Space Shuttle flight 35 (STS-31), narrated by the astronauts, launched on 24 April 1990. This mission launched the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
Crew: Loren J. Shriver, Charles F. Bolden, Jr., Steven A. Hawley, Bruce McCandless II, Kathryn D. Sullivan.
Duration : 0:19:42
Search for Another Earth
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.
HUBBLE DIRECTLY OBSERVES A PLANET ORBITING ANOTHER STAR
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star.
Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter’s mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the “Southern Fish.”
Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA’s Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS.
In 2004, the coronagraph in the High Resolution Camera on Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys produced the first-ever resolved visible-light image of the region around Fomalhaut. It clearly showed a ring of protoplanetary debris approximately 21.5 billion miles across and having a sharp inner edge.
This large debris disk is similar to the Kuiper Belt, which encircles the solar system and contains a range of icy bodies from dust grains to objects the size of dwarf planets, such as Pluto.
Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, and team members proposed in 2005 that the ring was being gravitationally modified by a planet lying between the star and the ring’s inner edge.
Circumstantial evidence came from Hubble’s confirmation that the ring is offset from the center of the star. The sharp inner edge of the ring is also consistent with the presence of a planet that gravitationally “shepherds” ring particles. Independent researchers have subsequently reached similar conclusions.
Now, Hubble has actually photographed a point source of light lying 1.8 billion miles inside the ring’s inner edge. The results are being reported in the November 14 issue of Science magazine.
“Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off,” Kalas says.
“Fomalhaut is the gift that keeps on giving. Following the unexpected discovery of its dust ring, we have now found an exoplanet at a location suggested by analysis of the dust ring’s shape. The lesson for exoplanet hunters is ‘follow the dust,’” said team member Mark Clampin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Observations taken 21 months apart by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys’ coronagraph show that the object is moving along a path around the star, and is therefore gravitationally bound to it. The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, or about 10 times the distance of the planet Saturn from our sun.
The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. The ring might eventually coalesce to form moons. The ring’s estimated size is comparable to the region around Jupiter and its four largest orbiting satellites.
Kalas and his team first used Hubble to photograph Fomalhaut in 2004, and made the unexpected discovery of its debris disk, which scatters Fomalhaut’s starlight. At the time they noted a few bright sources in the image as planet candidates. A follow-up image in 2006 showed that one of the objects is moving through space with Fomalhaut but changed position relative to the ring since the 2004 exposure. The amount of displacement between the two exposures corresponds to an 872-year-long orbit as calculated from Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
Future observations will attempt to see the planet in infrared light and will look for evidence of water vapor clouds in the atmosphere. This would yield clues to the evolution of a comparatively newborn 100-million-year-old planet. Astrometric measurements of the planet’s orbit will provide enough precision to yield an accurate mass.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013 will be able to make coronagraphic observations of Fomalhaut in the near- and mid-infrared. Webb will be able to hunt for other planets in the system and probe the region interior to the dust ring for structures such as an inner asteroid belt. For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/39
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Duration : 0:5:2
Hubble Space Telescope Reveals Pluto’s Changing Surface.
4th February 2010- http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100204/tsc-blushing-pluto-dwarf-planet-takes-on-e123fef.html
Pluto, the dwarf planet on the outer edge of our solar system, has a dramatically ruddier hue than it did just a few years ago, NASA scientists said Thursday, after examining photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
They said the distant orb appears mottled and molasses-colored in recent pictures, with a markedly redder tone that most likely is the result of surface ice melting on Pluto’s sunlit pole and then refreezing on the other pole.
The remarkable color shift, which apparently took place between 2000 and 2002, confirms that Pluto is a dynamic world undergoing dramatic atmospheric changes and not simply a ball of ice and rock, according to scientists at the US space agency.
They said they will compare Hubble pictures taken in 1994 with some from 2002 and 2003, as they search for more signs of seasonal change, including evidence that Pluto’s northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere has darkened.
“The Hubble observations are the key to… showing how it all makes sense by providing a context based on weather and seasonal changes, which opens other new lines of investigation,” said the leader of the study, principal investigator Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in the western US city of Boulder, Colorado.
Pluto — declassified as a full-fledged planet in August 2006 — has a 248-year orbit and an axial tilt which, unlike Earth, alone drives the seasons. The icy orb’s seasons are asymmetrical because of its elliptical orbit.
Spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere, because Pluto is moving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the sun, NASA said.
Scientists are hoping to collect additional riveting snapshots of Pluto when NASA’s next space probe, dubbed New Horizons, flies by the dwarf planet in 2015.
Hubble underwent repair during a space shuttle mission last year that left it with a new camera and spectrograph, as well as spruced up scientific instruments.
The repair job marked the end of NASA’s human missions to the beloved Hubble. Launched in 1990, the telescope was repaired and upgraded in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2008.
Last year’s final upgrade extended the life of Hubble another five years.
Duration : 0:2:11
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
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft sets off on an orbital tour of Saturn, sending back some out-of-this-world images.
A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets: Saturn : SUN FEB 14 9P et/pt : http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/travelers-guide-to-the-planets/4688/Overview
Duration : 0:5:2
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.
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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
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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
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Duration : 0:6:42
All 5 Parts of Hubble And Beyond – Telescope in Space
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A5555EF116D45358
Original Air Date 2005 — We search the night sky wondering what lies out there but our telescopes could only take us so far. As far as the light of the universe has traveled to reach us its way is blocked in its finale mile by the blurring effect by our atmosphere. Astronomers realized to capture the pristine light of the universe they would need to put a telescope into outer space. For fifteen years the Hubble Space Telescope has been capturing breath taking images of Stars, Galaxies, Nebulas and more. But after fifteen years in space the light from the fabled telescope is now fading. The question before NASA and the public can Hubble be fixed by robots or will it take a daring rescue in space. Is Hubbles cosmic rein now coming to and end?
Duration : 0:9:0
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/11/26/Ian_Morison_400_Years_of_the_Telescope
Gresham Professor of Astronomy Ian Morison discusses some of the most memorable images from NASA’s nearly 20-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.
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A lecture to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first use of a telescope to observe the heavens by Galileo Galilei in 1609.
The lecture charts the development of optical telescopes since then, the subtle ideas that are greatly improving their performance and how they are bringing ever-further parts of the universe within our reach. – Gresham College
Ian Morison – Gresham Professor of Astronomy Ian Morison made his first telescope at the age of 12 with lenses given to him by his optician. Having studied Physics, Maths and Astronomy at Oxford, he became a radio astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Observatory and teaches Astronomy and Cosmology at the University of Manchester.
Over 25 years he has also taught Observational Astronomy to many hundreds of adult students in the North West of England. An active amateur optical astronomer, he is a council member and past president of the Society for Popular Astronomy in the United Kingdom.
At Jodrell Bank he was a designer of the 217 KM MERLIN array and has coordinated the Project Phoenix SETI Observations using the Lovell Radio Telescope. He contributes astronomy articles and reviews for New Scientist and Astronomy Now, and produces a monthly sky guide on the Observatory’s website.
Duration : 0:5:13
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.
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• http://www.youtube.com/Best0fScience
• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
• http://www.youtube.com/SagansCosmos
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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
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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/
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Duration : 0:6:15
Save The Hubble!