Space Hubble Telescope News

NASA's Hubble Observations Suggest Underground Ocean on Jupiter's Largest Moon

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Nearly 500 million miles from the Sun lies a moon orbiting Jupiter that is slightly larger than the planet Mercury and may contain more water than all of Earth's oceans. Temperatures are so cold, though, that water on the surface freezes as hard as rock and the ocean lies roughly 100 miles below the crust. Nevertheless, where there is water there could be life as we know it. Identifying liquid water on other worlds — big or small — is crucial in the search for habitable planets beyond Earth. Though the presence of an ocean on Ganymede has been long predicted based on theoretical models, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found the best evidence for it. Hubble was used to watch aurorae glowing above the moon's icy surface. The aurorae are tied to the moon's magnetic field, which descends right down to the core of Ganymede. A saline ocean would influence the dynamics of the magnetic field as it interacts with Jupiter's own immense magnetic field, which engulfs Ganymede. Because telescopes can't look inside planets or moons, tracing the magnetic field through aurorae is a unique way to probe the interior of another world.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
NASA Announces Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellows for 2017

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NASA has selected 28 Fellows for its prestigious Einstein, Hubble, and Sagan fellowships. Each post-doctoral fellowship provides three years of support to awardees to pursue independent research in astronomy and astrophysics. The new Fellows will begin their programs in the fall of 2017 at a host university or research center of their choosing in the United States.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa

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Finding common table salt — sodium chloride — on the surface of a moon is more than just a scientific curiosity when that moon is Europa, a potential abode of life.

If the salt came from the briny subsurface ocean of Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, that ocean may chemically resemble Earth's oceans more than previously thought. Because Europa's solid, icy crust is geologically young it has been suspected that whatever salts exist on the surface may come from the ocean below, which might host microorganisms.

Using visible-light spectral analysis, planetary scientists at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa is sodium chloride. They reached this conclusion with spectroscopic data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Researchers were able to identify a distinct absorption in the visible spectrum which matches how salt would look when irradiated by the Sun.

Tara Regio is the yellowish area to left of center, in this NASA Galileo image of Europa’s surface. This region of geologic chaos is the area researchers identified an abundance of sodium chloride.

The finding was published in Science Advances on June 12.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Fellowship Program Selects Talented Young Astronomers for Studying Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected 12 new scientists for the Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of 115 highly-qualified candidates from 24 countries.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Probes the Chemistry of the Early Universe

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Using a unique capability of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) astronomers announced today that they have detected the rare element boron in an ancient star. This element may be 'fossil' evidence of energetic events which accompanied the birth of our Milky Way galaxy. An alternative possibility is that this rare element may be even older, dating from the birth of our universe. If so, then the HST findings may force some modification in theories of the Big Bang itself.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Fellowship Program Selects Talented Young Astronomers for Studying Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (ST ScI) has selected 13 new scientists for the Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of 115 highly-qualified candidates from 28 countries.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Dark Matter Found in a "Typical" Cluster of Galaxies

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Astronomer John S. Mulchaey, of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and fellow team members announced today the discovery of a huge concentration of mysterious "dark matter" with the ROSAT X-ray observatory satellite. ROSAT is an acronym for Roentgen Satellite, a joint project of Germany, NASA, and the U.K.)

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
High Velocity Clouds Found to Dwell in Milky Way's Halo

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Astronomer Laura Danly of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has taken a major step in solving a 3 year old mystery by measuring, for the first time, the distance to a high-velocity cloud of cool hydrogen gas. The results show conclusively that the cloud, and presumably others like it, dwell in the "halo" of our Milky Way Galaxy, rather than being between galaxies or in our own stellar neighborhood. (The halo is a spherical region surrounding the spiral disk of our galaxy).

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
1994 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has recently selected 11 young scientists for the 1994 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of applications from highly-qualified candidates worldwide. Inaugurated in 1990, the Hubble Fellowship Program funds research opportunities for a significant fraction of the approximately two hundred Ph.D. astronomers who graduate annually. The program is a joint venture between NASA and STScI in cooperation with astronomical institutions across the United States.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
1995 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected 12 young scientists for the 1995 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of applications from highly qualified candidates worldwide.

