Category Archives: Hubble Telescope

October 31, 2014

Pandoras Cluster, which is also known as Abell 2744, is an immense grouping of nearly 500 galaxies, and the ghostly glow detected by Hubble was emitted by scattered stars that had been expelled from galaxies galaxies which themselves had been gravitationally torn apart several billion years ago, according to the US space agency.

[ Watch the Video: Abell 2744 Y1 Is The Most Distant Galaxy Discovered ]

The orphaned stars, which are located four billion light-years from Earth, are no longer bound to a single galaxy and drift freely from one to another in the cluster. By observing their light, Hubble astronomers have managed to gather forensic evidence suggesting that up to six galaxies were torn to pieces in the cluster over a period of six billion years. Their findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Computer modeling of the gravitational dynamics among galaxies in a cluster suggests that the stars originated from galaxies approximately the same size as the Milky Way. Those galaxies, the study authors explained, would have been pulled apart if they traveled through the center of the galaxy cluster, where the strongest gravitational tidal forces are found.

The Hubble data revealing the ghost light are important steps forward in understanding the evolution of galaxy clusters, research team member Ignacio Trujillo of the Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain said in a statement. It is also amazingly beautiful in that we found the telltale glow by utilizing Hubbles unique capabilities.

While astronomers have long hypothesized that they should be able to detect the light from scattered stars left behind after galaxies become disassembled, it was difficult to detect this anticipated intracluster glow of stars because of how faint it was. The researchers estimate that the combined light of approximately 200 billion outcast stars contributes nearly one-tenth of the clusters brightness.

Because these extremely faint stars are brightest at near-infrared wavelengths of light, the team emphasized that this type of observation could only be accomplished with Hubbles infrared sensitivity to extraordinarily dim light, NASA explained. Hubble measurements determined that the phantom stars are rich in heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. This means the scattered stars must be second or third-generation stars enriched with the elements forged in the hearts of the universes first-generation stars.

Spiral galaxies like the ones believed to be torn apart can sustain ongoing star formation that creates chemically-enriched stars, the US space agency added. Weighing more than 4 trillion solar masses, Abell 2744 is a target in the Frontier Fields program. This ambitious three-year effort teams Hubble and NASAs other Great Observatories to look at select massive galaxy clusters to help astronomers probe the remote universe.

Galaxy clusters are so massive that their gravity deflects light that passes through them. As a result, that light becomes brighter, magnified and distorted due to what is known as gravitational lensing. This phenomenon is exploited by astronomers, who use these clusters like a zoom lens to get a better look at distant galaxies that would otherwise be too faint for even telescopes as powerful as Hubble to detect.

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Ghost Light From Distant Dead Galaxies Detected By Hubble Telescope

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Recently, while observing changes in Jupiter's most famous atmospheric cyclone, the swirling Great Red Spot, Hubble found itself caught in the eye of the storm, so to speak.

As the telescope honed in on Jupiter's red spot, one of the planet's 69 moons, Ganymede, passed between Jupiter and the sun, casting a perfectly round shadow.

For a brief moment, the moon's shadow intersected the Great Red Spot -- adding a pupil to Jupiter's iconic storm. The Hubble Space Telescope found itself in a staring contest.

"For a moment, Jupiter 'stared' back at Hubble like a one-eyed giant Cyclops," officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center wrote in a caption for the newly captured image.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Hubble telescope caught in staring contest with Jupiter

Jupiter's "Cyclops" eye.Nasa/ESA/A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Jupiter has been spotted "looking back" at us through a huge Cyclops eye by Nasa's Hubble Telescope.

The 10,000 mile-diameter "eye" was spotted while Hubble was monitoring changes to the planet's Great Red Spot storm that took place in April.

At this time, Jupiter's Ganymede moon moved across the storm, casting a shadow across the area, which made the Great Red Spot look like a giant eye looking back at Earth.

The eye was the result of a shadow passing over the storm(Nasa/ESA/A. Simon Goddard Space Flight Center)

"This gave the giant planet the uncanny appearance of having a pupil in the centre of a 10,000 mile-diameter 'eye'," Nasa said. "For a moment, Jupiter 'stared' back at Hubble like a one-eyed giant Cyclops."

