Sub-Orbital Space Flights & Satellite Exploration
Hubblecast 41: Hubble’s History Told by Hubble’s Scientists Hubble’s history of scientific breakthroughs has made us think afresh about our Universe. But behind the astronomical successes is a rollercoaster ride of scientific and technical challenges going back decades. The Hubblecast caught up with some of the key players in Hubble’s history, including an astronaut, a Nobel Prize winner and one of the scientists who diagnosed Hubble’s blurred vision in 1990. In this episode, narrated by veteran ESA scientist Bob Fosbury, they tell Hubble’s story through their personal experiences. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — Venice is just a few centimetres above sea level, about as far from space as you can get. But in 1609, Galileo Galilei brought this city a bit closer to the stars when he gave one of the very first demonstrations of his telescope. A few months after that, he discovered Jupiter’s moons, Io, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Four centuries later, another telescope is making history here, as scientists gather to discuss the latest results from Hubble. Hubble was launched in 1990. And that’s of course when its history of scientific discoveries starts. But Hubble’s history isn’t just about science and technology. Like Galileo’s story, it’s also one of politics, money … and extremely smart people doing very difficult things. Bob O’Dell: “I became the first project scientist for the …
Tags: Hubble, discoveries, astronauts, planetary
Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com NASA Astronomy Pictures Of The Day [Week 3/2010]. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — ? Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon The Moon moved to partly block the Sun for a few minutes last week as a partial solar eclipse became momentarily visible across part of planet Earth. In the above single exposure image, meticulous planning enabled careful photographers to capture the partially eclipsed Sun well posed just above the ancient ruins of the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, Greece. • antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov ? Dust Sculptures in the Rosette Nebula Noted for the common beauty of its overall shape, parts of the Rosette Nebula, also known as NGC 2237, show beauty even when viewed up close. Visible above are globules of dark dust and gas that are slowly being eroded away by the energetic light and winds by nearby massive stars. Left alone long enough, the molecular-cloud globules would likely form stars and planets. The Rosette Nebula spans about 50 light-years across and lies about 4500 light-years away. • antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov ? Watch Jupiter Rotate What would it be like to coast by Jupiter and watch it rotate? This was just the experience of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approached and flew by Jupiter. Visible above in the extensive atmosphere of the Solar System’s largest planet are bands and belts of light and dark clouds, as well as giant rotating …
Tags: milky, Telescopes, weeks, days
Hubblecast Episode 40: Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) – Hubble’s New Miracle Camera In early 2009, a team of astronauts visited Hubble to repair the wear and tear of twenty years of operating in a hostile environment – and to install two new instruments, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, and Wide Field Camera 3 – better known as WFC3. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is a combined ultraviolet, visible and infrared camera that dramatically extends Hubble’s ability to image astronomical objects. With these new capabilities, Hubble is still pushing the boundaries of science after two decades in orbit. In episode 30 of the Hubblecast, we saw some of the very first pictures to come back from Wide Field Camera 3, Hubble’s newest and most advanced instrument. Today we’re going to look at some of the science behind these pictures. We’ll find out how this remarkable new camera is helping Hubble to see the invisible, look far back in time and spot objects further away from us than ever before. WFC3 was installed on Hubble in place of WFPC2, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which for many years had been the main workhorse instrument on Hubble. Not only do the two instruments have very similar names, and look virtually identical, the capabilities of WFC3 are also in some respects just a tweaked version of those of its predecessor — although with sharper pictures and more …
Tags: Particles, Hubble, dust, ultraviolet
Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com The Hidden Universe (Episode 20): Cassiopeia A – Echoes of a Supernova A supernova flash echoing through surrounding dust clouds has given astronomers a virtual time machine for studying the light from the explosion that nobody saw. This is the Hidden Universe of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, exploring the mysteries of infrared astronomy with your host Dr. Robert Hurt. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — It’s the 17th century supernova that nobody saw, but telescopes in space and on Earth have teamed up to look back in time and study it today! When a massive star reaches its end of days it explodes dramatically and, for a few months, can outshine anything else in the galaxy. Earlier supernovas had been seen by many, often shining brighter than the planets. Of course with no witnesses, and no records, it’s difficult to tell exactly what kind of supernova it was. A team led by astronomer Oliver Krause has, over the last few years, made a remarkable series of infrared observations of the region. These Spitzer Space Telescope images show shifting patterns of glowing dust beyond the remnant itself. These changes are so fast that they indicate motion at the speed of light! To get what’s happening we have to remember that light moves fast, but in such a vast galaxy it still takes a while for it to get anywhere. Cassiopeia A (Cas A) itself is about 11000 …
