Space Hubble Telescope News

Hubble Paints Picture of the Evolving Universe

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Astronomers have just assembled one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the universe’s evolutionary history, based on a broad spectrum of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and other space and ground-based telescopes. In particular, Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens a new window on the evolving universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years back to the cosmos’ busiest star-forming period, about 3 billion years after the big bang. This photo encompasses a sea of approximately 15,000 galaxies — 12,000 of which are star-forming — widely distributed in time and space.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Goes Wide to Seek Out Far-Flung Galaxies

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The universe is a big place. The Hubble Space Telescope's views burrow deep into space and time, but cover an area a fraction the angular size of the full Moon. The challenge is that these "core samples" of the sky may not fully represent the universe at large. This dilemma for cosmologists is called cosmic variance. By expanding the survey area, such uncertainties in the structure of the universe can be reduced.

A new Hubble observing campaign, called Beyond Ultra-deep Frontier Fields And Legacy Observations (BUFFALO), will boldly expand the space telescope's view into regions that are adjacent to huge galaxy clusters previously photographed by NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes under a program called Frontier Fields.

The six massive clusters were used as "natural telescopes," to look for amplified images of galaxies and supernovas that are so distant and faint that they could not be photographed by Hubble without the boost of light caused by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. The clusters' large masses, mainly composed of dark matter, magnify and distort the light coming from distant background galaxies that otherwise could not be detected. The BUFFALO program is designed to identify galaxies in their earliest stages of formation, less than 800 million years after the big bang.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble in Safe Mode as Gyro Issues are Diagnosed

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On Friday, October 5, 2018, at approximately 6:00 p.m. EDT, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode. NASA is working to resume science operations. Hubble’s instruments still are fully operational and are expected to produce excellent science for years to come.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Behind the Scenes of Recovering NASA's Hubble

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In the early morning of October 27, 2018, the Hubble Space Telescope targeted a field of galaxies not far from the Great Square in the constellation Pegasus. Contained in the field were star-forming galaxies up to 11 billion light-years away. With the target in its sights, Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 recorded an image. It was the first picture captured by the telescope since it closed its eyes on the universe three weeks earlier, and it was the result of an entire team of engineers and experts working tirelessly to get the telescope exploring the cosmos once again.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Riccardo Giacconi, Visionary Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute

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The worldwide astronomical community mourns the loss of Riccardo Giacconi, the first permanent director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Wide Field Camera 3 Anomaly on Hubble Space Telescope

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The Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations on January 8 due to a hardware problem. Hubble will continue to perform science observations with its other three active instruments, while the Wide Field Camera 3 anomaly is investigated. Wide Field Camera 3, installed during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, is equipped with redundant electronics should they be needed to recover the instrument.

For more information about Hubble and further updates about the Wide Field Camera 3 anomaly, visit Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Wide Field Camera 3 Anomaly on Hubble Space Telescope Update

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NASA continues to work toward recovering the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, which suspended operations on Tuesday, January 8. A team of instrument system engineers, Wide Field Camera 3 instrument developers, and other experts formed and quickly began collecting all available telemetry and onboard memory information to determine the sequence of events that caused the values to go out of limits. This team is currently working to identify the root cause and then to construct a recovery plan. If a significant hardware failure is identified, redundant electronics built into the instrument will be used to recover and return it to operations.

For more information on Hubble and further updates about the Wide Field Camera 3 anomaly, visit Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to Resume Operations

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NASA has moved closer to conducting science operations again with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, which suspended operations on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019. Today, Jan. 15, the instrument was brought back to its operations mode. After resetting the telemetry circuits and associated boards, additional engineering data were collected and the instrument was brought back to operations. All values were normal. Additional calibration and tests will be run over the next 48 to 72 hours to ensure that the instrument is operating properly. Assuming that all tests work as planned, it is expected that the Wide Field Camera 3 will start to collect science images again by the end of the week.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered and Collecting Science

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The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 was brought back to full operational status and completed its first science observations just after noon EST today, Jan. 17, 2019.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Advanced Camera for Surveys Anomaly on Hubble Space Telescope

