arms that are traced by bright blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes.

Numerous Hubble Space Telescope images of NGC 1566 have been taken to study star formation, supernovas, and the spiral's unusually active center. Some of these images, stored online in the Hubble Legacy Archive, were freely downloaded, combined, and digitally processed by an industrious amateur to create the featured image. NGC 1566's flaring center makes the spiral one of the closest and brightest Seyfert galaxies, likely housing a central supermassive black hole wreaking havoc on surrounding stars and gas.

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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 8 May 2023: Mesmerizing Spanish Dancer Galaxy - HT Tech

image:This artists rendering shows the Extremely Large Telescope in operation on Cerro Armazones in northern Chile. The telescope is shown using lasers to create artificial stars high in the atmosphere. The first stone ceremony for the telescope was attended by the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, on 26 May 2017. view more

Credit: ESO/L. Calada

A research team from the University of Lisbon and University of Oporto (Portugal) participate in the development of METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph). This powerful instrument will equip the largest telescope in the world - the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) - under construction by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Armazones, Chile.

At this critical acceptance stage of the complete and final METIS design, ESO is presenting an illustrative film demonstrating the exceptional capabilities of the instrument. The presentation will take place on May 12, at 4:00pm (CEST).

METIS will detect radiation that is invisible to the human eye, that is, radiation that is felt in the form of heat. The instrument will take advantage of the ELT's giant primary mirror, measuring around 39 meters, to study a myriad of scientific topics, from objects in our solar system to distant active galaxies with revolutionary precision.

This is one of the ELT's most complex instruments and the participation of the Portuguese team is proof of national capabilities in the development of large international projects. Involvement in this project not only allows them to apply their experience, but also to increase it, given the inherent challenges. It also allows Portugal to be at the forefront at the time of observations, and, in addition, promotes the participation of industry, involving the ecosystem as a whole, says Marta Gonalves, manager of Science and Education projects at the Portuguese Space Agency.

Participating in the development of METIS has been a huge challenge, which has put our capacities for innovation, simulation, and construction of instruments for Astrophysics to the test. Projects like this also help to develop and promote the participation of Portuguese industry in major international projects. They strategically position us at the forefront as teachers, researchers, engineers and students, says Antnio Amorim, responsible for the Portuguese participation in METIS, Professor in the Physics Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Cincias ULisboa) and member of CENTRA Center for Astrophysics and Gravitation.

The Portuguese participation in the development of METIS has several fronts. The main contribution is the construction of the mechanical support structure, alignment and access to the instrument called Warm Support Structure (WSS). Portugal also contributes to the METIS operations team and also to the scientific team.

The total cost of the METIS instrument is around 95 million, and its mass is around 12 tons (equivalent to a double-decker bus). For Mercedes Filho, manager of METIS project in Portugal and researcher at the Physical Engineering Department at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Oporto (FEUP), the WSS has extreme requirements. On the one hand, the WSS must position the instrument with an accuracy of 10 millionths of a rotation and 100 millionths of a meter. On the other hand, the WSS must withstand a major earthquake in complete safety, being able to support an equivalent mass of 40 tons!.

The METIS project also involved the participation of PhD and Master's students, namely Andr Bone and Ricardo Costa, the former a PhD student in Physical Engineering at Cincias ULisboa and the latter a Masters student in Mechanical Engineering at FEUP.

As for Astrophysics, many scientific discoveries are being prepared in detail given the extremely high cost and competition for infrastructure, as explained by Paulo Garcia, co-responsible for the Portuguese participation in METIS, researcher at CENTRA, and professor at the Department of Physical Engineering (DEF) at FEUP: Portugal will have privileged access to METIS, to carry out observations of celestial phenomena with a top scientific instrument that transports us to the future of astrophysics. METIS will allow an unprecedented study of several astrophysical topics, and our priority at CENTRA is to study gravity in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. In particular, we intend to detect new stars in orbits closer to the black hole than currently known and study their motion.

Other Portuguese researchers involved in the scientific preparation of this initiative are Andr Moitinho, Professor at Cincias Ulisboa, Koraljka Muzic, researcher at FEUP, and Alexandre Correia, professor at the Physics Department at the University of Coimbra.

The ELT is under construction in Armazones, Chile by ESO. The ELT will be the largest terrestrial optical and infrared telescope when it begins operations, scheduled for the middle of this decade. With its 39-meter diameter primary mirror and advanced adaptive optics systems, the telescope will be able to see details six times finer than the James Webb Space Telescope and 20 times finer than the Hubble Telescope.

