In January and March 2009, Hubble took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring both of the giant planet’s poles. Saturn is only in this position every 15 years and this favourable orientation has allowed a sustained study of Saturn’s almost symmetric northern and southern lights. At the same time Saturn was approaching its equinox so both poles were equally illuminated by the Sun’s rays.
These recent observations have allowed researchers to monitor the behaviour of both Saturn’s poles in the same shot over a sustained period of time and to study the planet’s northern and southern aurorae simultaneously. Given the rarity of such an event, this new footage will likely be the last and best equinox movie that Hubble captures of our planetary neighbour. Besides the double aurora show, the movie also features an added bonus, as some of Saturn’s moons, or satellites, are seen passing the disc of their parent planet.
credit: NASA, ESA and Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)
source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic1003b.html
Duration : 0:0:25
Read the rest of this entry »
Science@ESA (Episode 4): Following The Redshift (Part 2) – Hubble’s Successor: The James Webb Space Telescope.
In this fourth episode of the Science@ESA vodcast series Rebecca Barnes will identify some of the key discoveries achieved with the famous Hubble Space Telescope, look at the concept of redshift, and meet a new telescope that will be used to uncover the early Universe.
—
Subscribe to Science & Reason:
• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/ScienceMagazine
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
—
Named in 2002 in honour of NASA’s administrator during the Apollo programme, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission is a collaborative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
JWST will address many of the outstanding issues of modern astronomy related to the ‘Early Universe’ and is expected to yield scientific breakthroughs as did its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. JWST will be a general-purpose observatory with a suite of astronomical infrared-sensitive instruments.
Compared to existing or planned observatories, JWST will have the unique advantage of combining superb image quality throughout a wide wavelength range, a wide field of view and unparalleled photon sensitivity due to its 6.5-metre diameter telescope primary mirror.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=29
—
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a planned infrared space observatory, the partial successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST will not be a complete successor, because it will not be sensitive to all of the light wavelengths that Hubble can see.
The main scientific goal is to observe the most distant objects in the universe, those beyond the reach of either ground based instruments or the Hubble. The JWST project is a NASA-led international collaboration with contributors in fifteen nations, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), it was renamed in 2002 after NASA’s second administrator, James E. Webb (1906-1992). Webb had headed NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the Johnson administration (1961-68), thus overseeing all the manned launches in the Mercury through Gemini programs, until just before the first manned Apollo flight.
Current plans call for the telescope to be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in June 2014, on a five-year mission (10 year goal). The JWST will reside in solar orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 point, which is on a line passing from the Sun to the Earth, but about 1.5 million km farther away from the Sun than is the Earth.
This position, which moves around the Sun in exact orbital synchrony with the Earth, will allow JWST to shield itself from infrared from both Sun and Earth, by using a single radiation shield positioned between the telescope and the Sun-Earth direction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
.
Duration : 0:6:42
Read the rest of this entry »
Hubblecast 32: Born in Beauty – Proplyds in the Orion Nebula.
Visible to the naked eye, only 1500 light-years from Earth, the great Orion Nebula has been known and revered since ancient times.
A popular target of Hubble, researchers have now identified 42 new discs within it that could be the beginnings of new planetary systems like our own.
—
• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
• http://www.youtube.com/SagansCosmos
—
14-Dec-2009: A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation.
Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths.
Looking like a graceful watercolour painting, the Orion Nebula is one of the most photogenic objects in space and one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s favourite targets. As newborn stars emerge from the nebula’s mixture of gas and dust, protoplanetary discs, also known as proplyds, form around them: the centre of the spinning disc heats up and becomes a new star, but remnants around the outskirts of the disc attract other bits of dust and clump together.
Proplyds are thought to be young planetary systems in the making. In an ambitious survey of the familiar nebula using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), researchers have discovered 42 protoplanetary discs.