Tags: stars, infrared, Hawaii, Supernova
This montage was created to demonstrate that it is the scientific method alone that has elevated the standard of living of many populations to soaring heights and can do so for all the world’s people. Science is not an ideology, but a method. A method which can free us from the shackles of destructive, divisive, superstitious thinking and create a peaceful, sustainable world where the united human race harmonises with the laws of nature, rather than arrogantly ignores them. —————————— You as a human being have evolved to respond to the world around you on impulse. You will instinctively jump out of the way if, say, a bus comes careening towards you. You know it would have a fatal effect if you didn’t. Even if you had never seen such a thing happen to a person before, you can instinctively calculate the weight of the bus, its size, its speed, and you will know that your frail body does not stand a chance. You know this because your very perception is built to comprehend the world in which you live. Defy it, and you will perish. As soon as you realise that this is a certain fact of life, you can apply that mentality to everything that you do. As the old Stoic saying goes: ‘Virtue exists in a will which is in agreement with nature’. This means that if what you choose to do is done without resistance to what you cannot control, then you will not encounter suffering as much. It is a certainty that you cannot break the laws of nature. They are firmly stuck …
Tags: technology, mysticism, nebulae, einstein
Hubble’s Universe Unfiltered (Episode 14): A Runaway Star In order to get observing time on Hubble, an astronomer needs a well-thought-out plan of exactly what to observe and the science that may be learned. However, the universe is continually surprising us by providing unanticipated…
Tags: starbirth, science, Tarantula, star-forming
Some of the most stunning Nebulae and Galaxies are shown, as obtained by the Hubble telescope. Stargazing is a passion of mine, so this video was a natural outflow. Music: Chillout 2003. Enjoy!
Tags: stunning, space shuttle, science, Star Trek
Just using some tunes of the the 97′ techstep drum and bass era with its technological sci-fi sounds and metal futuristic alien sounds. The video is comprised of nasa space images which gives the theme of flying through space with eerie dark unknown sounds of techstep darkness. This mix is not about harmony in anyway or beat matching, it is just based on themes that sound similar but in one music session for youtube.
Tags: and, Dance Music, Photos, 2010
One of the big mysteries in astronomy is how galaxies grow and evolve over time. Collisions between galaxies are thought to be key events that shape their development. A stunning collection of 59 new images of colliding galaxies has been released to mark the 18th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. They give us a unique insight into how galaxies collide to form larger galaxies. Acknowledgements for the images used in this Hubblecast: * Project lead: Lars Lindberg Christensen * Image processing: Davide de Martin (ESA/Hubble) and Zolt Levay (STScI) * Cosmetic cleaning: Amit Kapadia, Nuno Marques, Maximilian Kaufl (ESA/Hubble) * Colour correction and cosmetic adjustments: Zolt Levay (STScI) & Martin Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble) * HST Principle Investigator: A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook), and the PIs of Hubble Proposals 9735, 11091, 6276, 10575, 7129, 7467, 6438. * Astronomical processing pipeline: The STScI ACS team * Data Archiving and pipeline implementation: The ESO/ST-ECF Archive and the STScI Archive
Tags: video, a, science, Hubblecast
Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com “The Andromeda Galaxy” with Jane Houston Jones at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — The Andromeda Galaxy (also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224) is a spiral galaxy approximately 2500000 light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own, the Milky Way. As it is visible as a faint smudge on a moonless night, it is one of the farthest objects visible to the naked eye, and can be seen even from urban areas with binoculars. It is named after the princess Andromeda (Greek: ????????? Androméd?) in Greek mythology. Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which consists of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, Andromeda may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and may be the most massive in the grouping. The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion stars, several times more than the number of stars in our own galaxy, which is estimated to be c. 200-400 billion. While the 2006 estimates put the mass of the Milky Way to be ~80% of the mass of Andromeda, which is estimated to be 7.1 × 1011 solar masses, a 2009 study concluded that Andromeda and the Milky …
Tags: 224, group, Clusters, andromeda