METIS International Consortium

The METIS consortium is made up of NOVA (Netherlands Research School for Astronomy, represented by Leiden University, The Netherlands), UK Astronomy Technology Center (UKATC, and Edinburgh, Scotland, UK), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA, based in Heidelberg, Germany), Katholieke Universiteie Leuven (Belgium), Saclay Nuclear Research Center (CEA Saclay, France), ETH Zrich (Switzerland), A* (an Austrian partnership represented by the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck, the University of Graz , University of Linz, and RICAM Linz, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria), Universitat zu Koln (Germany), Cincias Ulisboa and FEUP, represented by CENTRA (Portugal), University of Lige (Belgium), Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei (Taiwan) and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (USA), and, with contributions from ESO.

Schedule (CEST)

4:00pm ELT trailer starts: https://cdn.eso.org/videos/hd_1080p25_screen/elt-teaser-2021.mp44:01pm Welcome given by Suzanna Randal4:05pm Short talk about the ELT by Michele Cirasuolo4:10pm Suzanna Randal introduces METIS4:11pm The METIS movie4:21pm Q&A Session

LinksYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgHFdokFyLUFacebook messages and event: https://www.facebook.com/ESOAstronomy/posts/pfbid0kahjP5PJVNa3fTrzuanVJscYBANRE4LUbGRdWaG7smSFbBpyqtSLJheXJP7jyD23lTwitter: https://twitter.com/ESO/status/1653422689690832902Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7059189856576380928

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Portugal participates in the development of a first-class instrument ... - EurekAlert

An untitled piece by Barbara Bullock.

Creating space for art is intentional. Historically, those spaces have been safeguarded for artists from certain backgrounds and roles. Creating space for those who in the past may have been excluded from galleries, exhibitions, and public displays can create unique challenges. Luckily, people have risen to that challenge over the years, leading to exhibitions such as Multiplicities, the show at the Regional Center for Women in the Arts that's opening this week. The 21 artists in the show, all from the Delaware Valley, represent a range of genres and generations.

RCWA, the Regional Center for Women in the Arts, has been creating space for women in the arts for the past twenty-two years. This exhibition, unlike many with a specific theme, is a survey exhibition, intending to highlight the work of many artists with diverse methods, media, and a multiplicity of outlooks on life, said Valetta, founder and director of the RCWA.

Good Instincts by Katherine Fraser.

The chosen artists have had careers spanning enough time to develop unique styles and who have shown their work in galleries and museums in the United States and abroad, said Valetta. From the figurative storytelling of Rachel Romano to the abstract meditations of Donna Usher, the range of subjects and methods tells a tale of the varied journeys of the artists. Women artists remember the past, consider the future, and live in the present, said Alice Oh, a participating artist.

The idea of what it means to be a woman artist is central to this show and to the mission of the RCWA. Since its inception, the non-profit organization has shown the work of established and emerging women artists. Through their exhibitions and shows, they raise funds for local charities that benefit women in need. The proceeds from Multiplicities will fund scholarships for young women at the Delaware College of Art and Design.

I cant think of a better set of skills for being an Artist, than being a Woman, said Lisa Bartolozzi. Celebrating the strengths that come from their perspectives is a key component of the show, allowing the viewer to ruminate on their perspectives. Donna Usher said, Creating art provides me with a poetic view of life that is meaningful, as well as a community and career that I am thankful for.

The community that exists not just locally, but among women in the arts worldwide, can create moments of joy. I save articles about women artists and rejoice in their and our success and perseverance, said Fran Gallun. Valetta added, The journey of a woman artist is like the salmon swimming uphill.

Taming of Orquevaux by Rachel Romano.

Many of the artists in the show have experienced a common theme for almost all women and share their struggles to be taken seriously. Do they think its a compliment when they tell me my work doesnt look like it was made by a woman? said Carol Cole.

People often respond when they hear Im an artist, My Grandchild makes wonderful art, added Libbie Soffer. The dismissal can even come from unexpected sources.

As Christine Stoughton said, A woman once inquired, What do you do? I said I was an artist. Her response was, I like to play around with making things too.

That challenge can create strength, especially when supported by the community. I am an artist who happens to be a woman, said Lois Schlachter.

Organic Language by Donna Usher.

A good reminder comes from Nancy Sarangoulis, who said, Art making has no gender.

Lynda Schmid has a reflective perspective: Im like the Hubble telescope. I have spherical aberrations in my mirrors but Im capable of seeing long distances.

