Clusters of jewels shining in the night sky
Stellar Clusters are groups of stars that fall into two broad categories: Open Clusters or Globular Clusters. Both types of cluster are formed from gas clouds and dust coalescing into a multitude of stars, but this is where the commonality ends. Open Clusters Open Clusters can contain up to a thousand stars which are normally …
Omega Centauri
This issue it was a coin toss for the spotlight object between The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and Omega Centauri. Omega Centauri won as it is the largest by far of the Globular Clusters and it has the potential to be seen by more people in both hemispheres. It is visible in Southern Europe …
Front and center: Launch inferno
All was calm, the air was crisp with hope and the skies were clear as far as the eye could see as the clock ticked down to T minus zero for the Oct. 28, 2014 blastoff of an Orbital Sciences commercial Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, VA, – on a mission of critical …
Meet the REAL Astronaut Wives Club
Our website traffic recently has made it clear that lots of you are watching the television show ‘The Astronauts Wives Club’ on ABC. The show had a strong debut, even increasing its audience during the second half hour of the first episode. More than 90 percent of first-week viewers came back for the second episode, …
New Horizons: Pluto garners the spotlight
Nine years ago, in 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft to the outer reaches of the Solar System in order to study the Pluto system. New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, and has traveled more than three billion miles to reach its primary target: Pluto. The flyby of the Pluto system on …
Suiting up for 50 years of spacewalks
For many millenia, all of humanity had been bound to this terrestrial planet we call Earth, but in 1965 our species took its first steps into the unknown of outer space. Russian Alexey Leonov became the first to conduct a spacewalk in March 1965 , followed several months later by American astronaut Edward White in June 1965. From those first early …
A new look in 3D at the Pillars of Creation
New study suggests that iconic structures more aptly named the Pillars of Destruction The original Hubble Space Telescope image of the famous Pillars of Creation was taken two decades ago and immediately became one of its most famous and evocative pictures. Since then, these billowing clouds, which extend over a few light-years, have awed scientists and the public …
Celestial fireworks mark Hubble’s 25th
The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary Hubble Space Telescope image, released to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond. “Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos” said John …
Hubble’s Top 100 images
During its 25 years of peering out at the farthest depths of the Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope has enabled humanity to witness countless amazing sites from here on Earth. Here we present the Hubble Top 100 list. It has been compiled, and is regularly reviewed, by staff of ESA/Hubble. A couple of quick notes …
Hubble Space Telescope: Showing humanity the Universe for 25 years
Since launching in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has awed and inspired the public with a dazzling array of images. More than just pretty pictures, Hubble has collected 25 years of data, providing unprecedented views and insights into the universe. By observing objects from neighboring planets to the most distant galaxies, Hubble has captured …
Hubble’s greatest discoveries
During its 25 year long mission the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our view of the Universe significantly. Some of the most ground-breaking discoveries made in astronomy in the 20th century were made by Hubble, which allows astronomers to better understand the world we live in and investigate its mysteries even further. The Hubble Deep …
Edwin P. Hubble: The man behind the name
When talking about the Hubble Space Telescope one man is often forgotten: That man who gave the space telescope its name: Edwin Powell Hubble. Today, most astronomers see him as the most important observational cosmologist in the 20th century and he played a crucial role in establishing the field of extragalactic astronomy. As a result …
How they do it: Processing Hubble images from B&W into stunning full-color
Everyone has seen the dramatic images produced by the Hubble Telescope from the iconic Pillars of Creation to the hundreds of galaxies in one shot, but how are these images created? The Hubble Telescope captures images in monochrome, just like the old black and white photographs with no color, but the images we see are …
Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Vocabulary • Focal Length: The distance between a curved mirror and its Focal Point • Focal Point: The position where all reflected light inside the telescope focuses to a point of light • Focal Surface: The place where the Focal Point converges to • Primary Mirror: The larger of the two curved mirrors that reflect …
Making house calls to Hubble
Servicing Mission 1 STS-61 Endeavour • December 2-13, 1993 Servicing Mission 1, launched in December 1993, was the first opportunity to conduct planned maintenance on the telescope. In addition, new instruments were installed and the optics of the flaw in Hubble’s primary mirror was corrected. After Hubble’s deployment in 1990, scientist realized that the telescope’s …
STS-125 Mission: Last visit to Hubble
For a mission that was almost never to be, STS-125 will be remembered in years to come as a resounding success story, one of NASA’s great missions and a tribute to the ingenuity of engineers and astronauts alike. Rejuvenating the world’s most famous telescope and setting it free to make more scientific discoveries the mission …
An explosive quartet: Supernova ‘multiplied’ by galaxy
Whilst looking closely at a massive elliptical galaxy and its associated galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 — whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us — astronomers have spotted a strange and rare sight. The huge mass of the galaxy and the cluster is bending the light from a much more distant supernova behind …
The Pi Day of the Century
If you like numbers, you will love March 14, 2015. When written as a numerical date, it’s 3/14/15, corresponding to the first five digits of pi (3.1415) — a once-in-a-century coincidence! Pi Day, which would have been the 136th birthday of Albert Einstein, is a great excuse to eat pie, and to appreciate how important …
Philae bounces into history books
The European Space Agency (ESA) led Rosetta mission, made history this past year, and, captured the attention of people around the world as it became the first to orbit and land on a comet. The spacecraft achieved its goal after deploying a washing machine-sized lander onto the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12. The …
Astronomical serendipity
Since 1594, when Johannes Kepler predicted that there should be a planet between Mars and Jupiter, astronomers had been searching for that “missing planet.” When Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, the scientific world thought that he had ended the search. Then Ceres disappeared from sight, only to be recovered one year later. Astronomers breathed …