Hubble
Category archives for Hubble
Supernova Remnants: Now and Then, and Eye Candy
Posted by Ethan on April 30, 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 One of the great things that the Hubble Space Telescope has given us is a…
Hey Hubble, Thanks for 20 years of Awesome
Posted by Ethan on April 23, 2010 Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once. -Henry D. Thoreau 20 years ago tomorrow, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit. It doesn’t look that impressive, and maybe it shouldn’t. After all, what is a space telescope? It’s a couple of mirrors,…
Hubble rules you, Pluto!
Posted by Ethan on February 4, 2010 What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp. -Colleen Hartman Part of the joy of astronomy is, every once in a while, you just get an astoundingly beautiful new picture or video of a foreign planet, star, galaxy or cluster. Pluto, the most distant planet, is among the…
Looking Inside at Baby Stars!
Posted by Ethan on December 16, 2009 Before you were conceived I wanted you Before you were born I loved you Before you were here an hour I would die for you This is the miracle of love. -Maureen Hawkins But I’m not talking about human children, I’m talking about the children of the stars. Stars burn their fuel until they no…
The Good and Bad of the New Hubble Image
Posted by Ethan on December 11, 2009 Earlier this week, I showcased the newly-released Hubble Ultra Deep Field in the infrared, and compared it with the older image of the same region taken in visible light. As many astute readers noticed, the newer image looks blurrier than the old one! This is true, and there’s a good reason for this. Here’s one…
Just as deep, but in a different light
Posted by Ethan on December 9, 2009 They will see us waving from such great heights “Come down now,” they’ll say. But everything looks perfect from far away “Come down now,” but we’ll stay. -Postal Service We’ve been over this twice before, but here’s a refresher on how you image the farthest galaxies in the Universe. Pick a spot in the sky…
On the 8th Day of Christmas, Hubble gave to me…
Posted by Ethan on December 8, 2009 Have you been keeping up with The Boston Globe’s Hubble Advent Calendar? Today’s picture is totally worth talking about, and gives me a chance to tell you about these little guys that just hang-on to our galaxy: globular clusters. When you look out at a galaxy — pretty much any galaxy — you’ll find these…
On the 12th Day of Christmas, Hubble gave to me…
Posted by Ethan on December 1, 2009 At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and it will not be oppressed. -Edwin Hubble Hubble didn’t need a thousand words to describe how beautiful and wondrous the Universe…
How many in the Quintet today?
Posted by Ethan on September 11, 2009 Perhaps my favorite of the new Hubble pictures is this one of Stephan’s Quintet (and click here for the 1000 pixel wide version): It’s so stunning that it was chosen as today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. But yesterday, I got a very interesting question to go along with it: These galaxies are far away,…
The New and Improved Hubble in Brief
Posted by Ethan on September 10, 2009 Yesterday, I linked to the Hubble Site, where they’ve got a collection of stunning new images taken using Hubble’s new camera, the Wide-Field Camera 3: But why would you bother to go there? After all, you know that I’ll just show you all the gorgeousness here! Hubble is an astounding telescope, because it’s so good…