In Multiplicities, those images and views have the chance to echo, resonate, and hopefully create meaning for those who take the opportunity to see.

Multiplicities is on display from May 19 through May 30 at the Toni and Stuart B. Young Gallery at the Delaware College of Art and Design. The gallery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The opening reception will be held Friday, May 19t from 5 to 7 p.m. (reservations are required by emailing CE@dcad.edu). DCAD is located at 600 North Market Street, Wilmington. More information can be found at RCAWeb.org orDCAD.edu.

Victoria Rose (she/her) is an editor, writer, avid reader, self-described geek, and fan of all things creative. Her passion for words has led to her current career as a freelance editor, and she is the owner of Flickering Words, an editing service. When not wielding a red pen (or cursor), she loves reading books of all genres, playing video, board, and word games, baking ridiculous creations to show off on the internet, or enjoying the gorgeous outdoors. She is a board member of the West Chester Film Festival and part of the Thirsty Monsters, a team of streamers from around the world who fundraise for various charities supporting LGBTQIA+ and accessibility rights. She can be found online @WordsFlickering or the Brandywine Art Guide @BrandywineArtGuide.

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Brandywine Art Guide: Multiplicities - women in the arts - Chadds ... - Chadds Ford Live

1. Hubble telescope reveals huge star's explosion in blow-by-blow detail  Reuters
2. Hubble Captures 3 Faces of Evolving Supernova in Early Universe  NASA
3. Hubble Telescope captures explosion of star over 11 billion years ago  USA TODAY
4. Right place, right time: Hubble captured a supernova as it exploded  Space.com
5. Hubble Spies Supernova in Early Universe - Sky & Telescope  Sky & Telescope
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Hubble telescope reveals huge star's explosion in blow-by-blow detail - Reuters

NASA made history this week after an attempt to slam its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly 7 million miles away proved successful. While NASA shared some close-up images of the impact, it observed the planetary defense test from afar as well, thanks to the help of the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. On the surface, the images aren't exactly the most striking things we've seen from either telescope, but they could help reveal a lot of valuable information.

This was the first time that Hubble and JSWT have observed the same celestial target simultaneously. While that was a milestone for the telescopes in itself, NASA suggests the data they captured will help researchers learn more about the history and makeup of the solar system. They'll be able to use the information to learn about the surface of Dimorphos (the asteroid in question), how much material was ejected after DART crashed into it and how fast that material was traveling.

JWST and Hubble picked up different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively). NASA says that being able to observe data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if big chunks of material left Dimorphos' surface or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test, as the data can help researchers figure out if crashing spacecraft into an asteroid can change its orbit. The ultimate aim is to develop a system that can divert incoming asteroids away from Earth.

NASA says that JWST picked up images of "a tight, compact core, with plumes of material appearing as wisps streaming away from the center of where the impact took place." JWST, which captured 10 images over five hours, will continue to collect spectroscopic data from the asteroid system in the coming months to help researchers better understand the chemical composition of Dimorphos. NASA shared a timelapse GIF of the images that JWST captured.

NASA/ESA/CSA/Cristina Thomas (Northern Arizona University)/Ian Wong (NASA-GSFC)/Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

At around 14,000 MPH, Dimorphos was traveling at a speed over three times faster than JWST was originally designed to track. However, the telescope's flight operations, planning and science teams were able to develop a way to capture the impact.

As for Hubble, the 32-year-old telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 captured its own images of the collision. "Ejecta from the impact appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid," according to NASA. The agency noted that some of the rays appear curved, and astronomers will have to examine the data to gain a better understanding of what that may mean.

NASA/ESA/Jian-Yang Li (PSI)/Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

According to their initial findings, though, the brightness of the asteroid system increased threefold after impact. That level of brightness stayed the same for at least eight hours. Hubble captured 45 images immediately before and after DART's impact. It will observe the asteroid system 10 additional times over the next few weeks.

It took 10 months for DART, which is about the size of a vending machine, to reach Dimorphos. The football stadium-sized asteroid was around 6.8 million miles away from Earth when DART rammed into it. Pulling off an experiment like that is no mean feat. The learnings scientists gain from the test may prove invaluable.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.

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James Webb and Hubble telescope images capture DART asteroid collision ...

It's not everyday that you can peek through a keyhole in the cosmos, but Hubble did just that and it didn't even realize it.

A new photo of the reflection nebula NGC 1999 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) on Oct. 24 shows a "peculiar portrait" of the swirling cloud of gas and dust. The nebula is a relic of a star's formation, V380 Orion, which can be seen in the center of the image, according to an ESA statement (opens in new tab) that accompanied the image.