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At 8:31 p.m. EST on February 28, 2019, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations after an error was detected as the instrument was performing a routine boot procedure. The error indicated that software inside the camera had not loaded correctly. A team of instrument system engineers, flight software experts, and flight operations personnel quickly organized to download and analyze instrument diagnostic information. This team is currently working to identify the root cause and then to construct a recovery plan.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys Resumes Operations

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NASA has recovered the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument, which suspended operations on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. The final tests were conducted and the instrument was brought back to its operational mode on March 6.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Space Telescope Science Institute Prepares a "Desktop Universe" For Astronomers

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Imagine turning your home computer into the equivalent of a professional telescope which can display millions of stars and galaxies located anywhere in the sky.. Astronomers as well as educators will soon be able to have the sky at their fingertips thanks to an ambitious effort now being funded by NASA and being carried out by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Space Telescope Begins To Provide Accurate Distances to Galaxies

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Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an international team of astronomers has taken a major first step in redetermining the expansion rate of the universe. This rate, known as the Hubble Constant, is one of two critical numbers needed for making a precise determination of the size and age of the universe.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
The Spiral Galaxy M100 as Seen With the Hubble's Improved Vision

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An image of the grand design spiral galaxy M100 obtained with the second generation Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC-2), newly installed in the Hubble Space Telescope. Though the galaxy lies several tens of millions of light-years away, modified optics incorporated within the WFPC-2 allow Hubble to view M100 with a level of clarity and sensitivity previously possible only for the very few nearby galaxies that compose our "Local Group." Just as one does not learn about the diversity of mankind by conversing only with your next door neighbor, astronomers must study many galaxies in a host of different environments if they are to come to understand how our own galaxy, out star, and our earth came to be. By expanding the region of the universe that can be studied in such detail a thousand fold, the WFPC-2 will help the Hubble Space Telescope to fulfill this mission.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Photo Illustration of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 & Planet Jupiter

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This is a composite photo, assembled from separate images of Jupiter and cornet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, as imaged by the Wide Field & Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), aboard. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Sees Comet Fireball on Limb of Jupiter

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Sequence of images showing evidence for a plume near the terminator of Jupiter at the time of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9's fragment A impact with Jupiter in July 1994.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Shows Evolution of Ejecta from the "A" Comet Impact Site

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This series of images, which spans more than five days beginning at 5:33 p.m. EDT on July 16, 1994, was obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 using the methane filter that reveals details in Jupiter's higher atmosphere. These images show the development of the ejecta from site A, formed by the impact of the first fragment of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Evolution of the P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 "Gang of Four" Region

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This series of eight NASA Hubble Space Telescope "snapshots" shows the evolution of the P-Q complex, also called the "gang of four" region, of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9.

The eight individual frames chronicle changes in the comet during the 12 months before colliding with Jupiter. The sequence shows that the relative separations of the various cometary fragments, thought to range in size from about 500 meters to almost 4 km (2.5 miles) across, changed dramatically over this period. The apparent separation of Q1 and Q2 was only about 1100 kilometers (680 miles) on 1 July 1993 and increased to 28,000 kilometers (17,400 miles) by 20 July 1994.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Hubble Sees Auroral Emission Arcs Following the k Impact

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In the Jupiter campaign, scientists wanted to see how the comet collisions affected the Jovian aurorae, rapid and irregular displays of colorful light in a planet's night sky caused by the leakage of charged particles from the magnetosphere into the atmosphere. Following the impacts, some of the resulting debris became electrically charged and traveled along Jupiter's magnetic field lines and created new aurorae in Jupiter's northern hemisphere, as shown in this image. Scientists had never before observed aurorae this far south of where aurorae are typically seen in Jupiter's northern hemisphere.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
Jupiter Mapping Traces Changes in Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Sites

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This series of color-composite maps of Jupiter, assembled from images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, allows astronomers to trace changes in the dark impact sites that resulted from the July 1994 impact of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 with the giant planet. Through computer image processing, researchers "peel" the atmosphere of Jupiter off its globe and spread it flat into a map. These cylindrical projections show the entire atmosphere of Jupiter in one map. The HST's images show clearly that dark material produced in the comet explosion has continued to spread in Jupiter's atmosphere. However, the "band" of dark material is still clumpy, which suggests that the major impact sites are still localized and, so, can still be identified.

(More at HubbleSite.com)
 
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