Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

(ABC News) A striking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the "Pillars of Creation" more than two decades after the cosmic columns of gas were first photographed by NASA's orbiting telescope.

The new high-definition photo is wider and shows the silhouettes of the pillars as they are surrounded by stars.

Located nearly 7,000 light years away in the distant M16 part of the Eagle Nebula, the new image is even more breathtaking than the one captured by Hubble in 1995.

The first photo of the "Pillars of Creation" showed stunning detail of three columns of gas and stars of the Eagle Nebula and captivated those on Earth so much that it appeared everywhere from movies and television shows to a postage stamp.

Paul Scowen, one of the co-leaders of the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula, said the most recent image of the pillars was taken "at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution."

"The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space," he said.

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Hubble telescope captures majestic photo of the 'Pillars of Creation'

NASAs Hubble Telescope has snapped a new photo of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula 6,500 light years away. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

In 1995, the Hubble Telescope snapped a stunning photo in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light years from Earth. The photo revealed three gigantic columns of cold gas, illuminated by the ultraviolet light from nearby young stars. The Pillars of Creation became one of the telescopes most iconic and popular images.

Paul Scowen of Arizona State University in Tempe led the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula. He recalled what it was like seeing the photo for the first time.

We laid the pictures out on the table, and we were just gushing because of all the incredible detail that we were seeing for the very first time, he said in a press release from NASA.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble this year, the telescope turned its eyes back to the Pillars of Creation. Photos released yesterday from NASA show the gas columns in a wider view with a higher definition. Hubble also snapped photos in near-infrared. The near-infrared photos pierce through the dense gas and dust to see stars being born in the middle of the gas columns.

The stellar nursery has changed significantly in 19 years, Scowen said. Since the original photo was taken, the Pillars seem to be fading away, he said. The massive nearby young stars have been stripping gas away from the Pillars, something astronomers observed in the original photo. Strong stellar winds and heat from close stars have eroded the tops of the Pillars.

Im impressed by how transitory these structures are. They are actively being ablated away before our very eyes. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars is material getting heated up and evaporating away into space. We have caught these pillars at a very unique and short-lived moment in their evolution, Scowen told NASA.

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Hubbles new high-definition pic shows Pillars of Creation fading away and stars being born

The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view -- over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.

Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. This means that the Hubble survey is assembled together into a mosaic image using 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings.

The panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble. This cropped view shows a 48,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy in its natural visible-light color, as photographed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in red and blue filters July 2010 through October 2013.

The panorama is being presented at the 225th Meeting of the Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Hubble's high-definition panoramic view of Andromeda galaxy

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Newswise The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird's-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy's pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view -- over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy, seen at left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.

Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. This means that the Hubble survey is assembled together into a mosaic image using 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings.

The panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble. This cropped view shows a 48,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy in its natural visible-light color, as photographed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in red and blue filters July 2010 through October 2013.

The panorama is being presented at the 225th Meeting of the Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler

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Hubble's High-Definition Panoramic View of the Andromeda Galaxy

How Was The Hubble Telescope Built?

By: Top Earth Space Science

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How Was The Hubble Telescope Built? - Video

What Are The Functions Of The Hubble Telescope?

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What Are The Functions Of The Hubble Telescope? - Video

"Ave Maria" (Bach/Gounod) 2014, Anne Milligan.
Anne Milligan (singer and soloist) continues this prayerful series of various Ave Maria compositions to the accompaniment of spectacular images of the universe from the Hubble Telescope.

By: Anne Milligan

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"Ave Maria" (Bach/Gounod) 2014, Anne Milligan. - Video

Interesting Facts On The Hubble Telescope

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Interesting Facts On The Hubble Telescope - Video

US Navy Reveals Laser as Powerful as the Hubble Telescope!
The Navy has revealed a radical new laser weapon it says can shoot down missiles, boats and even drones from a warship is already is active service. Source: ...

By: ShantiUniverse

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US Navy Reveals Laser as Powerful as the Hubble Telescope! - Video

NASA VIDEO ADMITS HUBBLE TELESCOPE IMAGES ARE ALL PHOTOSHOPPED
"Hubble images are made, not born. Images must be woven together from the incoming data from the cameras, cleaned up and given colors that bring out features...

By: leucotomy101

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NASA VIDEO ADMITS HUBBLE TELESCOPE IMAGES ARE ALL PHOTOSHOPPED - Video