The most distinctive feature of the photo, however, is the dark void in the heart of the nebula shaped like a keyhole.

Related: Hubble Space Telescope shows Webb a thing or two with spectacular new photo

When the nebula was first imaged by Hubble in 1999, it was believed that the dark central region was something known as a "Bok globule." These globules are cold clouds of gas, dust, and other molecules that are so dense that they block any light from passing through. It was only after subsequent observations of the nebula that astronomers learned that the dark region was actually empty space. At the moment, the origin of this keyhole feature isn't known.

The nebula is illuminated from the inside by the newborn star V380 Orion, and the nebula itself is actually the leftover material from the star's formation. The star is white in color owing to the intense heat of its surface roughly 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit (10,000 degrees Celsius), or twice the temperature of the sun and it is estimated at 3.5 stellar masses.

The nebula is close to the Orion Nebula, located about 1,500 light-years away, in an active star-forming region of the Milky Way. It is also famous for its proximity to the first Herbig-Haro object ever discovered, which is just outside of the image frame, according to the space agencies. (Herbig-Haro objects are relatively short-lived jets of ionized gas shot out from very young stars.)

The new image was created using archival data from Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which uses a mix of ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared sensors to create the image of the nebula we see. The infrared sensor is arguably the most important when looking at nebulae, since Hubble's other sensors cannot see past the clouds of dust to the stars within or behind the nebula.

This ability for infrared light to pass through clouds of gas and dust is what makes the James Webb Space Telescope such an important instrument, since it's infrared camera is much more sensitive than Hubble's, and has already revealed dazzling images of famous nebulae like the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula.

You can find John on Twitter at @thisdotjohn (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).

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Hubble telescope peeks through 'cosmic keyhole' in stunning photo

The biggest telescopes in the world are often the most successful at making new space discoveries, due to their ability to collect more light and delve into the universe's history from impressive distances.

Despite space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) being closer to the action, ground-based telescopes can achieve greater dimensions and are far less restricted by weight. When telescopes on Earth are built in a good location, with wide sky views, they can focus on a range of specific areas or events unlike space telescopes which need to be in the right place at the right time.

Some of the largest telescopes are serving as Earth's eyes to explore supernovas, galaxies and other distant objects. Here are the ten biggest telescopes in action and in progress today.

Related: 15 stunning places on Earth that look like they're from another planet

Location: Texas, United States

Type: Optical

Diameter: 32 feet (10 meters)

Before its success as one of the world's largest optical telescopes, Hobby Eberly's design was unique. One element that helped make it stand out from existing telescopes was that its mirror is always tilted 55 degrees up from the horizon. This might sound restricting, but its rotating mechanism means it can still observe 70 percent of the visible sky. The telescope's mirror has 91 hexagonal segments to collect visible light.

The most noteworthy discovery captured by Hobby Eberly was light that originated from a quasar so far away that the Earth was only an eighth of its current age when this light began traveling towards Earth. A quasar is an incredibly bright object that gains its energy from a supermassive black hole.

Location: Maunakea, Hawaii

Type: Optical and Infrared

Diameter: 32.8 feet (10 meters)

Despite being Earth-based, the twin telescopes at the Keck Observatory can see farther into space than the famous Hubble Telescope. This means that around a quarter of the observations made by U.S. astronomers are achieved using Keck, and it is considered the most scientifically productive of all land telescopes.

By incorporating optical and infrared telescopes, the observatory produces clear images in the visible light spectrum, but also allows astronomers to see deeper into space using infrared. Some of the incredible imagery uncovered by this combination of apparatus include the birth of stars, which can produce a visible glow and also heat up surrounding gas that can be detected using infrared.

The observatory is positioned near the equator and at the top of the dormant Hawaiian volcano, Mauna Kea. There are 36 mirrors that make up each telescope, joined together to make one large panel. Concealed in insulated domes, the two telescopes operate at temperatures slightly below freezing to prevent heat from interfering with the infrared images.

Location: La Palma, Spain

Type: Optical-infrared

Diameter: 34.1 feet (10.4 meters)

This telescope discovered the most densely populated galaxy cluster.

Location: Karoo, South Africa

Type: Optical

Diameter: 36 feet (11 meters)

The design of SALT appears almost identical to Hobby Eberly because it was inspired by the success of its predecessor. SALT has the same number of hexagonal panels as Hobby Eberly but was redesigned to improve its field of view and image quality. The mirrors of SALT also have a higher sensitivity to short wavelengths, due to additional layers of metal being added to them. Among SALT's top discoveries is the first white dwarf pulsar. This is a fast-spinning star remnant of a white dwarf.

