Space Hubble Telescope News

Dr. Kathryn Flanagan Appointed Deputy Director of STScI

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Dr. Kathryn Flanagan has been appointed the Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. STScI is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to launch in 2018. Dr. Flanagan had been the Institute's acting Deputy Director since January 2012. She came to STScI in 2007 to lead the JWST Mission Office, where she was responsible for the development and operations of the JWST Science and Operations Center at the Institute. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Monster Galaxy May Have Been Stirred Up By Black-hole Mischief

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy that may have been puffed up by the actions of one or more black holes in its core. The galaxy's core measures about 10,000 light-years and is the largest yet seen. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Additional Kepler Data Now Available to All Planet Hunters

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The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., is releasing 12 additional months worth of planet-searching data meticulously collected by one of the most prolific planet-hunting endeavors ever conceived, NASA's Kepler Mission.

As of Oct. 28, 2012, every observation from the extrasolar planet survey made by Kepler since its launch in 2009 through June 27, 2012, is available to scientists and the public. This treasure-trove contains more than 16 terabytes of data and is housed at the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, or MAST, at the Space Telescope Science Institute. MAST is a huge data archive containing astronomical observations from 16 NASA space astronomy missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope. It is named in honor of Maryland U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Asteroid Belts of Just the Right Size are Friendly to Life

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Solar systems with life-bearing planets may be rare if they are dependent on the presence of asteroid belts of just the right mass, according to a study by Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan Fellow from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and astronomer Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md.

They suggest that the size and location of an asteroid belt, shaped by the evolution of the Sun's protoplanetary disk and by the gravitational influence of a nearby giant Jupiter-like planet, may determine whether complex life will evolve on an Earth-like planet. The findings will appear today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters (published by Oxford University Press). (More at Hubble Site)
 
NASA Great Observatories Find Candidate for Most Distant Galaxy Yet Known

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By combining the power of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space, astronomers have set a new distance record for finding the farthest galaxy yet seen in the universe. The diminutive blob, which is only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way galaxy, offers a peek back into a time when the universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is observed 420 million years after the big bang. Its light has traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth.

This is the latest discovery from a large program that uses natural zoom lenses to reveal distant galaxies in the early universe. The Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) is using massive galaxy clusters as cosmic telescopes to magnify distant galaxies behind them, an effect called gravitational lensing. (More at Hubble Site)
 
A Multi-Wavelength View of Radio Galaxy Hercules A

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Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's cutting-edge tools, the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and the recently upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico. (More at Hubble Site)
 
'Dark Core' May Not Be So Dark After All

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Now you see it, now you don't. Douglas Clowe of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, is reporting on new Hubble observations that do not find an unusually dense clump of dark matter in the universe that a different Hubble team reported on earlier this year. The region of interest lies at the center of a collision among massive galaxy clusters in Abell 520, located 2.4 billion light-years away. "The earlier result presented a mystery. But in our observations we didn't see anything surprising in the core," said Clowe. "Our measurements are in complete agreement with how we would expect dark matter to behave." Because dark matter is not visible, its presence and distribution is found indirectly through its gravitational effects. The gravity from both dark and luminous matter warps space, bending and distorting light from galaxies and clusters behind it like a giant magnifying glass. Astronomers can use this effect, called gravitational lensing, to infer the presence of dark matter in massive galaxy clusters. Both teams used this technique to map the dark matter in the merging cluster. Clowe is encouraging other scientists to study the Hubble data and conduct their own analysis on the cluster.

For more information about Clowe's results, visit: Research Communications | Ohio University (More at Hubble Site)
 
Hubble Sees a Galaxy Hit a Bull's-Eye

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Bright pink nebulae almost completely encircle a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy's distorted spiral shape result from a smaller galaxy scoring a cosmic bull's-eye, hitting the center of NGC 922 some 330 million years ago. Hubble's image of NGC 922 consists of a series of exposures taken in visible light with the Wide Field Camera 3, and in visible and near-infrared light with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

For images and more information about NGC 922, visit: Hubble sees a galaxy hit a bullseye (More at Hubble Site)
 
Hubble Provides First Census of Galaxies Near Cosmic Dawn

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Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 percent of its present age. The deepest images to date from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies first formed. The results show a smooth decline in the number of galaxies with increasing look-back time to about 450 million years after the big bang. The observations support the idea that galaxies assembled continuously over time and also may have provided enough radiation to reheat, or reionize, the universe a few hundred million years after the big bang. These pioneering observations blaze a trail for future exploration of this epoch by NASA's next-generation spacecraft, the James Webb Space Telescope. Looking deeper into the universe also means peering farther back in time. The universe is now 13.7 billion years old. The newly discovered galaxies are seen as they looked 350 million to 600 million years after the big bang. Their light is just arriving at Earth now.

