Hubble
Category archives for Hubble
How Far Away is the Farthest Galaxy?
Posted by Ethan on May 11, 2011 “Master looks after us now, we don’t need you anymore. Leave now and never come back!” -Smeagol, LOTR You all know how to find the farthest galaxy ever, right? You take the most powerful telescope in the world, put it into space, and have it stare into the darkness for days on end. What do…
Weekend Diversion: Petition to Save Hubble!
Posted by Ethan on April 3, 2011 Intel Science Talent Search Winner: Mr. Bush, please save Hubble. Then-President Bush: Is Hubble in trouble? Oh my, yes, for those of you who don’t know, Hubble is, in fact, in trouble once again. To set the mood, I’ve got one of the best songs about it: Ray LaMontagne‘s Trouble. For the uninitiated, Hubble —…
Big News from the Distant Universe!
Posted by Ethan on January 27, 2011 “It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet, tender joy. The mild serenity of age takes the place of the riotous blood of youth. I bless the rising sun each day, and, as before, my heart sings to meet it, but now I love even more its setting, its…
Hubble for the Holidays: A Bauble of a Bubble
Posted by Ethan on December 23, 2010 “When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes.” -Tycho Brahe Supernovae are the most spectacular death-knells of the largest stars in our Universe. Nearly all…
Hubble for the Holidays: Eta Carinae
Posted by Ethan on December 20, 2010 “We find them smaller and fainter, in constantly increasing numbers, and we know that we are reaching into space, farther and farther, until, with the faintest nebulae that can be detected with the greatest telescopes, we arrive at the frontier of the known Universe.” -Edwin Hubble There’s really only one way to appreciate just how…
Weekend Diversion: Running Through the Universe
Posted by Ethan on December 18, 2010 “You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.” -Steve Prefontaine But there are lots of amazing ways to propel yourself forward, indeed. Listen to one of the greatest musical groups of our times, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, as they perform Victor Wooten‘s song, Sex In A Pan,off their album UFO Tofu.…
Fare thee well, Allan Sandage
Posted by Ethan on November 19, 2010 “I came at exactly the right time… I was 26 years old, and all the monks and priests down here were ready to retire. So I overlapped enough that I got to know them all.” -Allan Sandage As many of you have heard, Allan Sandage passed away last Saturday. Let me tell you a little…
Hey Dark Matter, Where Are You?!
Posted by Ethan on November 17, 2010 “I’ve been noticing gravity since I was very young.” -Cameron Diaz Yesterday, I told you about one of the simplest arguments for dark matter. We look out at the fluctuations in the microwave background on all the different angular scales we can measure — from about 0.2 degrees all the way up to the whole…
Happy Friday the 13th from Hubble!
Posted by Ethan on August 13, 2010 “A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.” -J. M. Barrie But off in space, a whopping 320 million light years…
Globular Clusters: A minor mystery?
Posted by Ethan on May 14, 2010 “I may be an old lion, but if someone puts his hand in my mouth, I can still bite it off.” -Wilhelm Steinitz When you look at a typical galaxy, you usually find a disk, a bulge, and a few dots diffusely strewn about the exterior. Like an old lion, these dots have been around…