Location: Atacama desert, Chile

Type: Radio

Diameter: 39.4 feet (12 meters)

ALMA consists of 66 radio telescopes, with 54 measuring 39.4 feet (12 meters) in diameter and the remaining 12 just 23 feet (seven meters). Collectively known as an astronomical interferometer, each of these antennas works together to create one image. When this array is used in different combinations, the range of visibility varies. This is essential for targeting the desired galactic areas.

One of the groundbreaking discoveries made by ALMA was the most distant oxygen in space. This is a record that the telescopes have broken more than once. The furthest detection of oxygen in space was 13.28 billion light-years away and evidence of this was picked up by ALMA in 2018. Due to the expansion of the universe, the infrared light that had been emitted from this oxygen was converted into microwaves as it stretched. The signal came from ionized oxygen in the galaxy MACS1149-JD1.

Location: Atacama desert, Chile

Type: Optical

Diameter: 80 feet (24.5 meters)

The GMT, set to be complete in 2029, could produce images 10 times clearer than Hubble.

Location: Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Type: Optical-infrared

Diameter: 98 feet (30 meters)

This project is currently in progress, as part of a collaboration between Japan (the National Institutes of Natural Sciences and National Astronomical Observatory), the U.S. (Caltech and the University of California), Canada (National Research Council Canada), China (National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), and India (the Department of Science and Technology of India).

Its name gives away the measurement of the large primary mirror which will consist of 492 hexagonal panels. Between each 56.6-inch (1.44-meter) tessellated mirror is a gap of just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches). The site of this telescope is at an altitude of 13,163 feet (4,012 meters) and will be used to analyze black holes at the heart of the Milky Way and other galaxies.

Location: Australia and South Africa

Type: Phased array, radio

Diameter: 512 x 49.2 feet (512 x 15 meters)

Although the individual size of each of these telescopes isn't as grand as some of the previous entries, the anticipated scale of this construction is much greater. Chosen for their extremely remote lands, the Karoo region of South Africa and Murchison Shire of Western Australia are due to host the massive radio telescope arrays. In Australia, which is planned to be home to the largest of these sites initially, there will be 512 telescope stations, while 200 will be situated in South Africa.

Scientists estimate that the result of this project will be telescope arrays that are 100 times more sensitive than today's top sites and a sky surveying time that is around one million times faster. The targeted completion date is in 2028 and the arrays are expected to be used for around five decades.

Location: Atacama desert, Chile

Type: Optical-infrared

Diameter: 128 feet (39.3 meters)

Designed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Extremely Large Telescope (which is due to be completed in 2027) also holds extremely lofty goals. These include discovering Earth-like planets and searching for life beyond the Solar System.

Due to its significant mirror surface area of 10,527 square feet (978 square meters), the ELT will be able to collect 100,000,000 times more light than the human eye. The telescope will be encased in a huge, 262-foot (80-meter) tall rotating dome, which will weigh approximately 6,000 tonnes. The strong foundations for this telescope were completed at the beginning of 2022.

Location: Guizhou, China

Type: Radio

Diameter: 1,640 feet (500 meters)

The FAST opened in 2020 and is currently the world's largest single-dish ground telescope.

To stay up to date with the latest news from the FAST telescope, visit the FAST website (opens in new tab). Alternatively, to read more about the Thirty Meter Telescope, you can visit the TMT International Observatory website (opens in new tab).

"Up Above the World so High (opens in new tab)". W.M. Keck Observatory (2022).

"Introducing the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (opens in new tab)". Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (2020).

"South African Telescope, Patterned After Hobby-Eberly Telescope, Sees First Light (opens in new tab)". Penn State Eberly College of Science (2005).

"ALMA, In search of our cosmic origins (opens in new tab)". European Southern Observatory (ESO) (2020).

"ALMA Finds Most-Distant Oxygen in the Universe (opens in new tab)". ALMA (2018).

"TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) (opens in new tab)". National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) (2022).

"The SKA Project (opens in new tab)". SKA Telescope (2022).

"5M grant awarded to Cavendish Astrophysics to build "brains" of the world's largest radio telescope (opens in new tab)". University of Cambridge (2022).

"The Extremely Large Telescope: The World's Biggest Eye on the Sky (opens in new tab)". European Southern Observatory (ESO) (2022).