The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm first discovered in 1665 by Gian Domenico Cassini.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been shrinking since the 1930s(Nasa/ESA)

Earlier this year, Nasa announced it has shrunk to its smallest size ever measured,with the spot measuring just 10,250 miles across.

Astronomers said the spot has been getting smaller since the 1930s. Amy Simon of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre, said: "It is apparent very small eddies are feeding into the storm.We hypothesised these may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics and energy of the Great Red Spot."

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Nasa's Hubble Spots Jupiter Staring Back at us Through 'Cyclops Eye'

I Am a Star
Art rock composition by Agenda. Hubble Telescope photos and original images by Victor Go have been used in this video collage. Agenda: Victor Go - vocal, gui...

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I Am a Star - Video

THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE - AMAZING UNIVERSE - Discovery Science Space (full documentary)
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THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE - AMAZING UNIVERSE - Discovery Science Space (full documentary) - Video

BREAKING NEWS - Hubble Telescope Discovers UFO
A short film for Adv. Digital Media class. We had to base the story around two Google "I #39;m Feeling Lucky" searches, which came up as The Hubble Telescope and...

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BREAKING NEWS - Hubble Telescope Discovers UFO - Video

The famed Hubble Space Telscope has captured a jaw-dropping view of a comet making an incredibly close flyby of Mars.

The space telescope snapped the amazing image when Comet Siding Spring (also called C/2013 A1) was hurtling through space near the Red Planet on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19. During its closest approach on Oct. 19, the comet passed about 86,000 miles (138,000 kilometers) from Mars just one-third of the distance between Earth and the moon.

Mars and the comet shine in Hubble's new image. The planet glows red, and Comet Siding Spring's bright nucleus and diffuse tail stand out against a host of background stars glimmering behind the two cosmic bodies. The photo was created by combining separate images of the comet and Mars taken over the weekend. [See more amazing Comet Siding Spring images]

"The Mars and comet images have been added together to create a single picture to illustrate the angular separation, or distance, between the comet and Mars at closest approach," NASA officials said in a statement.

"The background starfield in this composite image is synthesized from ground-based telescope data provided by the Palomar Digital Sky Survey, which has been reprocessed to approximate Hubbles resolution," space agency officials added. "The solid icy comet nucleus is too small to be resolved in the Hubble picture. The comets bright coma, a diffuse cloud of dust enshrouding the nucleus, and a dusty tail, are clearly visible."

Hubble officials couldn't capture both the comet and Mars in the same frame properly because the planet is about 10,000 times brighter than Siding Spring, according to NASA. The two cosmic bodies are also moving, and Hubble could only properly track one at a time.

If the space telescope took an image of both at the same time, at least one of the celestial targets would have been blurry, NASA officials added.

Other NASA spacecraft also caught sight of the historic flyby. The space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity rover both captured images of the comet passing by Mars. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and Odyssey probes were also expected to observe the comet's close pass. The space agency's Curiosity rover was also in position to study the comet.

India's Mangalyaan orbiter circling Mars and Europe's Mars Express spacecraft were also expected to observe Siding Spring's flyby.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Wow! This Hubble Telescope Photo of Mars with a Comet Is Amazing

The Documentary Universe Through The Hubble Telescope
hubble,extreme,deep,field,xdf,ultra,udf,space,telescope,galaxies,universe,video,3d,fly-through,nasa,Hubble Space Telescope (Satellite),Physics (Field Of Stud...

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The Documentary Universe Through The Hubble Telescope - Video

Things That Led Up To The Hubble Telescope

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Things That Led Up To The Hubble Telescope - Video

Amazing Journey Into A Galaxy of Stars-NASA #39;s Hubble Telescope
Powers of magnification take you on an incredible journey into the vastness of our universe. Hubble #39;s powerful telescope gives us a new perspective and awareness. A must see!!!!

By: Archyworld Films

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Amazing Journey Into A Galaxy of Stars-NASA's Hubble Telescope - Video