Visible to the naked eye, the Orion Nebula has been known since ancient times, but was first described in the early 17th century by the French astronomer Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc — who is given credit for discovering it. At 1500 light-years away, the nebula, also known as Messier 42, is the closest star-forming region to Earth with stars massive enough to heat up the surrounding gas, setting it ablaze with colour, and making the region stand out to stargazers.
Learn more: http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0917.html
—
Hubblecast features news and Images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
The space-based observatory is a collaboration between NASA and ESA. The observations are carried out in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. In many ways Hubble has revolutionised modern astronomy.
The Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy. From its vantage point 600 km above the Earth, Hubble can detect light with “eyes” five times sharper than the best ground-based telescopes and looks deep into space where some of the most profound mysteries are still buried in the mists of time.
Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
• http://www.eso.org
• http://www.spacetelescope.org
• http://hubblesite.org
Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J’s real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in astronomy.
• http://www.eso.org/~jliske/
.
Duration : 0:6:15
Read the rest of this entry »
Hubblecast 22: Hubble Space Telescope Directly Observes Exoplanet Orbiting Fomalhaut.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered an extrasolar planet, for the first time using direct visible-light imaging. The strange world is far-flung from its parent star, is surrounded by a colossal belt of gas and dust, and may even have rings more impressive than Saturn’s.
—
Subscribe to Science & Reason:
• http://www.YouTube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.YouTube.com/SagansCosmos
• http://www.YouTube.com/FFreeThinker
—
Credit:
- ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
- Visual design & Editing: Martin Kornmesser
- Animations: Martin Kornmesser & Luis Calçada
- Web Hosting: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ)
- Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi Shida
- Written by: Lee Pullen & Lars Lindberg Christensen
- Host: Dr. J
- Narration: Bob Fosbury
- Cinematography: Peter Rixner
- Music: movetwo
- Footage and photos: A. Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey 2, NASA, ESA, and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley). Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)
- Directed by: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Dr. J is a German astronomer at the ESO. His scientific interests are in cosmology, particularly on galaxy evolution and quasars. Dr. J’s real name is Joe Liske and he has a PhD in astronomy.
Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre
Garching/Munich, Germany
• http://www.eso.org
• http://www.spacetelescope.org
• http://hubblesite.org
.
Duration : 0:5:2
Read the rest of this entry »
Part 9 in a series of videos produced by the ESA for public distribution about the Hubble Space Telescope and much more.
This video is Copyright Free material with some restrictions.
Find out more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org
Duration : 0:6:48
Read the rest of this entry »
Part 6 in a series of videos produced by the ESA for public distribution about the Hubble Space Telescope and much more.
This video is Copyright Free material with some restrictions.
Find out more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org
Duration : 0:9:50
Read the rest of this entry »
Part 9 1/2 in a series of videos produced by the ESA for public distribution about the Hubble Space Telescope and much more.
This video is Copyright Free material with some restrictions.
Find out more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org
Duration : 0:8:8
Read the rest of this entry »
Part 8 in a series of videos produced by the ESA for public distribution about the Hubble Space Telescope and much more.
This video is Copyright Free material with some restrictions.
Find out more at: http://www.spacetelescope.org
Duration : 0:6:6
Read the rest of this entry »
Last week we did a story on the Hubble telescope and the upcoming and final servicing mission to fix it up. The James Webb Space Telescope was mentioned, but not many details were given. This video found on the NASA site shows what is new with JWST, why it is better than the Hubble and a bit of what we can expect. The telescope is still being built and it is possible it will be delayed a bit, but JWST is scheduled to fly no earlier than 2013, so we have a bit of time to admire the images from Hubble a bit longer.
Duration : 0:9:56
Read the rest of this entry »
This is an edited version of Part 4 from the Hubble series. A small cut from the beginning and 2 minutes off the end are missing. However, for the most part, this video is worth watching. If you would like to have the full version, please visit spacetelescope.org and search the video archives.
Duration : 0:10:0
Read the rest of this entry »