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The 10 biggest telescopes on Earth - Space.com

NASA's Hubble Telescope has taken a horrific photo. 2 gigantic galaxies will crash with tragic consequences for planets.

NASA's old flying observatory the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a breathtaking image of a pair of galaxies in deep space that are set to crash into each other with tragic consequences for the planets and suns that are there. The image by Hubble Telescope shows ethereal light from distant stars and galaxies in the background even as the galaxies are seen close to each other. NASA says that these two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 and they seem to be floating side by side in the image. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys had captured this mesmerizing galactic interaction.

The space agency has confirmed that these galaxies may appear serene, but these two are subtly warping one another through mutual gravitational interaction. Sadly, this interaction is disrupting and distorting both galaxies with time. NASA further says, The interacting galaxies in Arp-Madore 608-333 are part of an effort to build up an archive of interesting targets for more detailed future study with Hubble, ground-based telescopes, and the James Webb Space Telescope. To build up this archive, astronomers scoured existing astronomical catalogues for a list of targets spread throughout the night sky.

Scientists hoped to include such objects which are already identified as interesting and that would be easy for the Hubble telescope to observe without worrying about the direction.

The Hubble Space Telescope took decades of planning and research before it launched on April 24, 1990. And since then, it has been continuously working and shooting some amazing glimpses of deep space. NASA says, Deciding how to award Hubble observing time is a drawn-out, competitive, and difficult process, and the observations are allocated to use every last second of Hubble time available.

However, there is always a small but persistent fraction of time of around 2-3 percent which goes unused as Hubble Telescope needs to turn to a point at new targets. To take advantage of these moments between longer observations, Snapshot programs work to fill this gap. The image of Arp-Madore 608-333 is also a result of the same. Snapshot programs not only produce beautiful images, they enable astronomers to gather as much data as possible with Hubble, the space agency explained.

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Tragedy in the making! 2 gigantic galaxies set to crash; NASA Hubble Telescope snaps photo - HT Tech

In this episode, we hear about new stars and planets discovered thanks to the James Webb Telescope. For this weeks question: What name would you give one of those new planets?

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I would name it something wacky and weird that no one's ever heard before like Bifdonove or Gelecsie. That is what I would name a new planet.

Jovie, Parkside Elementary

Amazement because in my opinion outer space is very amazing and interesting. My dream is also to become an astronaut and I hope to explore new things and make amazing discoveries. I want to build a rocket launcher so people can experiment with gravity on other planets so people can go even further into space. I think that different planets can have different amazements.

Guin, Summit Elementary

Dear NewsDepth,

If I could choose a name to give a planet I would choose Armstrong. After Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon.

Emma, Portage Collaborative Montessori School

If I could name a planet I would name it Plant EH-1958. The EH stands for Edwin Hubble the creator of the Hubble Telescope. Then the 1958 stands for the year NASA was created.

Charlie, Claggett Middle School

If Iwere to name a planet i would name it NewsDepth because me and my class love your awesome videos. That is what Iwould name a planet.

Mya, Huntington Elementary

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Your Answers: What name would you give to a new planet? - ideastream

Harnessing the stars to create celestial wavetables, George FitzGeralds brilliant new offering, Stellar Drifting, is the fruit of his new studio, a lockdown obsession with the Hubble Telescope and a desire to turn photographs of space into synthesized sound.

Stellar Drifting sees FitzGerald enlist the vocal talents of labelmate, Panda Bear, Derry singer/songwriter SOAK and London Grammar who return the favour after FitzGerald contributed to their 2021 album, Californian Soil.

Following a move to his new studio in Bermondsey, FitzGerald downsized some of his analogue synth collection and dove deeper into his galaxy of soft-synths to brilliant effect on standout tracks, Passed Tense (with the aforementioned Panda Bear) and the appropriately otherworldly, Ultraviolet.

Whilst exploring these new sonic territories, FitzGerald has retained the genre-straddling skill that made previous albums, Fading Love and 2018s All That Must Be, such entrancing and essential components of the electronic music firmament. But enough of the half-assed space analogies and on to Bermondsey to catch up with the spaceman-in-chief sorry, couldnt resist one last one!

Stellar Drifting has an intriguing back-story of you wanting to turn space into sound, doesnt it?

Its something Ive been toying with for about 3 or 4 years then I got more interested in it during the pandemic when we all had a lot more time on our hands. Simultaneously in the studio I had this thing where I wanted to switch up some of the sound sources or just make a break from just coming into the studio and switching on the same old synthesizers.