The public is invited to participate in a "First Census of Galaxies Near Cosmic Dawn" webinar, in which key astronomers of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 team will discuss how they obtained their result and what it tells us about galaxy formation in the very early universe. Participants will be able to send in questions for the panel of experts to discuss. The webinar will be broadcast at 1:00 pm EST on Friday, December 14, 2012.

To participate in the webinar, please visit HubbleSite Channel on Youtube or Hubble Space Telescope Google+ page . (More at Hubble Site)
 
A Cosmic Holiday Ornament, Hubble-Style

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'Tis the season for holiday decorating and tree-trimming. Not to be left out, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have photographed a festive-looking nearby planetary nebula called NGC 5189. The intricate structure of this bright gaseous nebula resembles a glass-blown holiday ornament with a glowing ribbon entwined. (More at Hubble Site)
 
New Free E-books Available about Two Famous NASA Space Telescopes

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been providing astounding images of the universe since April 1990 and has led to remarkable discoveries. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the next-generation telescope that will peer even deeper into space and unveil even more mysteries. Both of these extraordinary telescopes are now the topics of two free e-books available from the Apple iBookstore.

The e-book "Hubble Space Telescope: Discoveries" takes the reader on a tour of some of Hubble's most significant science successes, combined with some of the telescope's technology and history.

In the e-book called the "James Webb Space Telescope: Science Guide," readers will learn how the Webb telescope will reveal in much more detail mysteries of the universe that the Hubble is not able to see.

The links to the e-books are available on HubbleSite at eBooks. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Hubble Reveals Rogue Planetary Orbit for Fomalhaut b

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Newly released Hubble Space Telescope images of a vast debris disk encircling the nearby star Fomalhaut, and of a mysterious planet circling it, may provide forensic evidence of a titanic planetary disruption in the system. Astronomers are surprised to find that the debris belt is wider than previously known, spanning a gulf of space from 14 billion miles to nearly 20 billion miles from the star. Even more surprisingly, the latest Hubble images have allowed a team of astronomers to calculate that the planet follows an unusual elliptical orbit that carries it on a potentially destructive path through the vast dust ring.

The planet, called Fomalhaut b, swings as close to its star as 4.6 billion miles, and the outermost point of its orbit is 27 billion miles away from the star. The orbit was re-calculated from the newest Hubble observation made in 2012. The Fomalhaut team led by Paul Kalas (University of California, Berkeley) considers this circumstantial evidence that there may be other planet-like bodies in the system that gravitationally disrupted Fomalhaut b to place it in such a highly eccentric orbit. His team is presenting their finding today at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif. (More at Hubble Site)
 
NASA Space Telescopes See Weather Patterns in Brown Dwarf

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have probed the stormy atmosphere of a brown dwarf named 2MASSJ22282889-431026, creating the most detailed "weather map" yet for this class of cool, star-like orbs. The forecast shows wind-driven, planet-sized clouds enshrouding these strange worlds. Brown dwarfs form out of condensing gas, as stars do, but lack the mass to fuse atoms and produce energy. Instead, these objects, which some call failed stars, are more similar to gas planets with their complex, varied atmospheres. The new research is a stepping stone toward a better understanding not only brown dwarfs, but also of the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system.

Hubble and Spitzer simultaneously watched the brown dwarf as its light varied in time, brightening and dimming about every 90 minutes as the body rotated. Astronomers found the timing of this change in brightness depended on whether they looked using different wavelengths of infrared light. The variations are the result of different layers or patches of material swirling around in the brown dwarf in windy storms as large as Earth itself. Spitzer and Hubble see different atmospheric layers because certain infrared wavelengths are blocked by vapors of water and methane high up, while other infrared wavelengths emerge from much deeper layers. Daniel Apai, the principal investigator of the research from the University of Arizona, Tucson, presented the results at the American Astronomical Society meeting on January 8 in Long Beach, Calif. A study describing the results, led by Esther Buenzli, also of the University of Arizona, is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. For more information about this study, visit NASA - SPITZER . (More at Hubble Site)
 
Dr. Jason Kalirai Awarded the 2013 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize

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Jason Kalirai of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., has been awarded the 2013 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize. This annual prize from the American Astronomical Society is for outstanding achievement in observational astronomy by an astronomer under the age of 36.

Kalirai, 34, received the award for his contributions to the field of stellar and galactic astrophysics. Kalirai has also devised new methods to measure the age of the Milky Way galaxy. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Amateur and Professional Astronomers Team Up to Create a Cosmological Masterpiece

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Working with astronomical image processors at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., renowned astrophotographer Robert Gendler has taken science data from the Hubble Space Telescope archive and combined it with his own ground-based observations to assemble a photo illustration of the magnificent spiral galaxy M106.