Inaugurated in 1990, the Hubble Fellowship Program funds research opportunities for a significant fraction of the approximately 200 Ph.D. astronomers who graduate annually. The program is a joint venture between NASA and STScI, in cooperation with astronomical institutions across the United States.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Heaviest Known Star Observed from Space

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Observations with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) of the most massive star currently known have revealed new features of its hot outer layers, which are being blown away from the star at speeds of up to 2300 miles per second due to its extreme luminous energy output. These features in turn provide information about physical characteristics of the star, such as its temperature, luminosity, chemical composition, age, and mass, or the total amount of matter it contains.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Astronomers Rule Out Starburst Galaxies as Contributing to the Far-Ultraviolet Background

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Astronomers using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), flown aboard the Shuttle ASTRO-2 mission, have been able to exclude one explanation for the mysterious far ultraviolet background radiation that existed when the universe was young. They find that starburst galaxies -- galaxies forming new stars at an extremely high rate -- were largely opaque to the UV radiation from hot newborn stars embedded within them. Contrary to earlier ideas, this means that starburst galaxies did not contribute significantly to heating, or ionizing, the early universe.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
1996 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected nine young scientists for the 1996 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of applications received from highly qualified candidates worldwide.

Inaugurated in 1990, the Hubble Fellowship Program funds research opportunities for outstanding applicants selected from among the approximately 200 Ph.D. astronomers and astrophysicists who graduate annually. The program is a joint venture between NASA and STScI, in cooperation with astronomical institutions across the United States.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
1997 Hubble Fellows to Study HST Discoveries

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The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) has selected fifteen young scientists for the 1997 Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awardees were selected from a pool of applications received from highly qualified candidates worldwide.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Takes First Image of a Possible Planet around Another Star and Finds a Runaway World

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The Hubble telescope has given astronomers their first direct look at what is possibly a planet outside our solar system - one apparently that has been ejected into deep space by its parent stars.

The discovery further challenges conventional theories about the birth and evolution of planets, and offers new insights into the formation of our own solar system. Located within a star-forming region in the constellation Taurus, the object, called TMR-1C, appears to lie at the end of a strange filament of light, suggesting it has apparently been flung away from the vicinity of a newly forming pair of binary stars.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
The Universe "Down Under" is the Latest Target for Hubble's Latest Deep-View

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Turning its penetrating vision toward southern skies, the Hubble telescope has peered down a 12- billion-light-year-long corridor loaded with a dazzling assortment of thousands of never-before-seen galaxies. The observation, called the Hubble Deep Field South, doubles the number of far-flung galaxies available to astronomers for deciphering the history of the universe.

This new far-look complements the original Hubble "deep field" taken in late 1995, when Hubble was aimed at a small patch of space near the Big Dipper. Hubble's sharp vision allows astronomers to sort galaxy shapes. The image is dominated by beautiful pinwheel-shaped disk galaxies, which are like our Milky Way.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Views of Dust Disks and Rings Surrounding Young Stars Yield Clues

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their first views of a dust ring around the star HR 4796A and a dark gap dividing an immense dust disk around the star HD 141569. These images may provide important clues to possible planet formation.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars

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A pair of eagle-eyed NASA spacecraft – the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Hubble Space Telescope – are giving amazed astronomers a ringside seat to the biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades. The Martian dust storm, larger by far than any seen on Earth, has raised a cloud of dust that has engulfed the entire planet for several months.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
New Instrument Package to Expand Space Telescope's Vision

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NASA's Servicing Mission 3B for the Hubble Space Telescope will give the orbiting observatory a new camera that will significantly increase Hubble's abilities and enable a broad array of new astronomical discoveries. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) covers twice the area, has twice the sharpness, and is up to five times more sensitive to light than Hubble's workhorse camera, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The servicing mission will begin on Feb. 28 with the launch of the space shuttle Columbia. The simulated image [above, right] depicts how the cosmos will look through the "eyes" of the ACS.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
A Bow Shock Near a Young Star

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The Hubble Space Telescope continues to reveal various stunning and intricate treasures that reside within the nearby, intense star-forming region known as the Great Nebula in Orion. One such jewel is the bow shock around the very young star, LL Ori, featured in this Hubble Heritage image.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
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