I realized you could take .jpg and .png files, drop them into wavetable synthesizers and make oscillators out of the pictures

At the same time, on a break in the studio, Id be going through open-source sounds on the NASA archive and similar sites and making little percussive things from them. Then I realized you could take .jpg and .png files and drop them into wavetable synthesizers and make oscillators out of the pictures. So, I started messing around with taking some of the shots from the Hubble Telescope, loading them in and seeing what came out.

Did you get instant results?

Obviously, it wasnt like a complete eureka moment where everything sounded amazing as a lot of it sounded crap! It was a fun exercise though and it did add quite a bit sonically to the record. I ended up using a lot of that stuff as textures over slightly more orthodox sounds. So, thats where the background to the space theme comes from.

Wavetable and granular synthesis have really opened a door to new sonic worlds, havent they?

Its incredible, really, although its not a particularly new development now as that technology has been around for a while now. I really feel that between the recording of the last record and this one, for me, the exciting differences have been digital or things that, if theyre not in the box then theyre not standard old analogue subtractive synthesizers that were the basis for a lot of my previous two records.

So, what synths were you putting the images into?

I was using a lot of Serum and a lot of Wave in Ableton. It was mainly those two simply because I had a Max for Live patch to convert the images into wavetables then on Serum you can actually just drag and drop it onto the oscillator window, which is incredible. Id go as far as to say that Serum has a decent claim to be one of the best synthesizers ever made, hardware of software! It is really scary how deep you can go with it and Im pretty certain that Ive only really scratched the surface.

The soft-synths continue to get more powerful and versatile, dont they?

For my first album, I gave myself a rule that I wouldnt have anything digital - nothing in the computer, no sampling. That was fun as a creative thing, but it did mean that Id slept on some of these newer soft-synths and the quantum leap some of them had made in the intervening period.

Does imposing certain creative rules on yourself help your musical process?

Absolutely. With this one it was a lot about deconstructing the audio. What I mean by that is that quite often on this new album even if youre hearing an arpeggio or something, its usually gone through a couple of stages more than it might have done on the previous records. So, it might have been something different altogether previously and then I made an arpeggio out of it then put it into a granular synth.

A better example would be that a lot of the textures might be various instruments that were recorded in previous projects, like a lead line or something, put into a granular and made into a texture. There wasnt nearly as much of that re-sampling and re-interpretation happening on the previous records. It was a bit more direct, from instrument to recording.

Having ideas and some rules is the best way to do it because there are just so many options now with all the instruments and plugins there are now. I find its a way to navigate your way through all of that.

Whats in your current studio set-up?

Ive just moved to a different studio than the one I made Stellar Drifting in but its all the same equipment. Id been in the last studio for a long time, and it was this dark, windowless place on the Old Kent Road. So, its based around Ableton and various bits of hardware. If anything, Ive tried to pare things down a little from the last couple of records. One of the big differences is that I got rid of a lot of analogue polysynths so I could focus on a wall of modular synthesis.

Ive got quite a big rack of Cwejman modules that sound amazing, and made me basically want to sell everything else

A lot of the more individual sounding things on the new album came from the modular and Ive got quite a big rack of Cwejman modules that sound amazing, and made me basically want to sell everything else! The core of the studio would be my SH-101, I have a JoMox drum-machine and a load of outboard effects. So, pretty much everything other than the space-generated sounds you hear on the album is coming out of those bits of gear.

Youve mentioned using Ableton, what is it about Live that you like?

When I was starting out somebody gave me a copy of Fruity Loops but I didnt really click with music production until I got my first copy of Ableton. Prior to that Id really wanted to find it enjoyable but didnt. Like a lot of people, I really just like the way that Abletons set up, especially now that its broadened into being a one-stop production suite. Ive worked on it for over ten years now and its not something Im looking to change.

Theres a real community built up around Max for Live too?

Yeah, the Max for Live stuff makes it really powerful those patches I mentioned earlier for the space photos but also being able to make control surfaces for hardware synths. Im on that site a lot trawling for new things.

What would you like to see the next generation of synthesis allowing you to do?

Thats a really interesting question. I dont think anyone has cracked granular synthesis properly yet. A few people have given it a good go, but I think granular is something that lends itself better to being a software rather than a hardware synth.

For my first album, I gave myself a rule that I wouldnt have anything digital - nothing in the computer, no sampling.