Gendler retrieved archival Hubble images of M106 to assemble a mosaic of the center of the galaxy. He then used his own and fellow astrophotographer Jay GaBany's observations of M106 to combine with the Hubble data in areas where there was less coverage, and finally, to fill in the holes and gaps where no Hubble data existed. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Strobe-like Flashes Discovered in a Suspected Binary Protostar

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A mysterious infant star, swaddled inside a dusty blanket, behaves like a police strobe light. The newly discovered object offers clues into the early stages of star formation, when a lot of gas and dust is being rapidly sucked into a newly forming binary star. Every 25.34 days, the object, designated LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light. The flashes may be due to material suddenly being dumped onto the growing protostars, unleashing a blast of radiation each time the stars get close to each other in their orbits. The phenomenon has been seen in later stages of star birth, but never in such a young system, nor with such intensity and regularity.

LRLL 54361 was discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope as a variable object inside the star-forming region IC 348, located 950 light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to confirm the Spitzer observations and revealed the detailed structure around the protostar. Hubble resolved two cavities that are traced by light scattered off their edges above and below a dusty disk. Astronomers will continue monitoring LRLL 54361 using other telescopes, including the Herschel Space Telescope, and hope to eventually obtain more direct measurements of the binary star and its orbit. (More at Hubble Site)
 
NASA's Webb Telescope to Have a Texas-Sized Presence at the South by Southwest Festival

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Everything's bigger in Texas, and a life-sized model of the world's largest space telescope, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, will be on display at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival along with Webb-related exhibits, educational events, interactives, visualizations, scientists, and much more. The NASA events at SXSW will occur March 8-10, 2013, in Austin.

The Webb telescope model is coming to SXSW just in time to highlight the fact that this spring NASA is starting to bring together some of the major parts of the observatory. In 2013, NASA will begin to integrate the four science instruments that will be attached to the telescope. NASA is partnering with Northrop Grumman, the Space Telescope Science Institute, Ball Aerospace, Microsoft Research, and the University of Texas' Astronomy Department to bring an amazing display of science and technology to SXSW. For more information about the SXSW festival and the Webb Telescope SXSW events, visit: SXSW Conference & Festivals and http://go.nasa.gov/JWSTsxsw. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Stellar Motions in Outer Halo Shed New Light on Milky Way Evolution

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Peering deep into the vast stellar halo that envelops our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered tantalizing evidence for the possible existence of a shell of stars that are a relic of cannibalism by our Milky Way.

Hubble was used to precisely measure, for the first time ever, the sideways motions of a small sample of stars located far from the Milky Way galaxy's center. Their unusual lateral motion is circumstantial evidence that the stars may be the remnants of a shredded galaxy that was gravitationally ripped apart by the Milky Way billions of years ago. These stars support the idea that the Milky Way grew, in part, through the accretion of smaller galaxies. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Gravitational Lens Creates Cartoon of Space Invader

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The universe is eerie enough without giving us an apparition of a 1980s video game alien attacker. This oddball-looking object is really a mirage created by the gravitational field of a foreground cluster of galaxies warping space and distorting the background images of more distant galaxies.

This effect, called gravitational lensing, can make multiple mirror image copies of the light coming from a far-flung galaxy. It is a powerful tool for seeing remote galaxies that otherwise would not be observable by Hubble because they are too dim and far away. In this Hubble photo a background spiral galaxy is warped into an image that resembles a cartoon of a simulated space invader. The foreground massive cluster, called Abell 68, lies 2 billion light-years away. The brightened and stretched lensed images come from galaxies far behind it. (More at Hubble Site)
 
Hubble Finds Birth Certificate of Oldest Known Star

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You can't be older than your parents. But there is a nearby star that at first glance looks like it is older than the universe! Hubble Space Telescope astronomers are coming to grips with this paradox by improving the precision of the observations used to estimate the age of this "Methuselah star."

Around the year 2000, estimates for the star's age were about 16 billion years. But the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, based on a meticulous calibration of the expansion of space and analysis of the microwave afterglow from the big bang. Hubble data and improved theoretical calculations were used to recalculate the star's age and lower the estimate to 14.5 billion years, within a measurement uncertainty of plus or minus 800 million years. This places the star within a comfortable range to be younger than the universe. Astronomers have to collect a lot of information to deduce a star's age because it doesn't come with a birth certificate. They have to take into account where the star is in its life history, the detailed chemistry of the star, and its intrinsic brightness. Hubble's contribution was to reduce the uncertainty on the star's true distance. With that improved accuracy, the intrinsic brightness of the star is better known. The ancient star is still spry for its age. It is speeding past us at 800,000 miles per hour. Its orbit can be traced back to the halo of our galaxy, which is a "retirement home" for stars that were born long before the Milky Way was even fully assembled. (More at Hubble Site)
 
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