I use 3 or 4 different granular synths, but I dont think that anyone has totally nailed it yet and managed to put everything in one place. Interestingly, it doesnt seem to be a very fashionable form of synthesis and I dont know why that is. I would love XFER to add a granular thing to Serum or somebody to execute granular synthesis on a level with the bigger, well-known synths like Serum or Massive I would use that a lot!

Any new additions to your studio?

I did buy a tape machine recently, which is a bit random. Its a Tascam Porta Ministudio 07 that I got for a couple of hundred quid off eBay. One of the things I try and do is to combining having digital sound sources in the box with finding ways to scuff them up. Basically, to give them some character. Running things through tape machines is quite a tried and tested way of doing that but it really does add something. Ive got an RE-201 Space Echo and that gets a lot of use too, often not for the delays or the spring reverb but just to hit the tape on it and the pre-amp.

How did you typically start putting a track together for Stellar Drifting?

Its difficult to say, really as, a lot of these tracks, the way I write is to work on ideas to a certain point then if I hit a mental block, I park them. So, I end up kind of throwing tracks together at a later stage. So, Id say most of these tracks are amalgamations of different projects and thats one of the ways I try to build up density and complexity in records.

Quite often Ill deliberately write in a certain key or BPM range for a couple of weeks. So, theres not really a way that I write where I have one idea that I work on from start to finish. Its more lots of different points throw together.

Any artists that inspire you?

Being honest, I try not to listen too closely to things that might be similar genre-wise to my own stuff not through arrogance, its just you could end up driving yourself mad and also, subconsciously, melodies can leak into your head. I got given some good advice that when you go into album writing mode its good to surround yourself with music you like thats stood the test of time.

I always have a running playlist of stuff like Portishead, DJ Shadow. Radiohead. Im a kid of the 90s! Listening to those kinds of things is very grounding though Im not frantically listening to other people for inspiration specifically.

Is there one piece of gear in your studio you couldnt be without?

Yeah, my SH-101. Its a really simple synthesizer but its one of these ones that amaze you by how many different sounds you can get out of it. Im not a big menu diver on synths so I love a synthesizer where you know within 30 seconds if youll be able to get the sounds youre after from it. I love that with the 101 that you can know so quickly whether its a runner or not, and more often than not it is. It also has a sound that sits well in mixes.

I find Moogs sound amazing on their own but theyre quite hard to place within a mix as they dwarf everything else by comparison. I think Roland synths have always felt a little more polite in that they dont take over a track.

It sounds like a boring one but collating and ordering all your projects means that nothing is ever wasted or lost. Especially so in Ableton as you can very easily access the individual channels of the projects youve been working on and pull-out sounds from different projects. Its a good discipline that very quickly bears a lot of fruit. Just filing your ideas by BPM or key and keep them in a folder so you can come back to them.

A lot of people listen to electronic music thats quite dense and they think people sat down and wrote it in one go. They didnt! Theyre either sampling themselves, which is basically what I do a lot. You can then do so many things to ityou can take a bounce of the entire beat and time-stretch it, play with the algorithms in Ableton or do whatever. If it gives you five seconds of detail somewhere then its not wasted.

Theres often a lot of stereo stuff going on in my music and its really important for me to check that things dont disappear in mono. So, Ive always got a mono plug-in on the output and always flipping between the stereo on mono. With all the incredible mid-side and stereo effects that you have now you need to be really careful to not create a huge mid-range-y mush that all phases and disappears if you switch it onto mono. Playing those relationships off against each other is a very important thing to do. Making sure that some of your sources are mono and are going straight to the middle.

One of the best tips Ive learned about mixing is about having contrast. You can have everything as wide as you like but if everything in the mix is wide then the actual wide stuff wont sound wide. I know that sounds really obvious, but you have to think about space in that sense. I used to think that you had to stick everything into some kind of reverb, or it would sound rubbish but that really isnt true. Keeping certain elements dry in your mix creates a contrast with the things your making really wetand you need that.

One of the problems that everyone runs into when theyre working on a project is that you can get bored listening to the same thing over and over and it gets a bit stale. It can really help to put a pitching plug-in on the output and just pitch it up two semi-tones for half an hour and work on it there.

I cant tell you how different it makes the energy when you, say, pitch it up 3 semitones, start writing some chords and melodies up there then pitch it back down again. It just means that your brain and your ear dont get fatigued as you start hearing it a different way. Sometimes, you might keep it there as it actually sounds better.

Stellar Drifting is out now on Domino.

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George Fitzgerald: "Serum is one of the best synthesizers ever made, hardware of software" - MusicRadar